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Marbury makes Celtics debut; Boston wins 104-99
2009-02-28
BOSTON - Stephon Marbury was so unwanted in New York that the Knicks were willing to pay him most of his $20.8 million salary to stay away -- and go away. One night into his Celtics career, he saw how different things can be in Boston. "I didn't know how they were going to respond," he said after entering to a standing ovation and responding with six points in a 9-0 fourth-quarter run that helped Boston pull away from the Indiana Pacers and win 104-99. "They really showed me a lot of love. I felt that. I felt wanted." Ray Allen added 30 points and Rajon Rondo matched his career high with 17 assists for Boston, which signed Marbury earlier in the day -- hours after he cleared waivers from the Knicks. Glen "Big Baby" Davis, starting in place of the injured Kevin Garnett, scored 18, and Kendrick Perkins had 11 rebounds. Marbury had not played since Jan. 11, 2008, giving him more than 13 months to imagine how it would feel when he got back into an NBA game. "It went the way I was praying for it to go," he said. "Oh, man. I wanted to cry." It's the second straight year that Boston has added backups at point guard and center late in the season as it prepared for a playoff push. Last year, the additions of Sam Cassell and P.J. Brown paid off with the team's record 17th NBA championship, and coach Doc Rivers is beginning to see how this season's signings will fit in. "I'm just happy now that I know what I have. A week ago, we didn't," he said. "You can see them (the playoffs) out there, 22 games away. That's nice. We can't wait to get to them." T.J. Ford scored 23 and Troy Murphy had 20 points and 13 assists for the Pacers, who had won three out of four. Marbury entered the game to a standing ovation with 19.4 seconds left in the first quarter and sank his first shot early in the second for his first points since Jan. 11, 2008. By the time he sat back down with 7:11 left in the second, though, Boston's 26-18 lead had been turned into a 30-29 deficit. But Marbury, who had about an hour of practice with the Celtics before putting on his new uniform, hit three baskets in a 9-0 run at the beginning of the fourth quarter to turn a four-point game into a 92-79 lead. "He had the boxer legs in the first half," Rivers said. "But in the second half, he was terrific. You could just see his basketball IQ. It just really worked tonight. It's going to keep getting better, you could see that." Allen scored nine points in the first two minutes of the fourth. "You give him six inches and he puts it down," Pacers coach Jim O'Brien said. "Most of his shots were well-guarded and he put them down." Paul Pierce, who dislocated his right thumb on Wednesday night in Boston's loss to the Los Angeles Clippers, scored 16 points on 6-of-13 shooting. He took just two foul shots as he tried to protect the thumb from hacking defenders. "I was really hesitant to get any contact going, for the simple fact that it came out twice last game," he said. "But it's something I'm going to have to get over mentally." Notes:@ The Celtics are 31-4 against the Eastern Conference. ... The Pacers are the only team to beat Boston, Cleveland, Orlando and the Los Angeles Lakers -- the top four teams in the NBA. ... Murphy has broken double digits in rebounds in 41 of his last 49 games. ... Indiana forward Mike Dunleavy missed his ninth straight game with a sore right knee. Forward Danny Granger missed his fifth game in a row with a partially torn tendon in his right foot.
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