All it took was a few rumors that Allen Iverson was coming to Boston in a trade and suddenly the Celtics are playing like their pants are on fire. A four game winning streak is not exactly reason to start ordering championship banners, however it is enough for the faithful to generate some enthusiasm.
In an unusual scheduling quirk, the Celtics had a three game road trip that took them through New Jersey, New York and Philadelphia which resulted in two tight wins and a blow out of Philadelphia. The two notable occurrences was the break outs of both Tony Allen and Al Jefferson.
Over the past two season the two of them have been under achievers primarily because of injuries. Allen with knee problems and Jefferson with cranky ankles and then this year an appendectomy at the beginning of the season.
Big Al is now coming into his own. He has shown a tremendous amount of growth in all phases of his game. He has been staying away from foolish fouls, rebounding aggressively and his offense has been a combination of brute force and delicate finesse in the paint. His break out game came at the beginning of the streak against New Jersey with 29 points and 14 rebounds in 38 minutes and continued last night with 28 points and 10 boards. Jefferson is averaging over 30 minutes a night primarily because of the injuries to the other Celtic big men. Injuries are part of the game and Jefferson wouldn't be the first young player to grab hold of opportunity.
Tony Allen has been another story entirely. Allen has tantalizing physical skills and has both an idea on how to play defense as well as a willingness to run the floor. He has been an after thought for most of the year until Wally Scerbiak got hurt. Since assuming the starting position, Allen has been a Tasmanian devil on the court culminating in last nights career effort. In the full 48 minute performance Allen submitting a complete stat line with 30 points on 11 for 13 shooting from the floor, 3 steals, 8 rebounds a block and three assists, all while doing a serviceable defensive job on Carmelo Anthony. It sounds preposterous but Allen held Anthony to 42 points.
Fortunately for all of us this comes at just the right time to perhaps change managements thinking about considering the acquisition of Allen Iverson. Yes Iverson is a unique talent who scores at will and can put bodies in the seats. But just as sure as he can torch you for 30 it is just as true that he is a coach killing cancer that would be a terrible influence on a young team. The features and benefits of Iverson along with his 60 million dollars remaining on his contract make it a disaster in the making if the Celtics acquire him.
It will be interesting to see how the rest of league gauges the worth of Iverson. So far there have been a lot of quotes from players about how they would love to play with him but so far there hasn't been much in the press in terms of a substantive offer to Philadelphia for his services. This may be a case where everyone will say the right things while they hope somebody else does the stupid thing.
In any event I am back on the Celtic band wagon. They have been a disappointment for the last 20 years but I can be patient. After all, I waited over 50 years for the Red Sox and they came through.
