Celtics Take Care of Business on the Road

A balanced attack tonight.
 

Wow. Just Wow. The Celtics continue to amaze. On the heels of the team's worst home loss in playoff history (29 points) just two games ago, the Celtics turned a 180 and handed the Cavs their worst home loss in playoff history (32 points) by a score of 120-88. Amazingly, the C's held LeBron James without a field goal for the first 30 minutes of the game into the third quarter.

It wasn't the Rondo show tonight like it was Sunday afternoon. Tonight it was a balanced attack with six players in double figures. Ray Allen led the offensive onslaught for the C's canning six three pointers on his way to a crafty 25 points.  

Paul Pierce aggressively looked for his shot tonight after much scrutiny about his passiveness this series, as he put up 21 points on 21 shot attempts. Good to see Pierce break out of his offensive slump and put up some points, but it'd be nice to see him get more points on 21 attempts in the future. However, Pierce did add 11 boards, six assists, and two steals.

Kevin Garnett (18 points), Glen Davis (15 points), and Kendrick Perkins (10 points) got whatever they wanted in the paint tonight and they were able to force the issue by getting to the line 21 times.

And how about that Rondo guy. Fresh off of his historic triple double, Rondo went scoreless in the first half. However, he came out firing in the third quarter and finished with 16 points and 7 assists as he led the attack that opened up the lead. He deferred much more often in this contest, electing to get the ball to Pierce and Allen early in the shot clock.

Key Stats:

• The Celtics outshot the Cavs 55% to 41%.
• The C's were +10 on the boards. A terrible rebounding team in the regular season, the C's need to be at least even on most nights to be in a game. Tonight they took care of business.
• After losing the first quarter 23-20, the C's beat the Cavs by 35 points over the next three quarters.

The series shifts back to Boston for an all important game on Thursday night. You can bet LeBron won't shoot 3-14 and that invisible men Mo Williams and Antawn Jamison will play better. The Celtics need to keep their foot on the pedal and finish the Cavs while they have them down on the canvas.