Celtics Get The Better Of Their Trade Partner
By bpaul
Boston Celtics 110 New York Knicks 104
TD Garden – Boston, MA
February 23, 2010
It was about one week ago when news first broke about a proposed deal that would send Nate Robinson and Marcus Landry to Boston for Eddie House, J.R Giddens, and Bill Walker. Now it is one week later and the two teams were already battling it out on the parquet floor in Boston. The two major storylines during tonight’s game were Nate Robinson’s debut as a Celtic, and Eddie House’s return back to Boston following the trade.
Robinson entered the game tonight to a standing ovation at around the two minute mark in the first quarter. He ended the night playing 18 minutes and scoring four points on 2-7 shooting. You could tell he was not familiar with the system and sets that the Celtics run, but he did bring a lot of energy right from the get-go. For all you people already jumping the gun and saying this trade was a bust, please just chill and give it some time.
As far as Eddie House goes, his return was amazing. At around the five minute mark Eddie entered the game to a standing ovation from 18,624 fans at the TD Garden. The Celtics played a “Thanks for the memories” video on the jumbotron and Eddie acknowledged the crowd for all the support. The video really hit home, and it made me realize that this is reality, Eddie House is no longer a Boston Celtics and it sucks.
Besides those two storylines there was also a game being played on the court, and a good one at that. The Celtics jumped on the Knicks quickly on this game and jumped out to a early fourteen point lead. The starters were right on que and the offense looked unstoppable.
The second quarter then came around and the Celtics had one of their bad quarters. They seemed to completely forget what they did right in the first quarter and played below the level of their opponents. This allowed the Knicks to get back in the game before the half, and as a result made the game a lot closer than it probably should have been.
It took a Ray Allen block on Wilson Chandler, a couple missed attempts by Eddie House, and a final miss by Tracy McGrady to seal a 110-106 victory over the Knicks. The win moves the Celtics to 36-19 on the season and gets them back on the winning side of things. The loss for the Knicks is their eighth straight and moves them to 19-37 on the year.
Ray Allen continued his hot scoring trend by leading the team with 24 points on the evening. Ray shot 9-14 on the night and established himself as the go-to-guy with Paul Pierce out of the lineup; however, it was not only his defense that saved the day for the Celtics. With under a minute remaining in the game Wilson Chandler drove to the hoop in an attempt to make it a one point game. Too bad for him, Ray Allen was there and stuffed him like a Thanksgiving turkey.
Aside from Ray the rest of the Celtics starters also logged double digits in scoring. Rajon Rondo had a terrific game with 15 points and 16 assists, including a huge slam towards the end of the second quarter. Kevin Garnett totaled 16 points and 8 rebounds on the night, a solid night for the Big Ticket.
Well I guess that’s it, it wasn’t pretty but a win is a win. The Celtics are now 4-1 since the all star break and look to make that 5-1 Thursday when they welcome Lebron James and company to the Garden. The guys in green will have a day to practice and better bring their A game if they want to take down their Eastern Conference rival.
Video via ESPNBoston
Photos via Yahoo Sports/ Getty Images