National networks dissed the showcase game. Instead of Celtics-Spurs, ESPN broadcast the Under Armour high school all-star football game from Tropicana Field.
The Celtics and Spurs are not the Heat and Lakers, but they came into last night’s game with the two best records in the NBA. Folks on Causeway Street happily “settled’’ for this matchup. It’s a pretty good draw when 26-7 meets 29-5 in the first week in January — especially when the rosters feature so many men of a certain age.
The showdown did not disappoint. Ray Allen (31 points) made 13 of 16 shots, the Ticket Stub (Glen Davis) scored 23 and took a huge charge at the finish, and Rajon Rondo punched in with a triple-double (12 points, 10 rebounds, 22 assists) as the Celtics out lasted the Spurs, 105-103, in a possible June preview.
It was exhausting. There were 12 ties and eight lead changes. The Celtics led by 9 with less than a minute left, then watched the Spurs rip off 7 points in 23.8 seconds. The Spurs had a chance to tie or win it when Allen missed two free throws (which happens about as often as Larry Bird picks up a check) with 7.4 seconds left, but Manu Ginobili’s final heave was thwarted by Paul Pierce and Marquis Daniels.
The Celtics shot 61 percent from the floor.
“It was crazy tonight,’’ said Big Baby. “Shots fired from everywhere. They played off me, so I kept shooting.’’
“Let’s go have a card game,’’ said a drained Doc Rivers.
I don’t know about you, but I could watch seven more like this.
The Celtics came out for warm-ups sporting royal blue Adidas “NBA Fit’’ pregame tops. Call me a traditionalist, but that’s just wrong. It took me a while to get used to the subtraction of black high-tops and the addition of cheerleaders, but seeing the Celtics in New York Giants colors is shocking. I’m pretty sure Red would have hated seeing his Green tangled up in blue (Shaq clearly agrees; the Big Fella came out in a green top and had to go back to the locker room to get his new garb).
The Spurs were coming off a bad loss in New York Tuesday night and longtime coach Gregg Popovich made no attempt to sugarcoat the waxing at Madison Square Garden.
“Everybody basically sucked,’’ said the man who has been coach of the Spurs since 1996-97.
Popovich also delivered an ode to aging superstar Tim Duncan, reminding us that a coach’s job is infinitely easier “when you have a star that can handle criticism and is willing to be coached.’’
Down the corridor, Allen seconded that emotion, saying, “In this game, you can’t take criticism personally.’’
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