Ray Allen lights up

He might not light up the court quite as often as he did when he was the man in Seattle but as part of the defending champion Boston Celtics, Ray Allen can still catch fire at any moment.

With his silky-smoothe shot, Ray was one of the first shooters we thought of when compiling our Top Ten and yesterday he showed just how dangerous he can be. Ray had 35 points on 13 of 21 from the field including 7 of 12 from downtown. If you want to learn how to shoot a basketball, you would be wise to watch Ray Allen shoot.

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With an 11-game win streak on the line, if there was ever a sub.-500 team Boston wanted no parts of last night, it was Indiana. Having already beat the Celtics once at home, Indy was confident throughout this one, even when they fell into a double-digit hole in the first quarter and came back to grab the lead at halftime on Marquis Daniels‘ halfcourt shot. It was shot-for-shot, stop-for-stop for most of the second half and overtime, but in the end, the Pacers couldn’t make shots (multiple air-balls in the fourth) or get key rebounds when they had to, plus they couldn’t stop Ray Allen. Dropping 35 points on seven triples, Ray took over in crunch time, hitting whatever game-tying, go-ahead or dagger shots the Celtics needed. As Indiana play-by-play guy Chris Denari put it, “You feel like there’s a magnet in the net when Ray Allen is shooting.”