They've got the beat and in a Knick of time

Celtic Beat
By John Chagaris, College AP
November 3, 2005

When hearing a score of 114-100 one would instantly believe this game could not have possibly gone into overtime, well the Celtics and Knicks did, do the anger of Coach Brown.

Midway through the second quarter trouble started for the Celtics, they went down by 8 midway though the quarter and Paul Pierce could not hit a free throw to save his life; twice in the game going 0-2, but that was a minor hickup as Pierce picked it up going 18-24 in the game from the Charity Stripe.

The story of the night was not that Paul had 30 points because that is expected of the Celtic guard; the true story was Ricky Davis, now starting and not having to play 6-man, scored 27 points. I'll let that sink in for a minute; yes the same Ricky Davis who only averaged 32.9 minutes a game last year and only averaged 16 points played for 45 minutes yesturday and was lights out.

But even that wasn't the main story of the night; that goes to Delonte West; who missed a majority of the 2004-2005 season with a broken right hand, did I mention that he is a southpaw. Delante was huge playing 41 minutes last night, having 9 assists, 4 blocks, 3 steals and 14 points.

"That's what makes Delonte a good player," Celtics coach Rivers said. "He does make a lot of little plays, the blocked shots, the loose balls, getting the deflections."

Doc, Delante wasn't good last night, he was great. Not being like Walker or Pierce and when he had the ball in overtime passed it to Ricky Davis who nailed a 3-pointer in a 9-0 Celtics overtime run. Ricky Davis scored 9 of his 27 points in that extra period.

"I guess it was good recognition on my part," West said after the game. "But it was an even better shot by Ricky."

No West, it was a heads up play by you, hopefully one of many more to come. The Celtics are now first place in the Atlantice with a 1-0 record a game up on Toronto, New Jersey, New York and 1.5 up on the 0-2 Philadelphia 76ers. Boston is tied for second in the Eastern conference with Washington, Indiana, Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland and Miami. The Celtics next play on Friday at 7:30 when they host the Eastern Champion Detroit Pistons.



Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.