|
It started with a 3-pointer by Avery Bradley 16 seconds into the game. It ended with a layup by Jason Terry with 6.5 seconds left.
Yes, the Boston Celtics finally got their offense going.
”It’s coming,” Terry said. ”You can feel it.”
It was there on Sunday – for much of the game, anyway – when the Celtics beat the New York Knicks 97-90 in overtime to avoid being swept in the opening round of the playoffs.
But if it’s not there on Wednesday night in New York, the Celtics will have a very tough time forcing a sixth game Friday night in Boston.
The Celtics scored fewer than 20 points in six of the first 10 quarters in the series. They managed a meager eight points in the fourth quarter of the opener – one less than Terry scored by himself in the last 1:32 of overtime on Sunday. They scored 78, 71 and 76 points in the first three games after scoring fewer than 80 just five times during the regular season.
”We’ve got a lot of basketball in us,” Terry said, ”but there’s always something like one quarter that holds us back. So if we can put together four quarters of great Celtics basketball, ball movement, getting out in transition, then this series is going to be a long one.”
— Reported by Howard Ulman of the Associated Press
