When considering all their mistakes, it’s a credit to the Celtics defense that they had a chance at all.
NEW YORK – With Boston trailing the New York Knicks by five points and just a minute and a half left in a first round playoff opener, Jeff Green crouched down and looked straight into the face of a menace.
The Celtics did a nice job defending the menace, Carmelo Anthony, all afternoon but they certainly couldn’t stop him. He cradled the basketball in his hands before drilling a jumper in Green’s face, essentially sealing New York’s 85-78 win.
Green contested the long two-pointer well. He, Brandon Bass and Paul Pierce did a great job on Anthony for most of the game, forcing him into 13-29 shooting en route to his 36 points.
After hitting his first four shots, the superstar was five for his next 21. Though he did close by making his final four attempts, the Celtics might still have been leading except for a disappearing bench, a troubling inability to make baskets, and a curious habit of passing the basketball to the wrong team. Boston's bench scored only four points and didn't make a single field goal. The whole team finished with more turnovers (10) than made field goals (7) in the second half. Anthony’s big night didn’t ruin the Celtics by itself –far from it – but he’s still going to be a problem all series.
“He’s a good offensive player. He’s going to get his shots,” Green explained. “The best that we can do is just try to make everything for him tough.”
Green’s possession defending Anthony was Boston’s final breath in a contest which had by all means been winnable. For the most part, the Celtics executed the formula to edge New York. They made Anthony work for his buckets, held the Knicks to 9-25 from deep, and forced J.R. Smith into finishing with more shots (19) than points (15). Despite a slew of turnovers – 21 of them to be exact, several coming on boneheaded entry passes – and 10-27 combined shooting by Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, Boston still could have had a minor chance to steal Game 1 if it had just stopped Anthony that one last time.
The shot fell through the hoop, of course. A seemingly nervous Madison Square Garden erupted for one of the first times all day. Boston called a timeout, and the game was all but over. Too much Melo (sadly, not Fab) and too many turnovers, and not enough buckets or defensive rebounds in the second half. During one stretch, New York rebounded five out of eight missed triples.
Yes, consider Saturday’s contest an opportunity wasted.
“It’s tough, but it is what it is now. We’re down 1-0. There’s nothing we can do about it,” Pierce said. “It is a seven-game series, so obviously these games are definitely frustrating when you know you had this opportunity right there in the grasp of your hand, but it’s a game we can learn from. Hopefully we can come back stronger in Game 2.”
The Knicks played great defense, but Boston helped out. Every time the Celtics hit the post, it seemed, an opponent was swiping at the basketball and forcing a steal. Rivers blamed poor spacing for the inability to secure good post-up looks, saying Garnett (4-12 with eight points and nine rebounds) just didn’t have a fair chance to operate. And that was when the Celtics actually managed to hit the post. Boston somehow turned making entry passes into a bigger adventure than Ferris Bueller’s day off.
“We had bad turnovers (Saturday). If we have those turnovers in any game, you probably should lose the game and we did. But we were making post passes from the other side of the floor. I mean, those are just not good passes,” Rivers said. “All we have to do is trust – make the next pass and let that guy make it. Early on, even, I thought we did it in the first half as well. Trying to get the ball to Kevin, I think we threw three passes from half court to the post.”
Rivers credited New York with pressuring the basketball, but thought many of Boston’s errors were unforced.
“I didn’t think we lost our composure, we lost our way on the floor as far as playing. Emotionally we were pretty good," he said, "but to be honest we stopped playing the right way. I thought each guy was trying to win. I guess that’s emotion but I don’t think that’s hard to fix. I really don’t.”
When considering all their mistakes, it’s a credit to the Celtics defense that they had a chance at all, even led by three entering the final quarter. But all of those miscues resulted in a sad truth:
On a night when Boston actually did plenty right, at least on one end of the court, the Knicks left Madison Square Garden with a 1-0 series lead.