Celtics - Getting Inside

The Celtics believe they can disrupt the Cavaliers’ attack by pressuring their guards, so look for more of that as the series goes along. Especially after getting 18 turnovers out of Cleveland in Game 1.

“That’s Rajon (Rondo)’s job every game,” said Paul Pierce, “so I expect us to definitely go ahead and do that against their ballhandlers, because I feel like we have an advantage there.

“To be able to pick up their guards and turn them, take them out of their offense—that’s going to be big for us. If we can get them out of their offense to where they have no choice but to just throw the ball to LeBron and everybody space out, hey …

“If we can keep then out of continuity where they’re moving the ball and finding their perimeter scorers, we give ourselves a great chance.”

Rondo is very much on board with the strategy.

“Yeah, definitely,” he said. “That was my goal in the first series against Atlanta—to pressure the ball and make Joe Johnson handle it. And that’ll be my goal in this series as well—to make LeBron bring the ball up the court and use the clock.”

Coach Doc Rivers noted that it won’t be a change for his club, but he might be underselling the emphasis on limiting Cleveland’s time in the frontcourt. Early physical defense could not only slow the James Gang but also produce some badly needed opportunity hoops for the Celts.

“We’re going to be who we are,” Rivers said. “We pressure guards up the floor on dead-ball situations, but we get back in transition first. And we’re going to do that. We’re not going to try to recreate anything, really. We’re just going to do what we’ve done and try to do it better—try to do it more like Game 7 (against Atlanta) than Game 6.”

Celtics 76, Cavaliers 72: The Celtics got 28 points from Kevin Garnett but not much else in a Game 1 victory Tuesday night in Boston.

Paul Pierce had just four points (2-of-14 shooting) and Ray Allen went scoreless (0-of-4 shooting), but Garnett came up big.

With the game even in the final minute, Garnett drove on Joe Smith and scored with 21 seconds left. LeBron James then finished off the worst shooting night of his career (2-for-18) by failing on a drive, and James Posey hit two free throws with 8.5 seconds left to essentially ice it.

“A lot of things didn’t go our way, and a lot of things didn’t go their way, either,” said Celtics coach Doc Rivers. “We just found a way to win the game.”

The Celts shot just 42.6 percent from the floor, but the Cavs were held to 30.7 percent shooting.

Notes, Quotes

• The Celtics weren’t really fazed by having to start the new series so quickly.

“I don’t know,” coach Doc Rivers said. “Hell, I’ll take a week or I’ll take a day. The fact is that we’re playing the next round, and that’s what you want to do.

“Obviously, we would have taken winning Game 6, but in a strange way we get more rest because we don’t have to travel (back from Atlanta) and it’s not a 1 o’clock game. We would have played a 1 o’clock game on Sunday (against the Cavaliers), and this way we played an afternoon game and get the rest of that day off. We get all day (Monday) to prepare, and we have a night game the next day, so in some ways we do have more time to prepare for the first game than we would have.”

• Though Rivers spent a good deal of time yelling at him, the coach is still quite fond of Delonte West. Why?

“His competitiveness,” said the coach. “He’s as competitive a person as I’ve ever been around, and that’s what drives him. It sometimes got in his way, but he’s a competitive player and he’s always going to be a winner. He’s great for winning teams.”

Quote To Note: “I thought it was the Knicks-Heat series for about 20 minutes.”—Coach Doc Rivers

Roster Report

Rotation: Starters—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 went scoreless for just the second time in his career. It was his playoff low, undercutting the seven he scored in Game 7 against the Hawks on Sunday.

• G Sam Cassell scored 10 of his 13 points in the last quarter Tuesday.

• G Rajon Rondo once again won the point guard matchup. He had 15 points and six assists.

• F Kevin Garnett finished third in the MVP balloting. He received 15 first-place votes.