As a member of the Boston Celtics’ now legendary “Big 3“ tandem of superstars including Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, sharpshooter Ray Allen has relished in his role as the reserved and composed, slightly “more normal” distinguished member of the green and white. That’s not exactly hard to do on a team filled with outrageous pesonalities with the likes of KG, Shaq, “Big Baby”, Delonte West and Nate Robinson. And let’s not forget Rajon Rondo, who is re-writing the NBA record books on a seemingly game-by-game basis nowadays.
That’s why when Allen, who will undoubtedly go down as one of the best pure shooters in the history of the NBA, does something unexpected like cramming the rock in someone’s grill to help preserve another victory for Boston, he deserves every bit as much mention as his attention grabbing teammates.
That was exactly the case in Friday’s thrilling contest between NBA Playoff regulars Boston Celtics and the upstart Chicago Bulls. When the fantasy match-up of premier point guards Rondo vs. Rose never really materialized, players like Joakim Noah (26 points, 12 boards) and Ray Allen took center stage as the Celtics squandered a big 3rd quarter lead, to allow the Bulls to force overtime.
After Rondo made several key defensive plays, limiting the league’s 2nd leading scorer Derrick Rose to a mearly average 18 points and 9 assists, Ray Allen came up big late by nailing a huge 3 point bucket and serving up a semi-facial dunk over the Bulls Kyle Korver off of a sweet dish from Pierce, to push Boston’s lead to 5, 108-103, with roughly a minute remaining. It was one of those amazing moments in a game when a player does something you would almost never expect with the contest still in the balance.
Allen finished with a team high 25 points, with none bigger than this game sealing dunk on Kyle Korver:
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen also provides content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
