The reasons why Celtics won Game 2

[LeoMoreno]

I have one reason:  Doc

A lot is being made of Pierce's play last night, and his here-he-goes-again clutch 4th quarter performance.  He deserves praise for that.  But Pierce was AWFUL in the 3rd quarter.  Truly terrible, and that was one of the reasons we got down 11 in the first place (the guy nearly had 3 straight TOs to start the half.)

I thought the play of the game, or the move of the game, went to Doc, who thoroughly schooled Larry Drew.  His benching of Bass and playing of Quise was as shrewd of a move as it gets.  Bass has sucked in this series so far.  He's hit a couple open jumpers, that's it, and without Rondo on the floor his offensive game is worthless.  His strength is also negated by the Atlanta bigs who suck but are not pushovers physically.  Bass couldn't get anything easy in the post.  Since he is not an amazing defender or rebounder, without the O he becomes expendable.

The lineup of Bradley, Pietrus, Quise, Pierce, and KG won us the game.  I think Pierce was technically playing the 4 here.  Drew had no answer.  Doc called him out with this lineup.  There was plenty of time for Atlanta to figure out how to attack this group but they could not get it done.  They could not.  Their coach simply had nothing.

Now Doc could put Quise on the floor in lieu of Bass because we have Pierce (and KG) in the 4th quarter.  Doc basically said:  we are finishing and winning this game with defense, so Paul you have to win it on offense for us.  And of course he did, as he has so many times.
 
Really just a great move by Doc, on a day he doesn't finish in the top 4 for Coach of the Year.

Yeah after year Doc has less than 10 players to work with through out the whole season. Year after year the Celtics are called old, bad, and out of any Championship considerations. Come playoffs, year after year that switches to Celtics being the biggest obstacle that nobody wants to encounter.

Doc is a coaching genius. And I was thinking the same, all the praise goes to Pierce for scoring 36. He missed SO MANY of HIS OWN shots, elbow stepbacks that he isn't supposed to miss. EIGHT turnovers! People flame Rondo for 4 turnovers and wanna trade him on 5. Pierce had 8! And nobody talks about KG's free throws or Bradley keeping us in the game when Pierce was doing nothing. Doc won this game by putting Pierce in a position where he can't unscore 30+.