It's pretty rare for a regular season NBA game to live up to its hype. Then again last night's contest between the Boston Celtics and San Antonio Spurs didn't have that much hype to begin with. Sure, the CSNNE broadcast dubbed it the "Clash of the Titans" with some semi-epic font (no it wasn't Comic Sans), but other than that, there wasn't much discussion prior to this.
At least not in the same way the Miami Heat/LA Lakers hype machine gets generated, or the Heat/Celtics hype. But after the game, a lot of chatter was out there about just how great of a game this was. No, we didn't get to see two of the all-time greatest power forwards go at it due to Kevin Garnett's calf strain. We did get to see another monstrous triple-double by Rajon Rondo (12 points, 10 rebounds, 22 assists with 6 steals) and a red hot Ray Allen drilling 13 of 16 shots. I got dizzy just watching him come off all those curls, I can't imagine the nightmares that George Hill and Manu Ginobili are having.
We also saw a sign of the apocalypse when Ray missed TWO free throws that would have essentially iced the game. He did do this once prior back in November of 2007, which allowed the Cleveland Cavaliers to steal a victory in OT. Last night the Celtics avoided a collapse to earn a solid win against a very good Spurs team. Check out the GreenLights below for an array of great plays.
Q1: Pierce gets the offense going, working a nice pick and roll with Big Baby who draws the foul. Davis would make 1 of 2 free throws. Other highlights include:
- Solid defensive set, with Big Baby defending Dejuan Blair in the post
- Ray Allen drilling his first of many jumpers, this one from the baseline
- Ray with the left elbow jumper
- Ray blowing by Manu Ginobili for the lay-in
- Ray stripping Ginobili, thus creating a broken offensive set and a rushed Ginobili three that he misses… Pierce and Big Baby combine for the rebound
- Ray finding Shaquille O'Neal for the controlled lay-up
- Rondo deflecting a pass right to a wide open Tony Parker who hits the top of a backboard on his attempted three
- Rondo then finds a trailing Pierce for a three
- Shaq with the good defense on a driving Ginobili
- Rondo with the first of six steals on a Parker bounce pass to Tim Duncan
- Rondo finding Big Baby for the baseline jumper
- Rondo tor Ray for another jumper off a curl
- This time Ray kicks it out to Rondo who knocks down the jumper
- Shaq with the hard and clean foul on Ginobili
- Rondo to Ray again off a curl
- Rondo to Big Baby for the straight away jumper
- Big Baby with the spin move in the post, drawing a foul on Matt Bonner… He would make 1 of 2 free throws
- Marquis Daniels with the steal, eventually leading to a Big Baby turn-around jumper in the lane
- Rondo finding Jermaine O'Neal on the baseline for a jumper to end the quarter
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKCFFmo_ij8&w=445&h=275]
Q2: The second quarter begins with a nice night shot of the state house, followed by Luke Harangody keeping alive a loose ball, tipping it to Nate Robinson who hits a three. Other highlights include:
- Nate drilling another jumper off the JO/Harangody double-screen
- Quis with the nice strip on Richard Jefferson
- Von Wafer finding a cutting JO for a lay-up
- Solid defense, Harangody challenging Bonner's floater, Wafer with the loud rebound
- Pierce with the jumper over Jerfferson
- Big Baby challenging Bonner's jumper, Pierce with the rebound
- Antonio McDyess tossing it out of bounds miscommunicating with Jefferson
- Big Baby challenging McDyess' jumper, Rondo with the rebound
- Rondo waits, and finds Shaq trailing the break for two and a foul
- Rondo finding Ray for another baseline jumper
- Pierce getting in the middle of a conversation Ginobili is having with the official
- Pierce drawing the foul off the Ginobili/Hill double-team
- Rondo with the fantastic block on Hill, then finding Shaq on the break who gets fouled
- Solid 24 seconds of defense, forcing a Bonner air-balled three
- Big Baby with the fade-away basket, and 1… Big Baby would make the free throw
- Pierce with a slick move to avoid Ginobili and nail the jumper
- Rondo knocking away the ball from a driving Parker
- Pierce getting the jumper in off of Jefferson
- Pierce rebounding the Duncan miss
- Rondo to Ray again off a curl
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAq3iSNQOv8&w=445&h=275]
Q3: The second half begins with a Pierce jumper from the right wing. Other highlights include:
- Ray with the tough baseline jumper over Duncan
- Rondo to Ray again for the jumper
- Pierce driving to the hoop, drawing the foul and making both free throws
- Rondo with the one-handed rebound off the Blair miss
- Ray with the bounce pass to Big Baby off the pick and roll for the lay-up
- Shaq with the nice block on Blair, forcing a desperation three that Ginobili misses, Pierce with the rebound
- Rondo with another steal off a driving Parker
- Rondo finding Big Baby who is cutting baseline for the lay-up
- Rondo to Ray for another jumper
- Shaq getting a hand up on Parker's floater
- Big Baby with the jumper over Duncan
- Rondo finding Big Baby who hits a turn-around jumper
- Great 24 seconds of defense, forcing a bad attempted alley-oop
- Rondo getting whistled for a questionable charge
- The C's, as a team, doing work on the boards, eventually leading to Rondo finding a trailing Pierce for a three on the break
- JO with some nice defense, forcing Hill to turn the ball over
- Rondo to Ray for three
- JO with the rebound
- Rondo with the quick lay-up under Gary Neal
- Nate forcing Ginobili to turn it over, then finding Pierce for the loud two-handed jam
- Jefferson missing a three, but then Hill banks in the deep two to end the quarter
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYNHzncWUUI&w=445&h=275]
Q4:The fourth quarter begins with JO issuing a nice block on Blair. Other highlights include:
- JO with more good defense on Blair, bother his shot just enough to force the miss
- Quis hustling for the loose ball
- Rondo with another strong, one-armed rebound
- Nate with the pull-up jumper
- Nate with good defense on Hill, forcing the miss
- JO fighting Blair for the rebound
- Ray finding Quis for the lay-up, even though he gets away with a travel
- Rondo to Quis for another lay-up
- Nate to Rondo for the straight away jumper
- Rondo knocking down another jumper
- Rondo with the steal off of Ginobili, then running past Duncan for the lay-up
- JO with solid one-on-one defense on Duncan, forcing the miss… Quis with the rebound
- JO kicking it out to Big Baby for the jumper
- Rondo to Big Baby for another jumper over Bonner
- JO getting the left hand up on Duncan's missed bank shot, Pierce the rebound
- Rondo to Ray who misses the baseline floater, but gets fouled and makes both free throws
- Big Baby closing out on the missed Bonner baseline jumper
- Rondo with the big offensive rebound, eventually leading to a Quis lay-up
- Rondo picking off the Ginobili pass
- Pierce finding Ray for a three right in front of the Spurs' bench
- Big Baby drawing the charge on Jefferson
- Rondo with the floater over Duncan
- Ray stealing it from Hill, then getting the break-away lay-up
- Ginobili drilling a three
- Parker stealing it from Pierce, then getting the lay-up
- Ginobili with the steal, getting it to Jefferson who makes both free throws
- Pierce misses the jumper, but Ray eventually gets fouled and amazingly misses both free throws
- Pierce's huge block on Ginobili to preserve the win
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-e_iypgezrU&w=445&h=275]
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