MIAMI — For Heat guard Ray Allen, this was just another game. Yeah, right.
And Kate Upton is just another girl.
But even though Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, the two other members of Boston’s 2008 big three championship bunch, were in Brooklyn colors, Allen said he saw only rivals.
“For me, those five guys on the other side are blank to me, regardless of who they are,” Allen said. “You have a team that you want to beat and they’re in your way and you do what you can to beat them.”
Allen did what he could. Garnett and Pierce did little. Allen poured in 19 points — 11 more than Pierce, 11 more than Pierce and Garnett combined — and was the main bench spark for the Heat who routed the Nets, 107-86, in Game 1 of the Eastern semifinals Tuesday.
Garnett played just 76 seconds of the fourth quarter. Pierce didn’t even get off the bench in that final session.
Garnett suffered his first career scoreless playoff game.
“We had great awareness for [Garnett],” Allen said. “Whenever they drove, there was someone to sink in his lap and make him hesitate on his jumpshot.”
For nearly 16 minutes, he was the answer for one night to “What’s 7-foot and invisible?” The Heat attacked the rim repeatedly.
“I’m not going to make any excuses,” Garnett said. “They played well tonight — 60 percent [shooting], that’s hard to stop a team, that’s hard to beat a team playing like that, and we’ve just got to be more aggressive.
“That’s hard on their home court. You sort of are digging yourself a hole. I think we have to be more aggressive on the offensive end, but defensively is where our primary [focus] is going to be.”
Pierce echoed the sentiments.
“They were aggressive tonight. They got to the rim,” Pierce said. “They got points in the paint. They got drives, they got layups, they got cuts to the basket.”
And they got the victory.