Celtics - Getting Inside

The Celtics’ director of basketball operations isn’t too worried by his team’s trouble with the Hawks in the first round. Danny Ainge doesn’t think it’ll have an effect down the line.

“No,” he said, “it’s like the NCAA tournament. Sometimes the third seed can barely beat the 14th seed in the first round and then go all the way and win the championship or get to the Final Four.

“The biggest thing I worry about—and I think you saw a little of it with Detroit—is sometimes you just don’t play like yourself,” Ainge said. “You get a little tense. I think that we showed a little bit of that in Game 4 here.”

There is no real formula for dealing with the matter.

“I think sometimes you’ve just got to play through it,” Ainge said. “You know, that’s why the important thing is to just focus on the defense and don’t think about offense. When you struggle from the free throw line, the worst thing to do is to think about it and over-analyze it. Sometimes you’ve just got to get away from it and clear your mind.

“I didn’t think we played great in Game 1 and Game 2 offensively. I thought we played good defense. I thought in Game 3 we really didn’t take our opponent seriously … because we didn’t play well and we won in Boston easily. Then in Game 4, I thought we played hard but we didn’t play well. And their best players really played well and stepped up. Then in Game 5 we put it together. We played with effort AND we made shots.”

However, they couldn’t sustain that effort in Game 6, making a highly surprising Game 7 necessary.

Hawks 103, Celtics 100: The Celtics have taken themselves to the brink of first-round elimination.

Friday night in Atlanta they squandered a 12-point lead and fell to the Hawks for the third time on the road in the series.

The C’s were still leading by three in the last quarter when the Hawks scored 10 straight points. During that run, Paul Pierce fouled out and earned a technical on his way to the bench. That allowed Atlanta a three-point possession.

Mike Bibby made just one of two free throws with 7.4 seconds left, leaving the Celtics a chance to tie. But Rajon Rondo’s trey at the buzzer wasn’t close.

Kevin Garnett led the Celts with 22 points, while the Hawks had six players in double figures.

Coach Doc Rivers took aim at the 47-25 Atlanta lead in free throw attempts.

“I don’t know how many times we’ve scored 100 points and lost the game with our defense,” he said. “I didn’t think our defense was bad. I just thought they shot 47 free throws.”

Notes, Quotes

• Coach Doc Rivers thinks the confrontations between the players are being overblown. And he blames the players.

“Every time there is a guy that looks at one another, everyone is running in and grabbing each other,” Rivers said. “Sometimes it’s a joke. It really is. I just think we almost draw so much attention to it. One time I was like, nothing is happening … why is everyone going around grabbing each other?”

• Look for bigger things from Sam Cassell. At least that’s what Sam says.

“This is my time of year,” Cassell said. “I love playoff basketball, and I understand what it means. I understand what it takes to be successful this time of year, but I am just trying to get on the court. Rajon (Rondo) is having a hell of a series right now, so he is keeping me on the sideline.”

Quote To Note: “We just put ourselves in this position.”—Backup forward James Posey on being forced to a Game 7.

Roster Report

Rotation: Point guard Rajon Rondo, Shooting guard Ray Allen, Small forward Paul Pierce, Power forward Kevin Garnett, Center Kendrick Perkins. Bench—Guard Eddie House, Forward James Posey, Guard Tony Allen, Guard Sam Cassell, Forward Leon Powe, Forward Glen Davis, Forward P.J. Brown, Forward Brian Scalabrine, Guard Gabe Pruitt.

Player Notes:

• G Ray Allen hit one of eight free throws Friday after making five of eight from the distance in each of his previous two games.

• F Paul Pierce had 11 points in the first quarter and just six the rest of the game.

• G Rajon Rondo had five assists and three turnovers in Game 6. He had 40 assists and four turnovers over the first five games.

• C Kendrick Perkins went 5-for-5 from the floor on the way to 14 points. His scoring is usually a good sign, in that it comes when he gets free off ball movement.