The Celtics have had some impressive wins this year over the likes of the Heat, Thunder, Knicks and even this gutsy road win over the Suns that I wrote about. But Wednesday night in Indiana ranks up with all of them for a few reasons.
It came just one night after getting a win in Philadelphia, and doing it while playing Terrence Williams and Jordan Crawford down the stretch. Coach Rivers is certainly showing that he has confidence in his complete roster. Avery Bradley was the leading scorer with a season high 22, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett were right behind him with 18 each. Pierce had a spectacular all around effort, adding on 11 boards and seven assists.
The bench was productive as well, led by Jeff Green's 16 points, and the newcomer Crawford had his best game in green with 12. But little was expected of the playing the very next night at the Pacer's building, against one of the hottest teams in the league.
After a quick start to the game, the scoring really slowed down and the Celtics found themselves down 10 in the fourth quarter. But they came to life ending the game on an 11-0 run, capped on a Jeff Green game winner. It was on a beautiful play by Doc Rivers, using Pierce as a decoy on a high-low pass from KG, check out the play here.
Much like playing Williams and Crawford down the stretch the night before, Doc proved his confidence in everyone by letting Bradley run the clock, and then going to Green for the kill when everyone expected the ball to go to Pierce. Garnett got the team going with a hot start, carrying much of the load (18 points 10 rebounds). With his effort, Garnett moved into 10th all-time on the rebounding list with 13,774 passing Wes Unseld.
Boston clearly has their sights set on home-court in the first round of the playoffs. They have a tough road ahead but at the rate they are going, the Celtics have a shot.
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