Forget about Boston’s Big 3. It got so bad yesterday, the Knicks and Isiah Thomas were shown up by Celtics journeyman guard Eddie House and marginal center Kendrick Perkins.
In today’s 109-93 loss to Boston in a Martin Luther King Day matinee, House shouted at the Knicks coach/president in the final minutes, and Perkins shot down Eddy Curry in a career-best outing. Perkins’ outburst was a bigger factor than anything Kevin Garnett-Ray Allen-Paul Pierce produced.
After House scored 22 of his career-high 24 points in the first half, and after he infuriated Thomas with his late-game antics, Thomas was in a sour mood afterward.
Thomas used a rare profanity in his postgame press conference when asked how the Celtics have turned around their fortunes. Thomas also called out Curry as being too much of a gentleman’ on the court.
With 2:24 left in the Boston rout, House drained a right-corner 3-pointer in front of the Knicks bench that put the Celtics up by 20. House turned to Thomas and shouted at him.
In a rage, Thomas called timeout. When the huddle broke, Thomas led his five Knicks up the sidelines to midcourt as if they were looking for a street fight. Referee Joey Crawford talked to Thomas to settle him down.
Asked directly about what House yelled, Thomas became visibly angry, paused, pursed his lips and said, “I have no comment to that.”
House found it amusing Thomas was angry.
“He always has something to say,” House said of Thomas. “You can’t take everything so personal. (I said) Just keep them down. That was it, it was a little more colorful than that, but at the end of the day that’s what it was. We had them down big and we wanted to keep them down.”
Some Celtics thought the Knicks were looking to provoke a fight.
“We didn’t want to take it lying down,” said Curry, who had a couple of hard fouls in the second half. “It wasn’t about trying to get guy to fight.”
The Knicks-Boston rivalry may not be competitive on the court, as the league-best Celtics (33-6) have beaten the Knicks (13-28) twice by a combined 61 points. But the feelings between the two clubs is certainly nasty.
“It’s contagious,” Curry said of House’s trash-talk to their coach. “All their guys are talking. In a way they’ve earned it.”
Quentin Richardson and Paul Pierce each got ejected after jawing at each other in the third quarter. Richardson, who disrespected the Celtics with comments before their first meeting Nov. 29, committed three straight fouls on Pierce, leading to their altercation.
As Richardson left the court, it appeared he repeatedly yelled at Pierce, “I’ll see you out back!” Neither player commented afterward.
Curry was god-awful defensively, out of position. finally removed after the Knicks fell behind 21-10 six minutes in.
Perkins scored 15 of the Celtics’ first 17 points, beating Curry on layups. On one play, Curry foolishly shot to the perimeter to help out on a guard, leaving Perkins alone to roll to the basket for a layup. Perkins set his career-high with 2:38 left in the half when he scored his 22nd point.
“I wish I could take the first half back,” Curry said.
Curry played with more vigor in the second half but it was too late.
“With Eddy, he is such a nice man,” Thomas said. “He is a gentleman. In his mind, he has to find the balance between his physicality and being a gentlemen. It is OK to be a gentleman off the court but a big man in this league, if you are going to dominate and be good, there is a certain demeanor you have to play with and I thought he played with it in the second half.”
“We’ve tried everything, benching, yelling,” Thomas added.
Curry said, “It was definitely a game I should’ve come more aggressive at the beginning like I did in the second half. Personally, I have to do a better job of what games to come up and be aggressive. This was a game I should’ve come out and threw my weight around and played real physical with Perkins.”