Boston 107, San Antonio 97 // 57-18 // 1st in the West
The first quarter of this game showed the very best of the Spurs offense. Parker was penetrating at will, collapsing the defense, opening up wide open shots or getting easy lay-ups for himself. McDyess and Duncan were active on the interior, gobbling up offensive rebounds, showing deft interior passing, and generally having their way. The 3-point shooting was on. It was a clinic of 2010-11 Spurs Basketball.
And at the end of the quarter, we only led by 2 points.
The Celtics didn’t really do anything special in the first quarter, other than make shots. And make shots. And make shots. For every brilliant sequence by the Spurs, the Celtics would come down and hit a humdrum 18-footer. Precisely the shot we want them to take (though we’d probably prefer a little more resistance, maybe a hand in the shooter’s face or something). So it’s not like our defense was horrible; they were taking–and making–the shots we wanted them to take, for the most part.
In the third quarter the game turned, as the Celtics’ interior defense stiffened up, and our game devolved into a 3-point shooting orgy, though the shots were no longer coming off of penetration and passing, which is where all of our best offense is created from. Every miss seemed to create a sense of desperation, and we seemed to be guiding our shots, rather than shooting them. The Celtics continued to make their shots and picked up their transition offense, racing out to a double digit lead and never looking back.
The Celtics shot making was fairly absurd. Kevin Garnett was 9-12, mostly making 17 foot jump shots. Glen Davis was 8-12, also mostly making jumpers. All night we dared Rajon Rondo to make a jump shot, and he obliged, hitting 11-20 for the game (not all jumpers, obviously). Paul Pierce was 8-16. Really, Ray Allen was the only Celtic not making shots, as he was 3-11. Take away his shooting, and the Celtics shot 59% for the game.
In the larger context, it’s hard to know what’s happening to the Spurs. We have all of our players back playing healthy, and we still lost pretty soundly. The Lakers continue to win, trimming our lead to 2 1/2 games, and making this a real race for the top seed. We continue to play reasonably well and lose in the end. In this overreactive age, it’s easy for every loss to portend doom and every victory to ensure a championship; I think it’s foolish to swing too far in one direction, even with Tim Duncan’s first ever 5-game losing streak. That being said, the team needs to get some wins and right the proverbial ship.
Friday night in Houston is as good a place as any to start.
