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What a difference a week makes. In that time, the Boston Celtics have seen a seven game winning streak turn into a three-game losing skid, and their lead in the Atlantic Division shrink from six games to just three.
It started Wednesday night when the hot Celtics rolled into New York expecting to walk over the bottom-dwelling Knicks. Jamal Crawford and Stephon Marbury had other plans. The Celtics shot just 38 percent from the field, and were embarrassed 107-82.
After the game, Celtics head coach Doc Rivers admitted his team had a little too much swagger and needed to be brought down a peg. The Celtics and Knicks trash talking resulted in seven technical fouls, but it was New York that was able to back up their words, shooting an impressive 51 percent and dominating every phase of the game.
The wounded Celts returned home to face the surging Chicago Bulls Friday night. The standings match up Boston and Chicago as first round play-off opponents and the Bulls gave the Celtics a message in the form of a 94-86 win.
The Celtics led late and let their guards down as the Bulls closed the game with a 14-4 run. Poor shooting was again the story for Boston, as they netted just 38 percent.
Saturday night featured a rematch of the epic double overtime game the Celtics and Detroit Pistons played at the FleetCenter three weeks ago. The Celts pulled that one out, and Detroit was looking for revenge.
The Celtic’s offense was again impressive against arguably the league’s best defense and the Celtics led by as many as seven in the final period. The Pistons would rally and lead, but Antoine Walker converted a three-point play with under a minute to go to tie it up. Fittingly, this game would head to overtime as well.
The extra frame was Rasheed Wallace verses Paul Pierce. Pierce scored all 11 of the Celtics’ overtime points, and Wallace had 7 of his 31. Wallace’s supporting cast made the difference as the Pistons won it 105-99. Richard Hamilton returned to the Detroit line-up and scored 22.
Perhaps the Celtics were a little too confident after winning 11 of their first 12 with Walker in the line-up. They don’t play much defense, so any game they have an off shooting night will be a challenge. Walker, Pierce, and Ricky Davis hadn’t shot poorly on the same night until this week, and the results were losses.
The Celtics will look to end their mini-skid against the high flying Dallas Mavericks Wednesday night. Both teams are renowned as offensive juggernauts with weak defenses, so the game should be one of the most exciting of the season. Someone should make sure the TNT people know this when deciding what to televise Wednesday night.
Maybe the Celtics aren’t as good as they looked during the stretch that won them 11 of 12 games. But they certainly aren’t as bad as they’ve looked over the last three games either.
Bangor Daily News