TA To The Rescue: C’s 85, Heat 76
Posted by Brian Robb on Apr 18, 2010
ESPN Recap • Hot Hot Hoops • Peninsula is Mightier
It’s sometimes a bit of an exaggeration to declare just how much of an impact a bench player had on a contest. Yet, I can say, without hesitation that Tony Allen was the story tonight, leading Boston on both ends of the floor and helping them rebound from a 14 point deficit in the 3rd quarter and pull away with a 10 point win to give them the early 1-0 series lead over the Heat.
Think I’m going a little bit overboard with that statement? Check out how the numbers break down after the jump.Â
First let’s cover the defensive aspect. TA entered the game with a little under 7 minutes left in the 3rd quarter. The Heat had charged out to 17 points in the first five minutes of the frame, turning a 3 point halftime lead into a double digit deficit.
Once TA entered the game, the Heat scored just 10 points in the next 17 minutes of this contest, which transformed the 14 point deficit into a 10 point Celtic lead, that the C’s held onto in the closing minutes of mayhem. So to recap:
Without TA in 2nd half: C’s were -11
With TA: in 2nd half: +24
It all centered around Tony, since he kept D Wade in check for the entire 4th quarter, playing disciplined defense holding him to just 2 of 6 shooting in the final quarter.
The C’s as a team, with Big Baby filling in for Perk in the final frame played tremendous team D in the fourth quarter, limiting Miami to 19 percent shooting in the frame. Rotations were sharp, long challenged jumpers were the main opportunities and the Heat were overwhelmed and gun shy in the heat of the moment.
I have to give Doc Rivers a lot of credit for tonight’s game for sticking with Tony and Glen Davis in the 4th. Not a lot has been routine and Doc had to search long and hard to find the right combo tonight after nothing (besides TA) was seemingly working in the first 30 minutes.
He found the right mix of youth and energy off the bench to go with a combo of Rondo, KG, and Pierce and it paid off big. To see the shock on Ray Allen’s face when Paul pulled him out of the game with 3 minutes left, with TA still out there was, well priceless. You know what though? It was the right move and quite frankly the only move.
TA’s offensive game was terrific tonight as well with 14 points on 7 of 12 shooting, with just one or two ugly jump shots mixed in there. There were a mental mistake here and there, but you know what, he was so aggressive and the pros of his game sharply outweighed any real mistakes. And you know? No turnovers. Zach probably died of shock when he saw that number.
A few more quick bullets here before further analysis tomorrow as we breakdown postgame reaction from the Garden
* First, the melee with KG, Pierce, and Richardson. Zach covered it indepthly in the post below so I encourage you to cover it there. I will say KG showed a lot of remorse in the postgame press conference and realized he overreacted and likely got himself suspended for game 2, which I wouldn’t argue with it at all. Richardson instigated the whole situation obviously, but KG took it to another level and with a blatant elbow that connected, I think we
*Richardson is a …..well I’ll just say a jerk and keep it PG. I don’t care if you thought Pierce was faking or whatever, but you still don’t go over there and stand over an injured player when they are down. That’s bush league and I give credit to KG for standing out for his teammate. He just took things a bit too far.
* Rondo with a really gritty effort tonight. 10 points, 7 rebounds and 10 assists in 43 big minutes. He without a doubt was slowed down with the flu, but this team just couldn’t afford to have him out of the game given the huge offensive drought they had in the 2nd quarter without him. Tremendous work and a huge bucket to put this team up 10 with 2 minutes left.
* KG looked pretty solid before he was tossed out of this one. Encouraging news, but will be curious to see what’s he got from line 2.
* 2 of 9 shooting for Ray Allen. Hopefully, just an offnight this team can’t afford many more of them though.
* 39.7 percent shooting for Miami and 23 percent shooting from deep. That’s the Boston defense I remember.
*Perk is painful to watch on the offensive end right now around the hoop. 4 turnovers tonight including a couple traveling violations. He needs to regain his confidence in that area of the floor.
* Glen Davis seemed to find every big rebound down the stretch of this game.
* +17 for TA, + 15 for Glen Davis
* D Wade has a nice line of 26-6-8 but the 7 turnovers (18 for the team) loomed very large
* C’s still have no offensive rebounding and kept the turnovers relatively under control. They also did a great job of getting to the line in the final frame.
That’s it for now, much more to come on this one.
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