SELF IMPROVEMENT

Business  as usual for Celtics
NEW YORK -- About an hour or so before the Celtics went out and drove a stake through the hearts of the Knicks and a wild Madison Square Garden crowd, Paul Pierce moved through the tiny visitors locker room. “None of that,” Pierce said. “None of that small talk.”
For Pierce this was business and a game like this is the Celtics calling card. For three days that’s all they talked about: playing better. “I just want us to play well,” Doc Rivers said prior to tip-off. “We play well, [then] we’ll see what happens.”
With the exception of a bevy of turnovers in the first half – and hey, nobody’s perfect – they played about as well as they can play in a 113-96 dismantling of the Knicks, Friday night (Click here for a recap). It would be the first Celtics sweep since 1992 when the beat the Pacers in three games.
More importantly, the Celtics finally played the game they knew they could play and while they’re not done with the Knicks just yet, they removed much of the scary element from this series.
Amar’e Stoudemire is clearly hurting. He gave the Knicks 32 minutes but scored just seven points on 2-for-8 shooting and after the game said, “There is no way I will be 100 percent by Sunday [for Game 4].” Chauncey Billups didn’t play at all and the outlook is not good for the next game either. But this game was really all about the Celtics and the final numbers were staggering:
Pierce scored 14 points in the first quarter en route to 38 on 14-for-19 shooting that included a 6-for-8 performance from 3-point range.
Not to be outdone, fellow ageless gunner Ray Allen made 8-of-11 from long range and finished with 32 points. “After a while I started feeding off Ray,” Pierce said. Blogs