Big Night from Bench Just What Doc Ordered

Couper Moorhead
November 20, 2008
Celtics.com

"Our job is to maintain or increase a lead."

It's a simple, rudimentary basketball task, but it's one that wins games, and one that the Boston Celtics' bench has been executing to perfection against the Detroit Pistons.

The speaker was Celtics supersub Leon Powe, the day after the first meeting between the Pistons and Celtics, a little over a week ago. That game, the Boston subs put up 56 points, led by 23 from Tony Allen. With the team coming off a recent eight-games in 12 days stretch and a game in Minnesota looming the tomorrow night, Doc Rivers knew he needed his bench again, and his words on Wednesday were prophetic.

"The bench is the key to this stretch," Rivers said after Wednesday's practice. "The more they can play and the better they can play, the more the starters can rest and be fresh down the stretch. You've just got to trust your bench and even if things aren't going well, you've still got to leave them out there an extra minute or two."

Tonight, in the Celtics' 98-80 victory over the Pistons, Rivers trusted them enough to leave them -- them meaning no starters -- in for all of the fourth quarter, and they were just as lethal, and even more efficient.

With the score tied 21-21 after the first quarter, the bench -- highlighted by back-to-back Eddie House (11 points) threes following his first missed free throw of the season -- scored 17 points and made headway for a nine-point halftime lead. Not only did they not commit a single turnover in that quarter, but they outscored the Pistons' reserves by 11.

By the time the first starter, Ray Allen, returned to the game in the second quarter, the lead was six. By the time the last starter came in the game, the lead was 10.

"Doc told us before the game, our bench had to be better than their bench," Tony Allen said. "We took that as a challenge."

Allen didn't quite repeat his offensive output from the previous meeting with Detroit. He had 13 points, six boards, three steals tonight. But with a 20-point lead at the end of the third, when Rivers decided to go all reserves for the next stanza, Allen and Powe (seven points, seven boards) were the steady hands who kept the starters on the bench until it was time to walk to the lockeroom.

"With Doc, the sense is that if a certain unit is out there playing well, then he tends to not really mess with it," House said. "He rides it till the wheels fall off."

Rivers did just that, only the wheels never wobbled. With Pistons starters playing over four minutes in the quarter, the bench only gave up two points of the lead over the entire quarter, dominating the boards to the tune of a 16-10 advantage.

Eventually, there was some slippage. In the final minutes of the fourth, a handful of Boston turnovers led to a series of healthy-reminder dunks from the end of the Piston's rotation. But by that point, they were mere reminders of athleticism, and of the lead the bench built, and held.