‘Ticket Stub’ provides critical boost for Celtics
April 22nd, 2010 Posted in NBA basketball newsThe season began for the Celtics with a police report detailing how a shirtless, bloodied Glen Davis wound up fracturing his thumb during a fight over a girl in a moving SUV. The comic formerly known as “Big Baby” apologized, had surgery, got fined, and missed nearly the first two months of the season.
This was two nights before Bostons season opener against the Cavaliers, depending on whether you consider 4 a.m. to be day or night. About an hour before tipoff in Cleveland on Oct. 27, Doc Rivers said, “We were hoping that it was going to be a bad lesson, but not a lesson that was going to hurt our team as well. It turned out to be both.”
The Celtics needed Davis Tuesday night, and Rivers called on him to replace the suspended Kevin Garnett in the starting lineup in a critical Game 2 of the Celtics first-round series against the Heat. True to form, Davis road to redemption was not without an ill-timed detour.
As Guns N Roses blared and the TD Garden crowd got into its usual pre-playoff game froth, Davis was running frantically up and down the hallway between the locker room and media work room. Player introductions were moments away.
Davis knocked on a door, pulled the knob. Locked. Somebody was in the mens room.
Thats Big Baby for you. Always an adventure.
“I just know that the Big Ticket was out tonight, and the Ticket Stub had to fly in,” said Davis, who filled in for Garnett with 23 points, eight rebounds, and quick-footed defense as the Celtics beat the Heat 106-77 to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 series. “He flew in early this morning, got in and said he was ready to play. Thats all I know.”
Thanks to Davis, Ray Allen (25 points and 7 for 9 from 3-point range), and an abysmal offensive showing by Miami, the Celtics survived K.G.s one-game suspension for elbowing Quentin Richardson in the chin. With the captain of Bostons defense watching on TV at Danny Ainges home, it was the Heat who were left reeling.
“Oh, he probably hit his head on the ceiling a couple of times,” said Paul Pierce, imagining what it must have been like in the Ainge residence Tuesday night. “But probably in the second half, late in the third quarter, he was able to relax.” With the Big Tick and the ones he didnt finish there, he finished at the free-throw line, where he was 9 for 11. Rivers hunch to start Davis over the less mobile Rasheed Wallace proved prescient, as Davis quicker perhaps even better than the gimpy Garnett could have.
“[Dwyane] Wade alone was involved in 36 pick-and-rolls in the first game,” Rivers said before the game. “We assume hell be involved in 36 more, at least, and I just thought we needed a quicker big.”
Which led the postgame news conference in the inevitable direction of asking Davis if he felt the indisputable results Tuesday night had moved him up the pecking order in Rivers rotation. Miami scored 10 points in the second quarter and, more stunningly, 10 points from the 10:10 mark of the second quarter to the 5:24 mark of the third. Wade had no path to the basket, and no capable teammates to bail him out.
Davis: Im just worried about playing and getting wins. Thats all that matters to me. (Getty Images) Seated next to Davis on the postgame interview stage, Pierce smiled and shook his head. But it was a legitimate question: With Garnett still a shell of his former self after last seasons knee injury, is his value in this series limited to things he can basically do by himself in his living room?
“Glen Davis is here, Big Baby, and Im just here playing,” Davis said. “Im not worried about following on and the next game. Im just worried about playing and getting wins. Thats all that matters to me.”
Davis averaged 15.8 points and 5.6 rebounds while starting for Garnett in 14 playoff games last spring. But Rivers said he looked at the decision to start Davis Tuesday night as “one single game, one single matchup and what helps us best this game. I didnt look at anything else.” Now, he has to look at Game 3 and be ready to evaluate whether the emotional lift Garnett will provide in his return will be overshadowed by his lack of mobility. The Celtics cant count on Miami getting 29 points from Wade especially not on the Heats home floor.
“When I stepped out there and saw our lineup, I was like, This is the lineup we had going into the playoffs last year when we pushed Orlando to seven games, with Glen out there,” Pierce said. “We all know what hes capable of. Did I know he was going to come out here and have this big 23-point game? No, but I knew he was capable of doing what coach asked him to do, and with him out there, the chemistry was fine. … We were like, This is a game were supposed to win with or without Kevin.”
Six months ago, Davis had let the team down and earned himself a good dressing down from owner Wyc Grousbeck, who said in a TV interview after the late-night scuffle, “Im not going to call him Big Baby anymore. Hes Glen. He needs to act like Glen.”
Whoever he was impersonating Tuesday night, it was a pretty good nights work. After their podium appearance was over, Pierce and Dav the same one Davis had been scurrying through a few hours earlier, looking for the nearest available toilet. Davis downed nearly an entire bottle of Gatorade from one end of the hallway to the other, barely taking a breath.
All in all, it made you wonder if this Ticket Stub would be good for admission to another game.
