The Celtics’ first few plays – all designed for Paul Pierce -- were scripted.
His Tebowing moment, well, that was not.
Pierce scored the Celtics’ first nine points en route to a game-high 36 points in an 87-80 victory over the Hawks Tuesday night at Philips Arena. He also scored nine of their final 13 points to even the Eastern Conference playoff series a game apiece, sending it to Boston for Games 3 and 4.
“He was a monster,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said simply.
The load was heavy for Pierce as the Celtics were without all-star point guard Rajon Rondo, suspended for Game 2 of the series after bumping a referee. He also grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds, 13 on the defensive glass, and had four assists. During a timeout late in the game, with the Celtics holding a comfortable lead, Pierce stopped at midcourt and got down on one knee. A Tim Tebow gesture right on the Hawks logo.
“It just came to me,” Pierce said.
Despite Pierce’s early success – including scoring a layup off the opening tip six seconds into the game – it was his late play that won the game for the Celtics. The Hawks built an 11-point lead in the third quarter, 65-54. Over the next 12:18, Pierce outscored the Hawks by himself, 16-10, as the Celtics turned the deficit into six-point lead late in the fourth quarter, 81-75.
His two free throws started the Celtics’ 27-10 run. His jumper broke a 70-70 tie and gave Boston the lead for good. His 3-pointer with 3:30 remaining pushed the lead to seven points, 79-72, and iced the victory.
“I felt like I had to do everything,” Pierce said. “Rondo being out, a lot of responsibility falls on me -- playing-making, scoring, rebounding.”
Pierce played 44 of the game’s 48 minutes, including the entire second half. Rivers used timeouts to give the veteran rest as the game hung in the balance until late in the fourth quarter.
“It ranks right up there when you factor no Ray [Allen], no Rondo,” Rivers said when asked to rank the performance. “Literally the only way we were going to win the game, that was the only way we were going to win the game, is if Paul played like that. He knew that. So did [the Hawks], yet he still did it. It just shows you how special he is.”
Without Rondo, Rivers and his staff designed a set of plays to start the game not unlike what is done in football. The intent was to help Avery Bradley, who moved from shooting guard to run the point in Rondo’s absence.
“We knew Paul had to get going early,” Rivers said. “You could see our first plays that we called were Paul Pierce left, right, center. Obviously, it’s a make-miss league and the ball had to go in. After that I didn’t know if we were going to win or lose but I just thought we had a shot once we got off to a good start.”
Rivers said his one coaching mistake was to not go back to the script the rest of the game, considering its early success.
Hawks coach Larry Drew said he was not surprised by Pierce’s effort, especially after being held to just 12 points in the Game 1 loss. He warned his team that even without Rondo the Celtics had plenty of weapons.
On this night, it was Paul Pierce that did much of the damage. While he scored 36 points, the rest of the Celtics starters combined for 37.
“We expected him to come out and really be aggressive, particularly offensively,” Drew said. “He got going early. Off the tip he got the ball and drove it to the basket. You could see very early that he was going to be aggressive.”
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