Post by FLCeltsFan on Mar 25, 2009 6:33:45 GMT -5
www.bostonherald.com/sports/basketball/celtics/view.bg?articleid=1160913&format=text
Made 3 boosts Stephon Marbury
Big shot for Celts
By Mark Murphy | Wednesday, March 25, 2009 | www.bostonherald.com | Boston Celtics
Photo by Stuart Cahill
Doc Rivers envisions a day, probably in the playoffs, when Stephon Marbury empties the slot machine - when all of the misses the Celtics [team stats] guard has hoisted finally will find net.
“There are going to be a lot of big shots for him,” the Celtics coach said following Monday’s win against the Los Angeles Clippers - a game in which Marbury nearly jumped out of his sneakers after hitting a big fourth-quarter 3-pointer. “He’ll get it. He’s going to win a big game in the playoffs for us - you just know that.”
Marbury’s response was to project himself into that game-breaking role perhaps a little too ambitiously.
“I know I’m capable of having games where I can score 30 or 40 points,” he said. “It’s just tough to get a lot of time on a team like this. But it will be a different rotation in the playoffs, and I’m just continuing to build on what I’m learning.”
No one, of course, is asking Marbury to score that much - only to hit the open shots that come his way. A playoff rotation, with Rajon Rondo [stats]’s performance dictating how much his backup plays, won’t allow for that kind of volume anyway.
But Marbury’s response shows how much he is striving to produce more.
Rivers has said shots are the last elements to click in for a player who has been away from the game for as long as Marbury was inactive.
“Well, I’m shooting, so I know it’s going to come,” Marbury said with an anxious look. “But right now playing defense and doing all the other things are most important.”
His fist-pumping reaction following Monday’s 3-pointer, however, shows just how hopeful Marbury has become for an improvement in the 28.8 (17-for-59) shooting percentage he carries into tonight’s game in Orlando.
That trey may have been a high point in what has otherwise been a slow acclimation to the Celtics system, but this has been far from what once-and-again teammate Kevin Garnett has called “the Coney Island” part of Marbury’s game.
“I was just happy because we needed that shot,” Marbury said. “The only thing for me is that I need to play. This is still new for me. But I’m getting it, because I’m learning the offense, and I have a better understanding of what I need to do. This is just a beginning.”
The greater picture is only now starting to take form, with Garnett three games into his return from a 13-game absence.
Curiously enough, these one-time Timberwolves have yet to be on the floor together as C’s.
“Yeah, that hasn’t happened yet,” Marbury said. “Eventually I believe that will happen when I get to play some time with the first unit.
“It’s totally different when (Garnett is) on the floor. He changes the whole complexion of a game. He’s a high energy player. He sets the tone. He gets the job done. I’ve known him for a long time, and I know his demeanor.”
But until that night comes when Marbury gets to share the floor with Garnett - even more, when his shot starts to fall - he only hopes the Garden crowd continues to understand he’s on the way back to form.
“They’ve been great because they understand that I haven’t played,” Marbury said. “I actually hear people in the crowd saying, ‘Don’t worry, it’s gonna come, it’s gonna come,’ and I’m thinking, ‘Man, I should have made that shot.’
“It’s not as if I was a younger player - then I would have fallen into the dumps. This is a mental game, too, and I think my focus is there.”
The Celtics come into tonight a game ahead of the Magic for second place in the Eastern Conference standings, so there is plenty riding on the outcome. A win would give the Celtics a 3-1 edge in the season series.
“We’ve been talking about Cleveland and Orlando all year,” Ray Allen said. “They beat us on our floor the last time, so this is a big game for us.”
