Celtics cannot avoid being lit up

January 29, 2005|Globe Staff

Veteran referee Jess Kersey turned 64 a couple of weeks ago. And someone in the league office either has a skewed idea of what makes an age-appropriate gift or a wicked sense of humor, assigning Kersey to last night's fast-paced game between the Suns and Celtics at the FleetCenter. Keeping up with Phoenix these days is a near impossible task for most NBA teams, never mind an official nearing retirement age.

The Suns ran everyone on the parquet ragged as they defeated the Celtics, 128-119, easily withstanding a second-half surge by Paul Pierce and Co. Shooting 55 percent from the floor (52 percent from 3-point range) and racking up 31 assists, Phoenix placed all six of its rotation players in double figures. When Amare Stoudemire wasn't scoring with driving layups, dunks, and midrange jumpers, he got to the foul line and padded his point total, finishing with 42. Steve Nash, the Suns' catalyst, dished out 15 assists.

"It's tough when you've got a team that plays with great chemistry," said Pierce. "They put their guys out on the floor and they understand their roles. It's pretty much difficult to match up with them because they pretty much put four guards out on the court and one forward and they say, `We are just going to run up and down the court and outscore everybody.' And it's tough because you get caught up in how they play the game and you forget what you really need to do to beat this team."

That helps explain the discrepancy in the Celtics' play from the first half to the second. They allowed the Suns to shoot close to 60 percent and enter halftime ahead, 74-48. The Suns finished the first quarter with 40 points, then passed the 50-point mark with 9 minutes 14 seconds remaining in the second quarter, when Quentin Richardson dunked. The basket continued a 15-2 run that ended with a dunk by Stoudemire and the visitors ahead, 55-33.

Phoenix led by as many as 26 points in the first half, aided in large part by 3-point shooting (9 for 17) that demoralized Boston. Richardson went 5 for 6 from the beyond the arc in the first half. Like his teammates, Richardson was the beneficiary of textbook ball movement generated primarily by Nash and Jim Jackson. By the break, the Suns already had 20 assists.

"While we aren't necessarily improving that much, as long as we keep battling, in time we will see a lot of improvement," said Nash. "Tonight's first-half performance was about as close to perfection as we've seen, as far as our ball movement and hustle, but it's tough. We are in a stretch of 19 games in 32 days with so many of them on the road. It's not pretty all the time, but we've just got to keep playing."