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Celtics need vintage KG to win East

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Updated Nov 21, 2009 1:48 AM ET
     
 

BOSTON

It sounds like someone is knocking on the door, but that's Kevin Garnett's index finger repeatedly pounding the plastic table as he briefly fields questions following Boston's 83-78 home loss to Orlando on Friday night. Frustrated. Agitated. Both would fit Garnett's demeanor. And who could blame him after getting his first crack at the Magic after sitting with a knee injury for all of Boston's seven-game postseason series with them last spring?
Because even with a solid 13-point, 11-rebound showing, Garnett didn't fully look like the player he used to be before knee surgery. He hasn't all season. "He's healthy, but one day he's explosive, one day he's not," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "That's just going to take time. And we know that. "Obviously you would love ... if you could pick tonight, say 'Tonight we need you to be explosive; tomorrow, we don't need you.'" If the Celtics are going to beat the Magic in a seven-game series, they are going to need him. Not just back on the court, but back. The first step is that Garnett, 33, is playing now, deemed fit after offseason knee surgery. He makes the Celtics longer, leaner — not to mention meaner — and better equipped to handle an Orlando lineup stuffed with matchup problems. No longer will the Magic have free reign in the paint with Kendrick Perkins occupied by Dwight Howard, nor can Rashard Lewis run Glen Davis ragged on the perimeter and shoot over defenders on the blocks. "It's a big difference," Perkins said. "Kevin can go out and guard Lewis. [He] could show on the pick and roll and get back to him. When they were isolating [Davis] last year and sometimes myself with Rashard, it was a tough matchup for both of us." But does he make the Celtics the superior team? On Friday night, no. But in April? That would be easier to answer if the old Garnett were back. The 2007-08 Defensive Player of the Year. The intimidator. The championship-ring bearer. Sometimes, that's what he is, yet sometimes he looks like a man transitioning into a new phase of his career. "I'm not even where I want to be at this point," Garnett said, "but it's about the team, not me." As last spring's playoffs, and this season, proved, the team is about Garnett, and its needs have yet to be consistently met. Weeks ago, an eye-contact oop from Rajon Rondo might have become a layup, just as it was in the fourth quarter Friday. Recently, Garnett took a lob and thunder dunked on two members of the Utah Jazz. Those moments have been rare, however, with "below the rim" being the operative term. The defensive fundamentals are still there, yet he's not showing on pick-and-rolls as well as he used to, allowing the Atlanta Hawks, victors at TD Garden last week, to emphasize attacking the Celtics with the very play they defend so well. And he's slower to the ball, posting his lowest rebounding rate since his third year in the league. "He's not there yet," Rivers said. "[Right now] I'll take his game over 98 percent of the league, but he's going to keep improving as the year goes on." How much quicker, how much faster can a player get over the course of the season if he is healthy? Those things can't always be chalked up to "getting the timing back," as Garnett has said so often. "Some days you have legs, some days you don't," Rivers said. The slower days are glaring. And nothing about Garnett's performance Friday changed what his season has been: uneven. His basic numbers — from scoring to free-throw shooting to blocks — are down across the board. According to 82games.com, Garnett is scoring less on his own with 81 percent of his field goals coming from assists, up from 74 percent last season. He's taking slightly more jumpers and he's getting blocked twice as often (4 percent of his shots have been blocked, up from 2 percent a year ago). But with the season just 13 games young, offering a small sample size, those numbers are indicative only of where Garnett is now. Like former championship San Antonio Spurs teams, the Celtics have been more concerned with steady improvement than anything that happened on a single night. Even now, it's impossible to know which team is better. Too many variables are uncertain. Jameer Nelson is injured once again. Davis, Garnett's stand-in, is also out. But after fighting an uphill battle last April, Garnett has, at least, evened the playing field. "They're not probably where they want to be, we're clearly not where we want to be," Rivers said before the game. "Both teams are in process of becoming teams that have to fight each other later." As Garnett has often said of the team, it's a work in progress. The same now applies to him.

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