Blowouts are fun. Especially when you ball your ass off. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Kirk Minihane, WEEI – “With apologies to Ray Allen (who put on a shooting display in the third quarter that rivals any I can remember from a Celtics player in the playoffs), it was Davis that earned First Star honors in the 106-77 humiliation of the Miami Heat in Game 2 on Tuesday night. Just how big (forgive the pun) a factor was he? Well, with 8:37 left in the third quarter he had 17 points, or as many as Dwyane Wade, Jermaine O’Neal and Quentin Richardson-Laimbeer combined. Big Baby threw a circa 2008 Garnett 23-8 line at the Heat, while shutting down Michael Beasley when it mattered (Beasley was 6-of-14 from the field, with most of his points coming during Geno Time.) And he brought his usual law firm of Energy, Energy and Energy to the court, simply out-hustling the front line of the Heat. OK, O’Neal blocked four of Davis’ shots in the first quarter (Davis was on pace for the rarest of triple-doubles at halftime — 28 points, 12 boards and having 10 of his shots rejected) but, like Duke once said about Rocky, the man just kept coming after him. So what? Is he going to pout? You think Davis isn’t used to having his shot sent back in his face? He doesn’t care. Just puts his head down and gets to the basket. ‘One man impacted the game with just his effort,’ said Heat coach Eric Spoelstra of Davis after the game. ‘I’d be shocked if they have one play for him in the playbook.’”

Rich Levine, CSNNE – “Glen Davis will say things that leave you scratching your head. He’ll act out in ways that are beyond comprehension. Sometimes you’ll ask him a question, and he’ll just stare at you — better yet, through you — leaving you to sit and wonder, ‘What in God’s name is going on in there?’ He’s a riddle, wrapped inside an enigma, contained within a McDonald’s 20-piece. He’s Manny Ramirez’s distant cousin. But for all that Davis does to arouse anger and confusion off the court — whether he’s tearing up on the sidelines, channeling Daniel LaRusso on the eve of the season opener, screaming profanities at opposing fans or changing nicknames more often than Diddy — there’s one thing about him that is, and always will be, crystal clear: The guy’s a gamer.”

Dan Shaughnessy, Boston Globe – “Is there really any need to play any more games in this series? Bring on the Cavaliers, people. It’s true. Boston’s boys of winter are peaking at the most important time of the year. The Causeway Street barn is our April Garden of Eden and the momentum won’t be stopped just because Garnett is suspended for a night. Nobody puts Baby in a corner. ‘I just knew that the Big Ticket was out and the Ticket Stub had to fly in today,’ said Davis. ‘Whenever they need the Ticket Stub, Glen Davis is here. Big Baby. I’m just worried about playing and getting wins. That’s all that matters to me.’”

Julian Benbow, Boston Globe – “Reprising his role as Garnett’s understudy, Davis had 23 points and eight rebounds in the Celtics’ 106-77 Game 2 victory, doing all his damage mostly via energy.Before he took the court, Celtics captain Paul Pierce took a look at the lineup he’d have around him. ‘I said, ‘This is the same lineup we had going into the playoffs last year that pushed Orlando to seven games,’ ‘ Pierce said. ‘With Glen out there in the starting role, we all know what he’s capable of. He’s confident. He’s playing the type of basketball he knows we need him to play. Did I know he was going to have a big 23-point game with eight rebounds? Not at all. But I knew he was capable of filling in the role nicely and doing what the coaches asked him to do. With him out there, chemistry is fine. We felt like this was a game we were supposed to win with or without Kevin. So he did a great job with filling in.’”

Chris Sheridan, ESPN – “Up until recently, you’d be more likely to see the words pancake-eating contest or girth or heft lumped together in the same sentence with Davis, who is listed in the Celtics’ postseason guide as weighing 295 pounds — a six-pound increase over what he supposedly weighed in the preseason, but a whole lot less than what he weighed when he came out of LSU three years ago. But the quintessential moment when you bore witness to exactly what Rivers was speaking of, foot speed, came early in the third quarter, just before Miami coach Erik Spoelstra appeared to be setting some kind of a postseason record for timeouts taken purely out of frustration. After Kendrick Perkins blocked a drive by Carlos Arroyo, the fleet-footed fellow who used to resemble a lumbering lump of lard barreled the other way down the court as Boston got out on the break. Receiving a pass with a full head of steam, all defender Michael Beasley could do was foul Davis, who went to the line and knocked down one of his nine made free throws. One possession later, Davis danced deftly to his left rather than toward the basket when the Heat doubled Rajon Rondo on a pick-and-roll, then received Rondo’s pass and buried a 20-footer. Timeout, Spoelstra.”

Chris Forsberg, ESPNBoston – “If the Celtics were trying to keep Kevin Garnett’s replacement a surprise before Game 2, they did a terrible job. Coach Doc Rivers confirmed in his pregame chat with the media that Glen Davis would draw the start, citing his quicker feet that could help combat Miami’s Dwyane Wade in the pick-and-roll. ‘I just think he moves his feet better [than Rasheed Wallace],’ said Rivers. ‘Wade alone was involved in 36 pick-and-rolls [in Game 1], so we think he’ll be involved in 36 more — at least — so we needed a quicker big. If Rasheed and [Kendrick Perkins] were involved in all those pick-and-rolls, that would be tough. You want one or the other on the floor.’”

Israel Gutierrez, Miami Herald – “No, no it’s not. It’s a way more unfortunate time than that. It’s reality-check time. It’s come-to-your-senses time. It’s closer-than-ever-to-free-agency time. The Miami Heat had every reason to convince itself it was ready for a Game 2 bounce-back. Every reason to believe that the fourth quarter in Game 1 was a mirage, nothing that ever would show up again in this series against a supposedly older, less-athletic, ready-for-bed Celtics team that already was playing without its suspended intimidator, Kevin Garnett. What the Heat proved in Tuesday’s embarrassment of a Game 2 loss — an all-timer when it comes to playoff losses — was that Game 1 might have been as close as this team is going to get to these Celtics.

John Schuhmann, NBA.com – “After Game 1, even tough they fell apart in the second half, there was a feeling among the Heat players and staff that they definitely had the ability to beat the Celtics. They had played Boston close in all three regular season games and were up 14 early in the third quarter on Saturday. They’re probably not feeling so confident after Game 2, as the Celtics turned in a postseason performance unseen around here since Game 6 of the 2008 Finals. Boston dominated both ends of the floor, Miami looked like a lottery team, and Kevin Garnett’s absence didn’t matter one bit. The second half of Game 1, when Miami scored just 15 points over the final 19 ½ minutes, clearly carried over in Game 2. The key stretch on Tuesday came in the second quarter, after the Heat took a 29-25 lead. Over the next eight minutes, the Celtics held the Heat scoreless on 13 straight possessions, resulting in a 21-0 run. There was a similar stretch in the third, and this one quickly became a blowout. When this season started, Doc Rivers challenged his team to one day be referred to as the best defensive team ever. And they’re finally looking something like it.”

Dave Hyde, Miami Sun Sentinel – “The Heat can tell themselves this series isn’t over. They can say it officially hasn’t started since neither team has lost at home. They can preach how with more film work and better shooting they’ll recapture their late-season momentum and find the formula to kick Boston out of this playoff series. But is anyone listening after Tuesday’s 106-77 loss in Game 2? Boston played without its best defensive force in Kevin Garnett, held the Heat to another 10-point quarter and reminded everyone about the essential problem in this one-man Heat team: the other four players. Man, they were awful. All of them. Whatever four were out there.”

Couper Moorhead, NBA.com – “Once one of the top rebounding teams in the league, the Celtics suffered the greatest fall in rebounding stats of any squad, dropping to 13th and 29th in offensive and defensive rebounding percentages, respectively. For whatever reason, the Celtics shook their standings in those categories — though this can rationally be explained by them finally having a cohesive effort in the area — and allowed a mere six offensive ballboards, two off Boston’s season low, with a total rebounding margin of 50-33. ‘It was our number one focus going into the game tonight, that we had to be dominant — not good — we had to have a dominant effort on the glass,’ Rivers said. It’s always premature to determine the fate of a series after two games, before one team has even had a chance to play at home. But Tuesday night, the Heat were so thoroughly beaten by the Celtics, so clearly exposed for being a one-man team, that’s its tough to give them much of a chance barring some incredible individual adjustments. That is, as long as Boston’s recent propensity for sustaining elite-level play holds strong. ‘We can’t focus on what the series is right now,’ Rivers said. ‘We haven’t been good at that. We have not been. It will be a good test for us.’”

Chris Forsberg, ESPNBoston – “‘We’re trying our best to stop Wade, it just hasn’t been working out very well,’ said Celtics coach Doc Rivers. ‘But we absolutely have had a focus on everyone else. Our theory always is that the great players are going to be great. We try to make them shoot a poor percentage — we’ve been unsuccessful in that part, but we can’t let everybody else beat us as well. So we haven’t had an adjustment as far as our game plan, but we have focused on everyone else. We’ve had a lot of focus on Wade, too, but what we don’t want to do is be mesmerized by him and letting everybody else get off.’ You can’t argue with the results. Miami scored 47 points over the final three quarters of an 85-76 loss to Boston in Game 1, then totaled a mere 37 points midway through the third quarter of Game 2. Go ahead, dust off those comparisons to the 1985 Bears that were being tossed around like footballs at the beginning of the 2009-10 season. Heck, Boston’s defense wasn’t even this good at that point. ‘I think we were all on the same page [Tuesday],’ said Kendrick Perkins. ‘Guys were helping out and we did a great job on Dwyane Wade for a little bit. He still had [29] points, but we took care of the others.’”

Dan Duggan, Boston Herald – “Nineteen of Wade’s points came after the Celts were ahead by 32. After providing an outside complement to Glen Davis in the second period when the C’s were taking the upper hand, Allen scored 11 when the margin was going from 16 to fuggedaboudit in the third. That’s when Wade pulled up in transition and threw in a 3-pointer that was so meaningless it got no reaction from the Heat. Wade just seemed to sigh and go back to the end of the floor where Allen continued to put the hammer down with six more points. His makes were almost icing, because he was accomplishing so much just by leading Wade through a forest of picks. ‘Since Kevin wasn’t in there, they didn’t want to double on the post,’ Allen said. ‘D-Wade was chasing more than he had to chase in Game 1. There was one time where I had gone a couple of times back and forth. He chased me, but when he got back down on his offensive side he kind of caught his breath. He was sitting down there catching his breath. So whatever we do, just keep him moving so he doesn’t have as much energy on the offensive end. That’s what we’ve got to continue to do. Sometimes I’m just as tired,’ Allen added, ‘but the difference is I have other guys on the team that are going to take shots and make big plays for us. And he’s the guy that they really rely on 80-90 percent of the time.’”

Dan Duggan, Boston Herald – “‘It became about a lack of mental toughness again for us and we collapsed,’ Spoelstra said. ‘They just dominated us in every facet of the game. It was a very embarrassing game and now the next step for us is that mental toughness, that mental stability.’ Things fell apart for the Heat in the second quarter, when an 8:03 scoring drought turned a 29-25 lead into a 46-29 deficit. ‘They really got into a groove on the offensive end,’ Heat guard Dwyane Wade said. ‘Defensively, we (stunk). The crowd got into it and they kept rolling. You could feel it leaving and going fast. That’s not a good feeling.’ Though Spoelstra was upset with the loss, he was careful to keep things in perspective. The Heat are down, but the series heads to Miami for Game 3 Friday. ‘This was an embarrassing loss, but it is one loss,’ Spoelstra said. ‘It is not four losses and what we control right now is getting our minds right and taking care of the most important game on Friday night.’”

Peter May, ESPNBoston – “He then went shot-less in the first quarter of Game 2, content to observe the Celtics’ Smashmouth Game Plan being exercised to near perfection by Glen Davis and Kendrick Perkins. But Doc Rivers knew something had to change. “We had to get Ray some shots,” he told anyone who would listen. Allen’s thoughts at that point? ‘I’m 100 percent. I haven’t missed,’ he said. Classic Ray. Allen did get some shots in the second quarter, but the third quarter was the game-changing eruption. Celtics’ fans were treated to Vintage Allen, except that vintage in this case is the here and now for the still sweet-shooting 34-year-old. He took eight shots and made six of them. Six of the eight shots were 3-pointers and five of those found the mark. He had 17 in the quarter, 12 of them (four 3-pointers) coming in a span of 2 minutes, 49 seconds. By the time Allen was through, so were the Heat. The fifth Allen trey of the quarter pushed the lead to a stunning 33 points with 14 minutes left — and the Celtics had more than survived the absence of Kevin Garnett, not to mention the annoying ramblings of Quentin Richardson. They won easily, 106-77, and lead the series 2-0.”

Frank Dell’Apa, Boston Globe – “The mix-up resulted in a turnover, Pierce catching Allen’s pass, then looking down to see his heel over the sideline within a few feet of official Marc Davis. Pierce did not bother to wait for the whistle, simply flipping the ball to Davis and getting back on defense. ‘I did not want to shoot,’ Allen said of the sequence. ‘But I was trying to focus on making the extra pass. I know a lot of people want to see me shoot it but I like to see Paul shoot it, as well. Any time we can create a great rhythm, where we’re over-unselfish, it does bode well for us as a team.’ Pierce and nearly everyone in the Garden expected Allen to attempt the transition shot. In fact, Pierce talked afterward about ‘being a spectator, just watching Ray knock down shots,’ the classic ball-watching habit that is difficult to avoid when a teammate is shooting so well. ‘He was [expecting the shot],’ Allen said. ‘He was stepping out of bounds. We always say, sometimes with [Rajon] Rondo, you don’t know. Just be ready, he might look that way and throw it to you, so you kind of have to be ready. And, once I went up, I should have took the shot. But I knew Paul, once his guy came to me, he was open. Early in games, I’ve always thought that taking the easy shot, the uncontested shot, is the best shot. We have so much talent, so when we move that ball early, we always get open looks.’”

Chris Forsberg, ESPNBoston – “Celtics guard Tony Allen didn’t produce the sort of offense he did in Game 1, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t enjoy Game 2 just as much. Allen might have been the most excited person in the building as Boston embarked on the 44-8 run. With every 3-pointer splashed by Ray Allen, Tony Allen popped to his feet and looked like he was going to come out of his skin. Numerous times he pumped up the crowd, imploring fans to get on their feet (not that they weren’t obliging already). While waiting to check in, Boston enjoyed a fastbreak and Tony Allen nearly wandered into the Miami bench (a dangerous zone, just ask Kevin Garnett) while following the play down the sideline. Tony Allen finished with 4 points on 2-of-5 shooting with 4 rebounds, 2 steals, and an assist over 17 minutes. He struggled to keep Dwyane Wade quiet at times, particularly late in the third quarter, but his energy seemed contagious for Boston. ‘We had a tough practice [Monday] and I think it carried over,’ said Tony Allen. ‘The guys was very talkative in practice and they were very talkative [Tuesday], too.’”

A. Sherrod Blakely, CSNNE – “Miami Heat forward Quentin Richardson has had time to reflect on his actions in Game One and the comments that followed, which included a reference to Garnett and Paul Pierce as ‘actresses.’ He didn’t bite his lip at the time, and the 6-foot-6 guard/forward wasn’t about to on the eve of Game Two. ‘I stand by what I said. That was game One,’ Richardson told Comcast SportsNet’s Carolyn Manno. ‘I’m going to leave everything in Game One.’”

Jessica Camerato, WEEI – “All of the missed baskets, missed rebounds, and overall missed opportunities piled up for Miami. ‘Mental breakdown,’ is how Beasley characterized the loss. ‘We let our missed shots and our missed rotations just take us out of the game mentally. We were almost fighting each other sometimes, and any time you get a team talking to each other like that and just out of it mentally, these type of games will happen.’ Even though not everyone on the Heat felt dissension on the court (“I don’t know if it was one another, I think we were just frustrated with the situation,” said Richardson), team leader Wade said the team must learn from any internal conflicts. ‘There’s always going to be disagreements when things aren’t going right,’ he said. ‘You can’t point too many fingers. You learn from it and you move on. In this league you can’t hold grudges because we all mess up. We all aren’t perfection. It’s just a time where frustration sets in. There is not going to be pats on the back when you’re losing by 30. Not at all. Guys are going to be willing to take criticism, that’s the only way you’re going to get better, if everyone’s willing to take criticism and understand their mistakes and try to move on and learn from it. Yeah, there were some things said to guys, but it’s been like that all year. We just bounce back from it. Normally you want to bounce back the next play and try to correct it, but in this case we have to bounce back the next game.’”

Gary Washburn, Boston Globe – “That old Celtics mystique isn’t back in full stride, but they are taking steps toward regaining that confidence. The metamorphosis probably has occurred quicker that many players believed. Remember, Derrick Rose and Kirk Hinrich sliced the Boston defense for 69 points just a week ago. The Wizards slapped the Celtics into delusion 12 days ago. The Celtics have withstood their share of embarrassing stretches, but the regular season is the distant past. Teams don’t enter the playoffs with seeds tattooed on their shoulders. The reset button has been pushed. ‘It’s more mental off the court,’ veteran Michael Finley said of the renewed focus. ‘It’s all or nothing. Everything goes up another level. The coaching. The players, they take the scouting report more seriously. This team has a lot of players who have been around the block for a long time and they know the importance of this time.’”

Dan Duggan, Boston Herald – “‘(Garnett) told me before the game to make sure that I do what I got to do and be physical, be ferocious and anything’s possible,’ Davis said. It wasn’t an accident that Davis used the words Garnett exclaimed after the C’s won the 2007-08 title. But before this team starts thinking such grand thoughts, Rivers was there to ground his troops. ‘We have to play hard, we have to have our focus and we have to understand all we’ve done is win two home games and they haven’t had the chance to play at home yet,’ Rivers said. ‘We just have to come out and focus on our job.’”

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