Sharpshooting Jones gives Heat big lift off the bench

MIAMI -- It was what most concerned the Celtics, that the big three from the Heat would be tough to defend in Game 1. In this instance, however, that's the big three, lowercase.

As in, the daggers dropped on them by James Jones from deep.

This was not a pretty game to open a much-anticipated second-round series. But it was pretty unexpected. Yes, when Rajon Rondo gets locked up early by Mike Bibby -- have those words ever been typed before? -- and disappears, when Kevin Garnett is good for three buckets, and when the damaging 3-point shots come not from Ray Allen but Ray Allen Lite, then you get Heat 99, Celtics 90, and very little drama.

Jones hit five of his seven shots taken from 3-point range, and that doesn't begin to describe his impact. After Jones hit his third shot, the Celtics were giving him the same respect reserved for LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. This is a player, mind you, who averaged only seven points in the first round against Philly. And who, at best, was Miami's No. 6 option all season.

Also, while the game was perhaps over by the midway pint of the fourth quarter, the Celtics had to make do without Paul Pierce. His ejection with seven minutes left didn't help.Wade crashed into a pick set by Pierce, who exchanged words. Both were hit with technicals, and it was the second for Pierce and an automatic thumb.

Here's crew chief Dan Crawford:

"It's what we call a verbal taunt. He directed profanity towards Wade. And in the rulebook, that is a verbal taunt."

Pierce refused to comment after the game. Wade said Pierce used "a bunch of gibberish" which, we are to assume, contained some concise four-letter words.

A case could be made that Pierce shouldn't have been ejected at all; his "crime" was a borderline technical. Or that Pierce should've been thumbed a minute earlier, when he threw the softest head-butt you'll ever see -- but a head-butt (nose-butt?) nonetheless -- after getting a rough foul from Jones.

Crawford: "He approached Jones and got right in his face. There wasn't a head-butt, but he got right into his face after a hard foul." 

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