Allen was scoreless in the first half in last night’s 96-73 win over the Raptors at TD Garden, and finished with 6 points on 2-of-7 shooting. In the past five games, he is shooting 16 for 44 from the field (36.3 percent).
“I don’t think they play me any different than they have played me,’’ he said before the game. “I know that they’re focused on keeping me from getting to my spots, but that’s always been the case. That’s no different.’’
Allen said his lack of shot attempts can be directly attributed to the Celtics’ lack of rebounding and defensive struggles, which limit fast-break opportunities.
“When we get to transition opportunities and we score in the fast-break situations obviously it’s because we got defensive stops,’’ he said. “It’s hard to get those stops if we’re not rebounding. But when we get those stops, we rebound and we run, still we’ve seen teams in the last two weeks, when we scored on them, they ran and scored back on us. That’s always a lesson for us.
“If I’m not open that means somebody is because they had to contribute another guy to me. That means Kevin [Garnett’s] open or Jermaine [O’Neal’s] open or [Rajon] Rondo is open on the kickback. I’d like to find ways to get easier looks and make sure I stay involved with what our offense is doing but sometimes coming off screens is good enough because we find the open guy.’’
Allen said he is trying to stay aggressive, and that there only has been one occasion this season when he has passed up an open 3-pointer.
“I think we’ve seen about every coverage you’re going to play [against Allen],’’ said coach Doc Rivers. “There’s only a certain amount of ways you can play him. There’s games he’ll get shots, but nothing’s changed.’’
Center stage
Team president of basketball operations Danny Ainge said he is not concerned with the Celtics’ erratic production at center. O’Neal struggled to begin the season but recently posted his first consecutive double-digit rebounding games in two years.
