The Celtics reached a new low on Thursday night at the TD Garden. They entered the evening's contest with the Atlanta Hawks with only 10 players healthy and available for work — by halftime, they were down to nine, as Von Wafer left the game with a sore back. They were tired, demoralized and severely shorthanded — and yet, they won anyway.
With a horde of injured teammates watching from the bench, the nine relatively healthy Celtics remaining powered through for a solid win over the visiting Hawks, 102-90, for the C's 12th consecutive victory. They fell behind early, fought back midway through, and shined late for an unlikely double-digit win.
"It was a gutsy win," Paul Pierce said. "It was a good win, given the circumstances — having guys out, a back-to-back. A lot of teams, even good teams, would make excuses to lay down, but we're not that type of team."
The Celtics trailed for most of the first half, as youngsters Jeff Teague and Damien Wilkins staked the Hawks to an early lead. A Wilkins jumper with 8:18 left in the second quarter gave the Hawks a 35-28 lead, forcing a timeout from an exasperated Doc Rivers.
The C's could have easily packed up and gone home then. They were without Rajon Rondo, without Shaquille O'Neal, and without a sizable chunk of their bench. They were also without rhythm or focus, for the most part.
But then something clicked.
"We just started grinding," Kevin Garnett said. "There's nothing else to say. We said before the game that it'd be more mental than anything. I think everybody that's playing is giving everything they have. In order for us to win these games, we're just going to have to grind it out until we get our guys back. We just got the news about Rondo, and Shaq wasn’t available today. So what’re you going to do?
"You can quit, put your clothes on and go home, but that's not the way we do things around here. We work."
The Celtics have been dealing with injuries all season. One guy goes down here, another there. But the sheer accumulation of health issues was really starting to get to them. With multiple starters missing in action for the first time, it was a whole new ballgame.
They'd played with Nate Robinson instead of Rondo before. Likewise with Semih Erden instead of Shaq.
But both?
"Offensively, we didn't really have a great rhythm early in the game," Ray Allen said. "Rightfully so, with Nate just getting out there. Even a week ago when Rondo was out, it was different, because Shaq was out there and it gave us better rhythm with Nate. So today, it was different. We had to figure it out all over again, now with Nate and Semih out there. It took a while, but I think by the third or fourth quarter, we established our rhythm."
Any double-digit winning streak is impressive, but especially one like this. The injuries have piled up for this Celtics team, but the excuses haven't. These Celtics keep showing up for work, and against the odds, they keep winning.
