Post by FLCeltsFan on Apr 25, 2009 8:28:23 GMT -5
www.bostonherald.com/sports/basketball/celtics/view.bg?articleid=1167934&format=text
Stephon Marbury right on point
Reserve’s minutes, confidence grow
By Mark Murphy | Saturday, April 25, 2009 | www.bostonherald.com | Boston Celtics
Photo by Matt Stone
CHICAGO - Brian Scalabrine thought he was safe.
The Celtics [team stats] forward, playing for the first time in almost two months after recovering from post-concussion syndrome, had made it through Thursday night’s Game 3 without any blows to the head.
Then he sat down next to Stephon Marbury, who was basking in a special night of his own, a 13-point, five-assist performance that ranked as one of his best with the Celts.
Marbury got a little too excited, and as a result, Scalabrine received his first true concussion stress test.
“Man, Steph on the bench,” Scalabrine said. “He was jacked up and bouncing around. It was a good elbow. It felt good. I wasn’t even expecting it and boom. But I’m good to go.”
Apparently, so is Marbury.
His entire time as a Celtic has been rejuvenating. Marbury’s old game - the one Kevin Garnett calls the Coney Island flair in the point guard’s attack -hasn’t been there.
But it’s coming, he said, as Thursday’s performance suggested.
Marbury led the bench with 24 minutes and channeled that increased time into an attack on the basket.
He took Bulls rookie Derrick Rose to the hoop for his first points of the night late in the opening quarter and uncorked a 28-foot 3-pointer late in the second that triggered a 9-0 run.
Marbury found it much easier to take shots from that point forward.
“I was definitely more aggressive,” he said.
“I watched film the last two days and I wasn’t being aggressive.
“My wife told me, ‘You look like you’re being scared out there.’ I was like, I know I’m not scared, but at the same time I was out there overthinking. I wasn’t playing the way I know how to play, so I just wanted to be aggressive. It helped me to be more effective tonight.”
It also should continue to boost his playing time.
Marbury hasn’t been shy when talking about the influence of minutes on his production, and now he appears to be collecting the reward.
“I’m just happy for Steph,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. “You know the history, but you could see guys pulling for him all game. He plays a team game and he hasn’t had an opportunity in this playoff to play much or play well. I was just really happy for him.”
Not as happy as Marbury, though.
“My role is growing,” he said. “Getting into the game in the first quarter, that’s big business.
“It’s a lot different from getting in in the second quarter with nine, 10 minutes to go. Getting into the game a lot earlier, it allows me to loosen up and get going a lot quicker. It definitely helps.”
But there’s a difficult requirement. Marbury, never known as a defender, now must earn his keep tracking players like Rose and Ben Gordon, who torched the Celtics in Games 1 and 2, respectively.
“The emphasis on defense is definitely by far the biggest thing here,” Marbury said. “It’s always defense. We have so many guys who can score, so we don’t really concentrate on that. It’s always about defense here.”
As evidenced by the 2-1 lead the C’s will carry into Game 4 tomorrow, defense can take care of a lot, including a player’s growth within the series.
“I think he’s doing a great job,” Kendrick Perkins [stats] said of Marbury. “He’s playing with a lot of confidence now. He’s a playmaker, and I know it takes a while to get into the flow, but he’s doing it. He’s been (in the playoffs) before, so we know what he’s capable of doing. We just have to continue to bring him and Mikki (Moore) along.”
