RIVERS TELLS CELTICS - SOFT - AT HALF TIME

BOSTON GLOBE

NEW YORK — For obvious reasons, Doc Rivers did his best to hopscotch around the word. He knew he was dancing around the same grenade that blew up on Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle when he used the word to describe his Mavericks.

Carlisle called his team soft, and one of his best players, Jason Terry, took it as an insult to his manhood.

But what other way could Rivers describe how the first half had played out last night at Madison Square Garden?

The Knicks were throwing blows and leaving bruises. Troy Murphy had blood on his nose to prove it. Carmelo Anthony ripped a rebound down in the first quarter and threw sharp elbows to clear space for himself but in the process dropped Glen Davis after catching him flush in the face.

The Knicks smelled blood mostly because they drew it first.

“I haven’t used the word ‘soft’ with us maybe in four years,’’ Rivers said. “But at halftime, I used that word a lot.’’

The Celtics trailed, 51-37, at halftime, but one small word — and one strong challenge — fueled their 96-86 come-from-behind win.

“We’re all men here,’’ Garnett said. “Even some women, when you call them ‘soft’ and you’re in an aggressive mode, it ain’t what you want to hear at the time. You can’t take that a couple of ways. You take that one way. That’s how we took it.’’

The Celtics were last seen at MSG taking bows on the Knicks’ floor after Paul Pierce hit a last-second dagger in December. Their return had just as much drama, more stars, more action, more elbows, and more blood.

Lots more blood.

“I think everybody was on the floor,’’ Garnett said. “Just Boston-New York. Classic!’’

Ray Allen (15 points) took a Jared Jeffries elbow to the head in the third quarter and blood streamed around his skull. Sitting next to Spike Lee, Allen’s mother Flo had the look of a woman who wanted to know who Jeffries’s parents were. Allen needed seven stitches, before returning in the fourth quarter with a bandage above his right eye.

“It was a bloodbath,’’ Rivers said. “I thought that was beautiful.’’

But Anthony, who had swung his elbows all night — at one point trying to clear out Rajon Rondo and Garnett then asking, ‘You all right?’ — took the biggest blow in the game’s final minutes.

The Celtics had used air-tight second-half defense to snatch control of the game and the Knicks felt everything unhinging. With his team trailing, 88-86, and the Celtics inbounding the ball, Anthony went up for a 50/50 ball with Rondo.

They could have been a free safety and a wide receiver in the back of the end zone.

Anthony caught a stray elbow from Rondo and hit the deck. The Celtics had a five-on-four advantage and Rondo, ever the opportunist, bounced a pass down low to Davis for a layup that put the Celtics up 90-86.

Anthony, who later required five stitches, was still on his knees at half court. Rondo ran into him and fell over backpedaling to play defense. But by then, the Celtics were running away, scoring the last 10 points of the game. The Knicks went without a basket the final 3:28. The Celtics closed on a 23-4 run.

It was the kind of game that should have come with a Larry Merchant monologue afterward.

“Everybody was trying to win,’’ Garnett said. “They’re having issues, we’re having issues. New teams. You can point at what you want, but at the end of the day, everybody was just trying to win. That’s what it was. It felt like a playoff game.’’

The Knicks are 7-9 since dealing for Anthony, who scored 22 points. But the Celtics know there’s a strong chance they could meet in the postseason.

“It would be even more intense, if you could imagine that,’’ Rondo said. “Tonight felt like it was about as intense as it could get. The crowd was into it, a lot of blood. It was a great game tonight. That’s what you get in a playoff series.’’

Garnett went for 24 points and 11 rebounds. The big stage helped Pierce snap out of his slump. He scored 13 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter to go with his six rebounds. Rondo put up a 13-point, 12-assist effort.

“Something about this team, we have an extra gear,’’ Pierce said. “We know when we have to turn it up. Sometimes maybe going to the ground, that’s what it takes. I’d rather us start the beginning of the game like we’ve been thrown to the ground, but hey, this is a veteran team that knows how to push a button and get a win.’’

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BOSTON HERALD

NEW YORK — Doc Rivers thought he had waltzed around using the “S” word during a very damning halftime talk.

But no translation was needed for the subdued players sitting in front of him. After watching Ray Allen fall head-first into the floor and come up bleeding with a seven-stitch cut to his right eyebrow in the second quarter, which only added irritation to their second 15-point deficit in two games, the Celtics [team stats] were ready for a little second-half anger.

So it didn’t take much to get the message.


“Doc told us we were soft,” Kevin Garnett said. “He thought our play was soft, and that everything we were doing was soft. We weren’t the C’s. But we got fine. We had four assists at halftime. That was like a green squirrel. That was like, what’s going on?”

All that was needed by the end of last night’s 96-86 win against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden was a pair of cut men — one for each corner.

Carmelo Anthony ultimately matched Allen by taking a five-stitch gash over his left eye following a fourth-quarter collision with Rajon Rondo [stats]. Unlike Allen, whose bandage leaked blood throughout the second half, Anthony didn’t return.

The Knicks star finished with 22 points, but only scored five and didn’t make a basket in the second half.

That, in reverse, tells the story for the Celts. They got back up and again played a second half diametrically opposed to how they performed in the first 24 minutes. The visitors polished off New York with a 23-4 run spanning the last 7:14.

“Maybe that’s what it took. I don’t know,” Rivers said of the rough game that followed the halftime chat. “They were a little disappointed at halftime, and disappointed in what I had to say. I just told them I’d like to see the Celtics play again in this game. But with this group you don’t have to tell them that. They knew that’s not the way we play. That doesn’t mean that when we play we’re gonna win. But we know who we are.”

By the time Paul Pierce [stats] hit a 20-footer in front of the Knicks bench with 55 seconds left, with the captain turning to glance at the New Yorkers before breaking into some long strides back down the court, perhaps the C’s had found themselves again.

“We realized we didn’t play like the Boston Celtics,” Pierce said. “We didn’t move the ball. We had four assists. That’s not characteristic of a team like us, that moves the ball and makes the extra pass. Just try to do a better job in the second half.”

But first they had to sink a little bit. Chauncey Billups, fouled by Rondo while making a 3-pointer with 7:26 left, converted a four-point play for an 82-73 lead.

What followed were a series of game-changing plays at both ends, including Allen’s fast-break drive for the C’s first lead since the first quarter, 84-82, and then Rondo’s slash to take the advantage back for good at 88-86 with 3:08 left.

In between, all sorts of hustle plays made the difference. From the other side of the floor, Rondo chased down an Allen miss, ran around Amare Stoudemire and knocked the ball out of bounds off the Knicks big man. Garnett poked the ball away from Stoudemire, dived to tie up for a jump ball, won the tip, and then buried a 20-footer. Rondo dived for another steal with roughly a minute left.

Late in the third, Delonte West disrupted a play, stole the ball and was grabbed by the Knicks’ Toney Douglas for a clear-path foul.

It was a second half filled with these moments. “We just played our defense, and we didn’t do that in the first half,” Rivers said. “In the second half we played like the Celtics [team stats]. We defended, and we shared the ball. It was a good win, because we were struggling again, and to pull it out against that team was nice.”


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