BOSTON – Here are my three thoughts on the Nets’ 85-79 victory over the Celtics on Sunday night:
1. Anyone who was inside TD Garden or watched it on television couldn’t help but come away impressed by the love showered on Paul Pierce in his return to the city where he played the first 15 years of his NBA career.
It’s so rare these days to see any player – and particularly a player who has left a team, for whatever reason – get the kind of unconditional love and support that Pierce received from the Boston organization and fan base that he did Sunday night, when the crowd repeatedly chanted his name and cheered for him and Kevin Garnett when they scored a basket. The Celtics fans basically spent three hours saying thank you to both players for all they had accomplished.
Sunday’s game was a celebration of the impact Garnett had on the Celtics when he was traded there in 2007 and the way he spent his six years with the team, yes, but this was a day about Paul Pierce and his 15 years in Boston.
As Pierce said after the game, he grew up in Boston from an immature kid thought by many to be a selfish scorer into a champion and one of the NBA’s most respected players. It’s rare to see a player grow up in a city like that or for there to be such an emotional attachment between a player and the city’s fans. The closest comparison may be the way Mariano Rivera was treated during his yearlong farewell tour, but that was as much baseball celebrating his greatness and saying goodbye as much as the Yankees and their fans doing so.
This was all about Pierce, his connection to the city and all he accomplished there. It was a fun thing to witness.
2. Games like the one the Nets played Sunday night – filled with emotional undercurrents that have nothing to do with the actual play on the court – are always tricky. You regularly see teams, in games like this, come out flat and lose, getting caught up in the atmosphere and unable to focus on the task at hand.
That clearly was an issue for the Nets on Sunday night as they immediately fell behind 8-0 and looked completely discombobulated at both ends of the floor. Luckily for the Nets, they were playing an opponent in the Celtics that is so bad – they have lost 17 of their past 20 games – it simply didn’t matter.
The Nets eventually were able to get their offense going, shooting just under 44 percent from the field over the final three quarters after going just 4-for-18 (22 percent) in the first. Thanks to a combination of their defense – the Nets held Boston to 37.8 percent shooting – and the Celtics not being very good, Brooklyn was able to overcome its weak start and come away with their 10th win in 11 games in January.
3. Once again, the Nets got a big performance from Andray Blatche, who has been a force off the bench since the team left for London.
After initially struggling following his return from a four-game absence for personal reasons, Blatche has scored at least 17 points – his tally Sunday – in four of the past five games, averaging 16.4 points. Sunday’s game was the first time during that run he finished with less than 50 percent shooting.
The Nets have been getting 48 minutes of excellent production in each of the past several games from Blatche and Garnett combining at the center spot in the team’s smaller lineup.