May 22nd, 2008 – Dr. Dime
All year I’ve heard people talk about the regular season and first two rounds of the Eastern Conference playoffs being a mere formality for the Boston Celtics and Detroit Pistons, as it would be an inevitable meeting of these two defensive specialists. Well I kept telling people not to count out Lebron and his one man show. In a way I guess we were both right, as Lebron’s Cavs pushed the Celtics right to the edge but couldn’t close it out.
So here we are, Eastern Conference Finals, Celtics vs. Pistons. Shocker. Boston Celtics were the best defensive team in the league this year allowing the fewest opposition points per game. The Detroit Pistons have been the best defensive team in the Eastern Conference for the last decade. For those of you that like high scoring offensive highlight reels, forget about this one, it’ll be tighter than a Nun on a Sunday!
Boston jumped out to a 1-0 lead in this series on Tuesday by having their way with the Pistons in the Boston Garden, 88-79. Unfortunately for Boston, the Pistons are coming into this game with the NBA record for most straight Game 2 wins in the NBA Playoffs. Their streak coming in was sitting at 8 straight Game 2 wins.
Detroit came out in the first half of tonight’s Game 2 playing absolute lockdown defense on the Celtics. The only Celtic players seemingly able to break free for some half decent looks on offense were Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. That’s right, two thirds of “The Big 3.” Anyone who has been following the Celtics over the last few weeks has probably noticed the major shooting struggles of Ray Allen. The man I prefer to call “Ray Ray” or “Jesus”, from his acting days as Jesus Shuttlesworth in the movie He Got Game, has been horrible from 3-pt range and even from the field in general.
To be fair when I say “horrible” I mean for Ray Allen standards. Everything is relative right? Ray Allen is probably the best pure shooter the NBA has ever seen. I realize there may have been better 3-pt specialists, a select few better from the free throw line, and maybe even better mid-range jump shooters. But when you consider a players ability to shoot from anywhere on the floor at a high percentage over the period of their entire career, no one is even close to the pure shooting abilities of Ray Allen.
That’s what makes Allen’s shooting struggles so shocking for fans across Celtic Nation, and so disconcerting for the Boston Celtics coaching staff and personnel. The timing is terrible for an Allen shooting slump, as the Celtics try to put the finishing touches on their ultimate goal of winning an NBA championship. It almost cost them their season in Round 2 as Ray Allen averaged a mere 33% shooting from the field for the entire series, which was a huge contributing factor to the Celtics just barely squeezing out the win to advance past the Cavaliers.
In Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals against Detroit, Ray Allen shot just 3 for 10 from the field. Fortunately the Celtics are good enough to weather the storm while Allen struggles. Would tonight’s Game 2 be the night for Ray Allen to get back to being Jesus himself, Mr. Shuttlesworth?
In the first half Allen had just 5 points, but he played solid on both ends of the floor. The Celtics were down 7 pts at halftime. In the third quarter Allen came out aggressive and hot, knocking down shots from various spots on the floor. Allen brought the Celtics back in a hurry giving the Celtics a quick lead midway through the third quarter. I started sitting up on the edge of my seat thinking this is it…. “Jesus, make everything right in the world again.” Then he picked up his fourth foul. Doc Rivers kept him in, thinking it was better to leave the hot hand in the game.
Then Rip Hamilton gave Jesus the pump fake. Damn you Rip and your crafty pump fakes. Ray Allen picked up his 5th foul and Doc Rivers was forced to sit him.
As expected the Pistons made another run heading into the fourth with a nice little 9 point cushion. After a couple of quick baskets by the Pistons, Doc had seen enough and decided to risk it, and put Allen back in the game. He was rewarded by a couple of quick layups and a powerful baseline dunk by Jesus Shuttlesworth.
The 11 point lead of the Pistons was quickly cut to 5, with 5 minutes left in the game. Then it happened. Jesus Shuttlesworth threw up a fade away 3-pt shot. Cash Money. Next offensive set for the Celts, they know what to do, give Jesus the rock. Allen cuts to the middle and pulls up for a sweet jumper to bring the Celtics within two.
That’s as close as the Celtics would get though as Rip Hamilton, a great high percentage jump shooter in his own right, hit back to back jump shots to help the Pistons pull away.
And although Ray Allen hit one more three, the Pistons won 103-97 to tie the series 1-1 heading back to Detroit. When all is said and done though the Celtics have to feel pretty good that Jesus has risen, and hopefully will be their scoring saviour for the remainder of the 2008 Playoffs.
