Boston Celtics head coach, Doc Rivers, spiced things up a bit before the beginning of the second half in the Celtics visit to the New York Knicks. He was a bit upset with what the Celtics were doing on the court. He described their play as been soft, and that hurt them deeply. Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen wouldn’t stand up for it and knew that they had to toughen up the Celtics game. And that’s exactly what they did. But it sure didn’t look like a soft game. There were big hits, elbows hitting faces, blood on the court and at times it really seemed like it was an NFL game.
The Big Three was now the Big Four as Kevin Garnett and Rajon Rondo with his impeccable all-court game guided the Celtics out of a lethargic first half and into a 96-86 crushing of Carmelo Anthony and the New York Knicks. Garnett had 24 points and 11 rebounds while Rajon Rondo added 13 points and 12 assists. But to be fair to them, all of the Celtics worked they game up in the fourth quarter, taking control of the game and humiliating the home team by scoring the last 10 points of the game.
Paul Pierce had 21 points, Ray Allen had 15 despite a poor shooting night and taking a hard blow in the head that required him to go into the locker room and get 7 stitches before coming back out.
Carmelo Anthony scored 22 points, Chauncey Billups had 21 and Amare Stoudemire had 16 points for the game, but neither Melo nor Stoudemire were able to score a field goal in the fourth quarter, and that just will not fly when playing the Boston Celtics.
With a 50-19 record, the Boston Celtics are tied with the Chicago Bulls as they attempt to clinch the top seed in the Eastern Conference Playoffs. It will be of vital importance if they are able to repeat their trip to the NBA Finals to have the final game at home. It might have been a very different scenario had game 7 of last season’s final been played in the Boston Garden rather than in the Staples Center.