You knew they’d be a desperate team in this game and would battle hard and probably win, especially on their home court, but the way the Boston Celtics defeated the Lakers last night to even the NBA Finals series at 2-2 was astonishing. One of their “big four”, Paul Pierce, got off to a quick start and got the Celts an early lead, but in the 4th quarter they took control of the game with a lineup on the floor that consisted mainly of Glenn Davis, Nate Robinson, Tony Allen, Rasheed Wallace and only one of their regulars, Ray Allen, and he contributed pretty much the least of any of the guys out there. Coach Doc Rivers kept sending the starters over to the scorer’s table to put them back in, then Robinson or Wallace would drain a 3-point shot or Davis would grab a big rebound or score a huge basket and Rivers would call the starters back to the bench. While this was going on the starters – Kevin Garnett, Rajon Rondo, Pierce and Kendrick Perkins – were leading the cheers from the bench for their replacements. This is 2010 in the NBA, the era of the superstar, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the 2 teams in the finals are the teams whose “superstars” play unselfishly. The Lakers also usually get big contributions from their bench, but nothing like what the Celts’ bench did last night. I had to laugh when the Cleveland Cavaliers post-season began to unravel against Boston. As the Celtics continually shut down or contained LeBron the announcers would say that he’s getting no help from his supporting cast. So after racking up the league’s best regular season record by running an offense that pretty much consists of running down the shot clock to about 10 seconds and then clearing out for LeBron to do his thing, now the supporting cast is supposed to figure out what to do to “help” LeBron. If the Cavs somehow manage to resign James, they’ll only win a title when they figure out that it’s not who the players are playing around James but the style of play the team is playing that revolves around him. Obviously the Celtics don’t have that problem, as they dominated the fourth quarter with all their stars on the bench, and you didn’t hear one whimper of a complaint from any of those stars afterwards. Now if they can only tone down Rasheed’s drama queen diva act every time he draws a foul!
NBA – Celtics’ Bench Buries Lakers
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Jun