Chill in air for Davis, LaFrentz
The R & R boys went, well, on R & R. Or so it seemed.
After combining for 34 points in the Celtics' Game 1 rout of the Pacers, Ricky Davis and Raef LaFrentz came up well shy of that in the Game 2 giveaway last night, an 82-79 setback that squared this conference quarterfinal at 1-1.
LaFrentz, who torched the Pacers with a team-high 21 in Game 1, including five 3-pointers, had, um, no baskets in 26 largely inconsequential minutes. Davis, who was ultra-pumped in Game 1 and had 13 points, made, um, one basket, a tough, twisting, hesitation layup with 8:22 remaining. He missed his other seven shots and finished with 6 points in 36 minutes.
The two combined for 9 points.
"I just couldn't find my rhythm," said Davis, whose 6 points nonetheless topped the meager contribution from the Boston bench (14 points following 40 in Game 1). Al Jefferson played 9 minutes, all in the first half. Marcus Banks, a dynamo in Game 1, also went just 9 minutes and had 2 points and no assists.
And Davis? In Game 1, he nailed his first shot eight seconds after going into the game and hit his second a minute or so later. Last night, he was 0 for 2 in 17 first-half minutes and was 0 for 4 through three quarters. He did show inspiring moments on defense, with consecutive blocks on Stephen Jackson on the possession following his one and only basket.
But after his hoop, he missed his final three shots, as the Celtics went 4 of 16 in the fourth quarter.
"I didn't get a chance to get myself going," said Davis. "I take it upon myself to get it going. I'll get it going. I'm definitely not going to forget it. I'll be back."
The Pacers figure Davis to play a lot, shoot a lot, and score a lot. They swarmed him on defense whenever they could, forcing him to give up the ball perhaps more than he would have liked. As for LaFrentz, the Indiana game plan was a lot different in Game 2. In Game 1, it was more like, "Who was that guy?" He was 8 of 9 from the field and 5 of 5 from international waters. Last night, LaFrentz had a shadow, and it showed.
He attempted only one 3-pointer, and clanged that one. He simply was not involved in the offense. That was no accident.
"We really didn't do anything all that different," offered Indiana assistant coach Mike Brown. "We just paid more attention to him out there. Last game, we kind of forgot he was out there and he burned us bad. He's such a capable shooter, both in transition and in the half-court, that we're going to have to continue to pay attention to him."
Agreed Jermaine O'Neal, "Stay with him. Me and Dale [Davis] like to protect the inside and rebound and try to block shots, and we lost our discipline a little bit in Game 1. He hit those threes and they really hurt us. We didn't want him to do that again, so we always tried to keep a guy on him. And if he had a shot, we wanted to make sure it was a contested shot."
LaFrentz didn't take many shots, contested or otherwise. He put up only four all game. He knew going in that he wasn't going to get the wide-open looks he got in Game 1. He knew the Pacers would adjust.
"They really gave me no looks," he said. "They knew where I was at, especially early on in the game. They kept a guy close to me all night.
"My job is to space the floor, but the opportunities were few and far between. They made the adjustments. That's what the playoffs are all about. You expect them to do that. Now, it's up to us to counter that."
