They may not be playing entire games like Champions, but they sure are doing just enough to win games, especially late. Despite being without Billups and Amare (who went out early in the game with back spasms), the Knicks held close to the C's and took them down to the wire, only to see the Green Army prevail 96-93 to take a 2-0 series lead.
It was KG that led the C's as the clock ticked away. He drained a hook shot that the defense had no chance of contesting with 14 seconds to go, putting us ahead. Then, when the Knicks brought it down the floor, Garnett stole the ball from the same Jared Jeffries who stood no chance stopping KG 10 seconds earlier. That steal sealed the deal (nice rhyming action on that one), and once again I have to give Doc Rivers credit for managing a solid end of game situation. It's weird to say that, two games in a row, given how often he's blown that same situation back in the regular season. And, it's really cool to see KG factor in big at the end.
If you want to talk about someone who was a big factor, however, you have to talk about Carmello Anthony. With his two supporting actors on the bench, he truly stepped it up and impressed me. In fact, this is the first time since the trade from Denver that he has done so. I'll bet Knick fans are stoked, I know that Spike Lee was based on his silly dance in the crowd. How is it not being able to sit courtside, Spike? Anyway, Carmello had a double double (with a strawberry shake) in the first half alone, and finished the game with 42 and 17, along with 6 assists. 42 and 17. That's way more points and way more rebounds than any other player in the game, for either side. And it's just not the numbers that impressed me. He looked like a dominating force out there, and seemed to create good looks all on his own. I'll be interested to see if he keeps it up back at the MSG.
As for my boys, Rajon Rondo was the overall hero. He was scoring fast break bucket after fast break bucket, seemingly cherry picking and getting long outlet passes like a wide receiver all night long. He finished with 30 points (is that a season high for him?) and 7 assists. At 12 and 10, KG finished with our lone double double (he'll take a vanilla shake), while Popeye got 20 and Ray Ray had 18. Allen was impressive, as usual, going 6 for 8 from the field and a perfect 4 for 4 from deep. Jermaine O'Neal was a low-light from the starting five, getting just 2 points with 3 boards and only 2 blocks. The bench added 14 thanks to Delonte, Greenie, and Glen Davis, but I'm still a little surprised at their lack of contribution, especially from Big Baby.
All that being said, Doc Rivers isn't giving the team very much credit, "We were lucky to win." Lucky? Really? I'm not sure where I see that. Maybe my comment would have been something like, "We should have won by a lot more than we did." That's more like it. With Billups out for the whole game, and Stoudemire going out with back spasms early, we really should have rolled these guys up a lot easier. Instead, Carmello Anthony went nuts, commanded the play on the floor, and I don't understand why we didn't stop him. Shouldn't he have picked up a double team after his impressive first half? Instead, he kept the Knicks close all the way to the final whistle. That's kind of a joke. We should have done better.
There are two final things that I found pretty fun. First was Paul Pierce getting up high for his powerful block in the first. The second was when Spike Lee was put up on the scoreboard late in the fourth, only to get booed like mad by the Celtic fan base. Good work, boys.
So, we're headed over to New York on Friday with a chance to move one step closer to closing this bad boy out. My feelings are kind of mixed. We're up 2-0, but both wins have been on end-of-game-ish shots. They are somewhat injured, but our bench is doing absolutely nothing. We've won everything so far, but it's all been at home. So, I don't know. We hop on a plane, take a short trip, and try to keep the win streak going at the MSG.
Will Ray Allen keep getting the ball? Will Rondo still take 20+ shots? Will the bench continue to add nothing to the series? Will Doc Rivers keep figuring out how to pull a win out of his hat? So many story lines, and it all continues Friday.
Man, another Laker loss today would be cool, eh?
-- Sent from my Palm Prē
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