Last night's 76-72 Celtics victory over the Cavs was one of the strangest games I have ever watched. Now the word ugly will be thrown around, and Doc Rivers already compared this to a Heat Knicks series back in the 90's, but there was something beautiful about this game last night. Maybe it was the committment to defense, maybe it was the star power on the floor playing so hard, maybe it was the fact that the Celtics needed to win a game like this at home. What was not a maybe was the huge game turned in by Kevin Garnett. With LeBron shooting 2-18 and committing 10 turnovers and Pierce and Allen combining for the same totals (I have never seen Ray Allen so uninvolved before) it was Garnett (28 points, 8 in the 4th) that made the big buckets all night to carry the Celtics to a game one win. His defense was terrific as expected as he set the tone to help on LeBron and make him take some tough shots early to keep him out of his King rhythm.
Then there were the contributions from Rajon Rondo, Sam Cassell and James Posey. Rondo had a huge first half and showed that the Cavs will have a tough time stopping his dribble penetration. Cassell got a bulk of the 4th quarter minutes and made 2 huge shots. And James Posey, well, he was typical James Posey. Swarming defense, two 3-pointers, and the 2 free throws that iced it in the last 10 seconds.
If there was a game the Cavs could have stole in Boston it was last night.
It will be a long time before you see three star players put up the poor offensive numbers we saw Tuesday. But two things are certain, the Celtics defense is determined to make life as tough as possible for LeBron and Kevin Garnett knows he is the offensive key for the Celtics.
Game 2 Thursday 7pm...
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