Celtics crush Nuggets behind Ray Allen

So far, life without Kevin Garnett has been much easier than the Boston Celtics could have ever expected.  With their superstar forward out of action for two or three weeks, the Celtics have not only maintained form but flat out dominated.  On Monday night, Boston routed Denver 114-76 to improve to 5-0 this season without Garnett in the lineup.  It was Denver’s second worst home loss since joining the NBA in 1976.

This time, Ray Allen was the catalyst behind Boston’s 38 point drubbing on the Nuggets—Allen led all scorers with 26 points and pulled down six rebounds.  The Celtics shot out to a 29-20 lead after the first quarter and never looked back, essentially putting the game out of reach by halftime when they head to the locker room leading 60-37.  Instead of ‘coasting home’ they continued to build their lead in the second half, resulting in the embarrassing final margin of victory.

Paul Pierce added 22 points for the defending NBA champs, with Rajon Rondo contributing 14 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists.  Leon Powe added 16 points off the bench for the Celtics.  The Nuggets were paced by Carmello Anthony’s 18 points, with reserves J.R. Smith (19 points) and Linas Kleiza (10 points) the only other Denver players in double digits.

Nuggets coach George Karl didn’t have much to say after the contest, noting only:

"I think it was a championship team [that] wanted to kick somebody's butt.”

Ray Allen suggested in his post game comments that there was a ‘revenge motive’ from an earlier home loss to the Nuggets:

"We've been pretty sour about that all year. We felt as though we should've won that game, they stole it from us. We remembered it. ... It's tough to really try to make a connection because from then to now, both teams are playing totally different basketball. We were focused on what we needed to do because we're a different team now with Kevin out."

Celtics coach Doc Rivers maintained that it all begins with stout defense:

"We just wanted to play great defense, and that's what we did. We felt they were far more physical than us when they played us at Boston. Our point of emphasis was to come out and battle tonight. This was going to be a nasty, battle game and we were going to have to be ready for it."