Allen bides time, hits shots when it counts

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ATLANTAOne half, Ray Allen can't get a shot off.

The next?

He can't miss.

Throughout most of this season, Allen has had plenty of those up-and-down, see-saw like games; too many to count, actually.

Well you can add one more to the list, as Allen's second half scoring spree catapulted the Celtics to a 79-76 win over Atlanta.

Allen finished with a team-high 19 points, 17 of which came in the second half.

"Sometimes it can get frustrating; I know how they're guarding me," Allen said. "If Paul (Pierce) has it going, Kevin (Garnett) has it going, for me, I'm just biding with the game and trying to flow into the course of how it's going to change. It's definitely different from how it has been over the course of my time here."

But as Allen has proven throughout his time in Boston, he doesn't need a lot of time or touches offensively, to make his mark on the game.

"It's just biding your time, and keeping your head in the game," he said.

And more often than not, Allen is rewarded for his patience with an opportunity to deliver a clutch shot in the C's greatest moments of need.

That time didn't arrive until near the end of the third quarter, and the Celtics trailing 51-47 at the time with 1.2 seconds remaining. With the chances of scoring with so little time unlikely, Boston was facing the possibility of going into the fourth quarter with their largest deficit to end a quarter, all game.

But Allen soon changed that, drilling a 3-pointer as time expired to cut Atlanta's lead down to just a single point.

"That's one of those plays that gave us great momentum, just from the standpoint of how we've been not so good at closing out quarters," Allen said. "To be able to scorewe know what we wanted based on how they were guarding us. Rondo read it, and I was ready. It was almost like I expected him to throw it to me."

Always ready.

It has become a staple of who Ray Allen is now, and for that matter, has always been as a player.

But he's the first to admit that it can be challenging to have a ton of shots one half, and very few in another.

"I've scored a lot of points and had great difficulties with losing a lot of games," Allen said. "But just trying to, kind of find my way and find how I can help this team better, it has been difficult."

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