Warriors @ Celtics
This was a relatively long game, so I’m going second half forward. We started in the second half with a slim lead of 5, and Mickael Pietrus off of the bench reeking havoc. He had 18 in the first half, and was a big reason of why we were ahead. I kept him on the bench for the most part, but he still got his minutes when Dunleavy wasn’t doing what he should have been. He played excellent defense on Paul Pierce, and Pierce still was able to score a few heavily contested baskets. With Pietrus on the bench and 9 points from Richardson heading into the third, Richardson stepped up and brought hell to Boston doing the brunt of the scoring in the third. Boston then outscored us by 10 in the third quarter, taking a 5 point lead headed into the 4th.
Jason Richardson proceeded to play harder then. Boston went with a small lineup a couple times, with Ricky Davis in foul trouble, so J-Rich was matched up on Gary Payton, or another guard and made the most of it. We captured the lead back with about 20 seconds to go, but the Celtics forced a TO and GP spotted up for a game tying 3. We went into OT, with Pietrus playing most of the 4th and OT, showing how much he wants to start. We jumped out to a seven point lead at one point, but Boston battled back. Antoine Walker fouled out at the end of the period, but we couldn’t hit out FT’s. J-Rich went 0-5 in the second half from the stripe, which if he had made them, he would have got a new career high. So here we are, game tied with 20 seconds to go, looking to get a good look at another potential game winner. I had called and isolation with J-Rich, and that brought the double team. I swung the ball and hit Baron Davis with a good look at a 3. Unfortunately, he missed it, sending us into a second OT.
Paul Pierce started playing for real, and J-Rich didn’t slow down. Davis ran the break with perfection dropping off a few sweet dimes and putting home a couple dunks. Then the inevitable 3 point barrage from Boston kicked in, and they took a 1 point lead with 14 seconds to go. So what do we do now? Insert Derek Fisher, who is no stranger to late game heroics. With 4.9 seconds to go, he pro hopped into the lane and went up with a finger roll, hoping to draw a foul, but all he got was the contact, but still managed to put the ball in the bucket, giving us a 1 point lead. Boston was out of TO’s and was forced to hurl a full court prayer, which God said, Hell No! J-Rich hit 40 again for the second game in a row. He had 14 points total in the OT periods and both him and Davis played 50+ minutes in the game.
[BSPN Media]
|Fisher hits the gamewinnerwith under 5 seconds to go|
|Davis drops one off for J-Rich|
|Ricky Davis with the acrobatic layup|