PUT IN THEIR PLACE | From SF Gate: News and Information for the San Francisco Bay Area

By Janny Hu, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Boston -- The "what ifs" had to have passed through Chris Mullin's mind as he watched his Warriors absorb a 105-82 beating by the Celtics on TV.

Kevin Garnett didn't merely put up 20 points and take down 10 rebounds, he represented everything the Warriors needed to be competitive Wednesday night.

Someone to whom they can dump the ball inside when the jumpers aren't falling. Someone to clean up the defensive glass. Someone to make the opposition think twice about going inside.

The shorthanded Warriors didn't have much in any of those categories in having their three-game winning streak halted at a rocking TD Banknorth Garden.

"We were terrible," coach Don Nelson said. "And defensively, they were pretty darn good. And what makes them so good, is of course, Garnett.

"He's just everywhere."

The 6-foot-11 forward is everywhere but in Oakland after Mullin's offseason attempts to acquire him fell short. The Celtics won the Garnett sweepstakes and on Wednesday, their "Big Three" of Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce combined for 60 points, 27 rebounds and seven assists.

The Warriors needed their best game of the season to beat the team with the NBA's best record (9-1), and they didn't have a chance after a sluggish start, on the second night of a back-to-back set.

The Warriors had three fouls and three turnovers before a Baron Davis free throw finally put them on the scoreboard more than three minutes into the game.

They missed their first eight field- goal attempts, their first 11 three-point tries, and set season lows of 16 points in the first quarter and 37 points in a half.

Two more season lows: 33 percent from the field and 18 percent from long distance. And those numbers would have been worse if not for Monta Ellis, who used a combination of driving layups and pull-up jumpers to convert 10 of 15 field-goal attempts for 21 points.

"We go inside, we post-up, we shoot, we do a lot of things - it just didn't work tonight," said Stephen Jackson, who had 15 points of 4-for-15 shooting.

"I had a lot of open looks, they just didn't go down," added Kelenna Azubuike, who was 1-for-7 from the floor.

The Warriors' starters, with Mickael Pietrus subbing for the absent Al Harrington, combined to miss 36 of their 49 attempts. The players appeared frustrated by calls they did not receive when driving inside, and seven of those they managed to get up were blocked.

Azubuike said it was up to the Warriors to play better defense if their shots weren't falling, a philosophy they used in posting a season-high 17 steals to embarrass the Knicks the previous night.

The best they could do Wednesday was make the score 66-56 on an Ellis jumper and had a chance to cut the deficit to single digits when Kendrick Perkins was whistled for a technical foul with six minutes left in third.

But Jackson missed the ensuing free throw, and a trio of three-pointers by Allen and Eddie House wiped out their mini-spurt. The Celtics' lead was 17 at the start of the fourth quarter.

"Nellie-ball is probably the most unorthodox but effective in this league," Garnett said. "We just wanted to be aggressive, make them play defense. They wanted to get up and down, up and down.

"We wanted to carry it inside, when they trap, get it out, take our shots, be aggressive, get those guys in foul trouble early and see what happens."

The Celtics saw the Warriors put up a stinker. For one night, Mullin had proof of what might have been.
Big three, litt

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