Yao Ming

Celtic Big Men Kendrick Perkins and Scott Pollard paid their dues and sacrificed their bodies to help the Celtics contain Yao Ming on Wednesday night. Pollard has done little so far in his stint with the Celtics, but he finally contributed in a meaningful game against the Rockets. Though he fouled out in 13 minutes of action he contributed 10 points and helped cover the most difficult (Sorry Shaq) big, true center in the game.

Perkins main job this year is to rip the rim down when Garnett passes him the ball out of double teams. That and rebound. He has always been foul prone and that is still an issue. However Perkins has done his job so far this season. He has Glenn "Big Baby" Davis pushing him to play well and that will only help the Celtics this year. That battles those two have in practice must be dangerous.

Ray Allen had a quiet game and is due for a big scoring game. Pierce had a solid 19 points, but it was Garnett that carried them down the stretch on defense and offense. Garnett had 11 of his 26 in the last 7 minutes. And also contributed a block and steal in the last two minutes of the game. MVP? Maybe a little early but with the Celtics slamming the NBA with a 27-3 record you have to Garnett as the main reason.

The Rockets continue to be a strange team that underachieves. McGrady is constantly hurt and the inside /outside combination of the two stars just doesn't bring in huge win totals. You can argue that their conference is better but with two stars that are essentially impossible to cover for 48 minutes you are left to wonder.