Though Terry went scoreless for the first time in his postseason career, he contributed majorly to a first-quarter Celtics run.
NEW YORK -- Head coach Doc Rivers believes the Boston Celtics failed to involve Jason Terry enough during Saturday's Game 1 loss, when the guard went scoreless for the first time in his postseason career.
Rivers pointed to an over-reliance on isolation plays during the second half, saying, "It's not us. We're not built that way."
But the coach thought Terry did a fine job offensively during the first two quarters.
"In the first half, Jason didn’t score, but he ran that play with the pick-and-roll with him and Paul (Pierce)," Rivers said. "We scored five times in a row because of Jason Terry’s involvement, so I don’t actually look at if he scored. I look at the points he created, and in the first half he created 12 points."
Scoff if you want, since Terry wasn't very productive during the playoff opener, at times looking slow and well past his prime. But Rivers was almost entirely correct.
Terry entered the game after a Paul Pierce free throw brought Boston within 17-12. About a minute later, Carmelo Anthony finished an and-one to put New York ahead 20-14.
That was when the Celtics decided to utilize a Terry-Pierce pick-and-roll almost exclusively for the next few minutes. The concept might seem familiar to anyone who watched Dallas play the past several years: Because Terry's shot needs to be respected, teams tend to switch when he dribbles around ball-screens, often leaving his pick-and-roll partner (in this case, Pierce) with a mismatch.
Boston ran the Terry-Pierce pick-and-roll on five of its next six possessions, and New York played it the same way every time: Iman Shumpert and J.R. Smith switched, leaving Pierce isolated against Smith in a matchup Boston preferred. Rivers was wrong to say that the Celtics scored five times in a row because of Terry's involvement -- they actually scored on four of the five plays. The lone miss was a great look by Pierce from his money spot on the right elbow, a shot the Celtics will take 10 times out of 10.
By the time the Terry-riffic stretch had ended, Boston was tied 24-24. Pierce subbed out a minute later, ending a brief run during which the threat of Jason Terry figured prominently in bringing the Celtics back.