Celtics Make It Even With Balanced Attack

The Boston Celtics showed there’s more to their team than Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker.

Pierce led five Celtics in double figures with 22 points in an 85-77 victory over Detroit on Wednesday night that evened the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series at 1-1 and was their first road win of the playoffs.

“We’re tough to guard,” said Eric Williams, who scored 18 points on six-of-nine shooting. “We can put five guys out there who can shoot the three, and if they try to take that away from us, we can attack the inside. We play from the inside out, and that’s how teams win championships.

“When you’ve got two All-Stars, like Antoine Walker and Paul Pierce, you can do lot of different things.”

Game 3 is Friday night at Boston.

Walker scored 15 points for the Celtics, Rodney Rogers had 13 and Kenny Anderson 11.

“I would definitely hate to play us because we provide so many problems defensively,” Pierce said.

The Pistons had a hard time matching up with several Celtics--outside, inside and off the dribble.

“When you combine their three-point ability with their post ability and their one-on-one ability, it’s a hard team to play,” Detroit Coach Rick Carlisle said.

Boston Coach Jim O’Brien believes that’s especially true because Pierce and Walker are focused on the right things.

“I don’t think either guy cares as much about scoring as they do about winning,” O’Brien said.

Jerry Stackhouse led Detroit with 25 points.

Boston held Detroit to 32.9% shooting, its worst performance of the season, and outrebounded the Pistons, 53-35.

“They outworked us and outplayed us,” Carlisle said.

Cliff Robinson was held to two points in the first half, after scoring 30 in Game 1, but he helped the Pistons get back into the game briefly in the third quarter.

He scored five consecutive points to cap a 16-4 run which cut Detroit’s deficit to 56-54 with 4:10 left in the quarter. Robinson finished with 13 points.

Boston regained control of the game by outscoring the Pistons, 16-7, to take a 72-61 lead early in the final quarter on a three-pointer by Walker--his first points since late in the first quarter.

The Celtics’ cushion was never threatened.

After the game, tempers flared as Robinson and Walker engaged in face-to-face trash-talking and had to be separated.

“Antoine was just running his mouth like he likes to do,” Robinson said. “He’s a front-runner, so he was talking tonight. That’s the kind of guy he has always been.”

Walker refused to discuss the situation.

Pierce said: “It gets frustrating when you lose on your home court.”

Fifteen of Boston’s 20 field goals in the first half were layups or dunks.

Meanwhile, Detroit set a team playoff record with 29 three-point shots and tied a Piston mark by making 12.