Published 00:19, May the 29th, 2008
C’s edge Detroit
Take 3-2 series lead with 106-102 win
Celtics 106, Pistons 102
NBA. The Celtics have already shown they’re not going to make things easy on themselves in their drive for a 17th championship. But they’ve been flawless in this postseason’s most important games.
The C’s held off a furious Detroit rally last night to beat the Pistons, 106-102, in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals at the Garden. In the process, they improved to 9-0 in the playoffs when a series has been tied.
They’ll take a 3-2 series lead into Game 6 tomorrow night in Detroit.
Kevin Garnett scored 33 points and Ray Allen broke through for 29 while hitting his first five 3-pointers. Kendrick Perkins added career playoff highs of 18 points and 16 rebounds.
Perkins carried the Celtics early, scoring eight points and grabbing eight rebounds in the first quarter. The C’s didn’t hit a field goal in the final 2:15 of the quarter, though, and the Pistons rallied to tie the score, 23-23.
That momentum continued early in the second, when the Pistons ripped off a 10-0 run (which closed a 17-4 Detroit swing) to build a 33-25 lead. The Celtics were brutal over that stretch, failing to score for 2:42 while turning the ball over four times and taking just one shot.
The C’s answered with a quick 6-1 spurt, punctuated by a Garnett dunk over Theo Ratliff that nearly dislodged the rim. Garnett came up big late in the quarter as well, hitting a fade-away 3-pointer — his first since April 7, 2007, a span of 92 games — during the Celtics’ 16-4 run that gave them a 52-46 lead at the break.
Allen and the C’s broke loose in the third quarter, jumping out on a 21-10 run and led by as many as 17 points.
Allen scored 16 with the help of three 3-pointers in the third, and the Celtics took an 84-71 lead into the fourth.
The Pistons cut the C’s 15-point, fourth-quarter lead to 100-99 when Rodney Stuckey hit a 3 from the corner, but couldn’t get over the hump.
