Celtics game won't win beauty contest

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BOSTON -- The Boston Celtics win over the New York Knicks on Friday night at TD Garden was far from pretty.

There were a total of 46 free-throw attempts, 30 turnovers, and four technical fouls issued between both head coaches and a pair of players. Only after two hours and forty-five minutes did the Celtics edge out the Knicks for a 91-89 win.

Down the stretch, the game had the intensity of a playoff matchup, perhaps even more so than the Celtics-Knicks first round series last season. After trailing by 12 points, the Celtics came back to take a two-point lead with 5.2 seconds left. Even then, the Knicks still had a chance to pull of a game-winner but Steve Novak missed the final shot.

My mind is blank right now, Carmelo Anthony said after the game. I cant even remember that last play. I dont know what happened. I will answer that question tomorrow.

While Anthony couldnt put the end result into words, Paul Pierce offered an analogy for the grind-it-out win. It is one that he hopes carries over to Sundays Super Bowl showdown between the New England Patriots and New York Giants.

That seemed like a game in the third and fourth quarter where you had two teams maybe in the summer and somebody said, Whoever wins this game, youre going to make the NBA. And they both teams were just fighting for it, he said. Whatever team wins, youre going to be on the roster this year. And it was just that kind of fight. Maybe thats what it is when you get New York and Boston together. And I hope this is an indication of whats going to happen Sunday.

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