With 1:45 left in the first overtime, Ray Allen had his shot blocked by Emeka Okafor.
With 33.9 seconds remaining in the second overtime, Ray Allen airmailed a 3-pointer from the right wing.
In the words of future Senator Blutarsky, gWas it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?
Thoroughly undaunted, Allen followed up the block by hitting a trey that allowed the Celtics [team stats] admission to the second OT. Then, after his launch into the vapor (and a Charlotte miss), Allen stood patiently in the right corner as Paul Pierce [stats] drove and kicked the ball out. Allen accepted the pass and burned the Bobcats with a 3-pointer that gave the Celts a 111-109 victory.
That's Ray, Pierce said. He's a future Hall of Famer, and great players seem to find a way. When Ray misses a shot, it doesn't discourage him. His confidence is through the roof regardless of if he's missed two, three, four hundred shots in a row. He always feels like the next one's going to go in.
Backed into a corner, the captain had to break down and admit hefd never actually seen Allen miss that many consecutively.
Never, Pierce said with a laugh. He's never missed 300 shots in a row.
Pierce then turned decidedly more serious.
Hey, I'll proclaim Ray the greatest shooter that I've ever seen in the history of the NBA. I mean, you have to say the guys like (retired Indiana Pacers great) Reggie Miller (are on that list). But you've got to talk about guys who've done it in crucial situations, and Ray has definitely done that.
In fact, Allen has done that twice in the last two seasons against the Bobcats, who are starting to take this stuff personally.
I know my sisters are at home watching and they live in Charlotte, Allen said. They've got to go to work the next day, so I at least want them to have something to talk about.
This morning Allens siblings can speak about a family member who went 1-for-7 from the floor over the third and fourth quarters and regained his stroke in time.
For a second, everything was flat, Allen said. I just needed to back away from it and get my legs back under me. I just clean-slated it. Eddie (House) was like, I don't normally say nothing to you, but your shot . . . everything is flat. It was all in my legs, and I knew it once the ball left my fingertips. It's a funky thing for me. If my shots are flat, it's all in my legs.
As Allen worked things out in his mind, House, the hero in the previous game, offered more encouragement.
It just takes one, House said. And I told Ray. I told him. I said, Don't worry, man. You're going to knock it down when we really need it. And he did exactly that. You know, shooters aren't afraid to take the next shot. Even after he shot an airball, he came back and hit the shot. That's just a Hall of Fame player right there.
Allen chalked up the airball to bad circumstances, noting that he saw Kendrick Perkins [stats] get free under the basket and knew that he should have been making a pass as he went up to shoot.
