For 38 1/2 minutes on Friday, the New York
Knicks handcuffed and hamstrung a tired, old,
injured and shorthanded Boston Celtics squad,
holding them to 49 points on 30.6 percent
shooting and leading by 26 points with 9 1/2
minutes to go.
Naturally, the Celtics had the Knicks right
where they wanted them.
Over the next six minutes, Boston ripped off a
26-4 run — remember, Boston scored 27
points in the first half of Game 6 — behind
out-of-nowhere-furious play from Jeff Green (a
Boston-high 21 in the game) and Avery Bradley
(all 10 of his points, all three of his steals), two
young guns unwilling to let the Celtics, and
their veterans, go out without one last run.
That run, however, would bring Boston no
closer than four points. No matter how hard
the Knicks tried to lose at the TD Garden on
Friday night — and boy, oh boy, did they try,
posting six turnovers that led to 15 Celtics
points and shooting 1 for 9 from the floor
(mostly on pound-the-rock isolations by
Carmelo Anthony and J.R. Smith) in that six-
minute stretch — they'd built too big a
cushion and forced the Celtics to expend too
much energy deflating it.
An Anthony pull-up with 3:10 left pushed the
lead back to six. A top-of-the-key Anthony 3-
pointer at the 1:43 mark off a pick-and-roll
action with Raymond Felton extended it to
nine. An Anthony block of a Paul Pierce layup
snuffed out the Celtics' last offensive chance,
and a Smith driving and-one layup restored the
lead to double digits with less than 90 seconds
remaining.
In spite of one last Celtics stand — and, really,
in spite of themselves — the Knicks moved on
to the Eastern Conference semifinals on Friday,
beating Boston 88-80 to notch a 4-2 win of
their best-of-seven series. Anthony led the
Knicks with 21 points (albeit on 7 for 23
shooting), seven rebounds and five assists in
40 minutes. His late 3-pointer was his first
made long ball since the 3:32 mark of the
fourth quarter in Game 3; he had missed his
previous 17.
But while Anthony was the Knicks' top scorer,
New York's best player on Friday was
sophomore guard Iman Shumpert. One year
and one week after suffering a torn left ACL in
Game 1 of the Knicks' 2011-12 first-round
series against the Miami Heat, Shumpert
scored 17 points on 6 for 9 shooting, drained
all three of his 3-point tries, grabbed six
rebounds, added two steals and a block, made
multiple Celtics wings (Pierce, Green, Jason
Terry) miserable on the defensive end and, in
the latter stages of the game, seemed like the
only Knick confident enough to step into and
knock down shots when it counted. Toward the
end of this series, the 22-year-old swingman
became a legitimate weapon for Mike
Woodson, and on Friday, he was arguably the
most integral factor in New York's series-
clinching victory.
The most integral factor, that is, beyond
Boston's horrendously anemic early-game
offense. Kevin Garnett opened the game 3 for
3 from the floor; all other Celtics combined to
shoot 1 for 13 in the first quarter, allowing
the Knicks to carve out a 21-5 lead after the
first eight minutes and digging themselves a
hole from which they'd spend the entire
remainder of the game attempting to emerge.
Pierce had dead legs from the start that
persisted throughout, as the Celtics captain
finished with 14 points on 4 for 18 shooting
(including a 1 for 9 mark from the 3-point
line) and matched his five assists with five
turnovers in 43 1/2 minutes in what could
have been the swan song for Pierce's 15-year
career in Boston ends — his contract has a
team option for next season, and the Celtics
can pay him $5 million to cut ties with him if
they so choose. The Knicks were taking free
throws when Boston coach Doc Rivers checked
Pierce out of the game with 27 seconds
remaining; Celtics fans didn't seem to
recognize the moment , the chance that they'd
just watched the final game for one of the
greatest players in franchise history. It was
sad, although in some respects oddly
appropriate, considering nobody — not even
Celtics fans — every fully seems to appreciate
just how remarkable, historic and legendary a
performer Paul Pierce has been in kelly green.
The Garden faithful did, however, rise for a
standing ovation when Garnett checked out
nine seconds later. The 37-year-old center was
all Rivers could rely on in the early going, and
was again the best frontcourt player in the
series for much of this game, finishing with 15
points on 7 for 10 shooting, 10 rebounds and
three assists in 41 minutes; like Pierce, this
could be his last run with the Celtics, as he has
discussed possibly retiring after the season.
He's clearly still one of the league's few major
defensive game-changers, but the futures of
Rivers and Pierce will likely weigh on his own
decision.
Garnett did have five costly turnovers, though,
a symptom of the Celtics' larger disease on the
evening, and was unable to lock down the
defensive glass on Friday as he had in the prior
three games, allowing the Knicks — and, most
notably, center Tyson Chandler — to feast on
the offensive glass, granting New York extra
bailout possessions when their offense went
stagnant. This was especially critical in the
fourth quarter, when Chandler logged four
offensive boards; though none led directly to a
Knicks basket, all resulted in more clock being
eaten in a game — and, really, a series —
where the Celtics just seemed out of time.
Felton wasn't the scoring threat he'd been
earlier in the series (11 points on 14 shots),
Smith again reverted to his maddening
stepback game (13 points on 13 shots), Jason
Kidd went scoreless for the fourth straight
game and Woodson again seemed to make
rotational decisions (especially in that fourth
quarter) at random and with disregard for
situation and score. And yet, the Knicks won.
They won the regular-season series with the
Celtics, took the Atlantic Division title away
from the Celtics and, now, eliminated the
Celtics from the postseason, avenging their
own 2010-11 first-round exit at the hands of
the Celtics.
Next up for the Knicks: The Indiana Pacers,
who dispatched the Atlanta Hawks earlier
Friday, in the second round. What comes next
for the Celtics remains to be seen, but in those
last 9 1/2 minutes on Friday night, they
reminded us — without Rajon Rondo, without
Ray Allen, without the benefit of youth or
superior talent — they reminded us why the
Celtics have been so blasted hard to kill these
past few years. If this is the end, it was one
hell of a death rattle.
Machapisho
Hakuna maoni:
Chapisha Maoni