Paul and the Celtics hit the Sacramento Kings with a three-point barrage the youngsters were helpless to stop, and the Truth and his boys rolled to a 119-100 victory at TD Bank North Garden Wednesday night.

The Celtics’ ninth straight victory was their seventh straight by double digits, and No. 34’s eight assists helped pace an offense that shot 60 percent from the field in the second quarter, and outscored the Kings 40-19.

Paul drives for two of his

Paul (eight points, eight assists, three rebounds, steal) got the Cs on the board in the first, getting to the free-throw line and draining both attempts, eventually going a perfect 6-6 from the stripe on the evening. He made his presence felt over his limited 27 minutes of action, leading his team in dimes while feeding sharpshooter Eddie House for half his assists.

When the final horn sounded, House had gone for 28 points off the bench with eight threes, half on feeds from No. 34 within a four minute stretch in the third quarter. After the game, as captains often do, Paul directed the praise to his sweet-shooting teammate.

“I’ve never been on a three-point barrage like this,” Paul told the Boston Globe. “But Eddie’s in a special place right now, and I know how he feels. It feels like every time he shoots, it’s going to go in, no matter who’s on him, who he is playing against. I can tell the way he’s shooting it that he feels that every shot is going to go in.”

BEHIND THE RESURGENCE
Paul and the Cs have won nine straight ballgames, after going 2-7 over the previous nine. Some chalk it up to a midseason funk, but the Truth things the team’s front-loaded schedule (getting to 46 games almost three full weeks sooner than last season) that was the cause for the skid.

“The schedule is catching up with us,” Paul said. “The second half of the year when we’re not playing as many games as we did in the first half, we have more time to come out here and practice. Maybe it was because of injuries. Whatever it was, we’re out of the funk and, hopefully, we won’t have anything like it the rest of the year. During that time when we weren’t playing well, we didn’t have a chance to practice, but what we had a chance to do was watch more film. The guys had a chance to see what we were doing on film and started to realize we needed to get back to doing what’s right. Watching film, and add that to practice time, and that helped us a lot.”

NEXT UP
No. 34 and the Celtics hit the road to take on Allen Iverson and the Detroit Pistons Friday night. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:00 PM Eastern Time, and you can catch all the action on ESPN.

RELATED STORIES
Celtics crush Kings 119-100 (AP, January 28, 2009)
http://www.nba.com/games/20090128/SACBOS/recap.html
Celtics bring down the house (Boston Globe January 29, 2009)
http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/articles/2009/01/29/celt...
Marbury talks up future (Boston Globe, January 27, 2009)
http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/articles/2009/01/27/marb...

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