BOSTON — From the beginning of the 2007-08 season until the final horn sounded after Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Miami Hea last June, the Boston Celtics were encapsulated by the Big Three +1 of Paul Pierce, Kevin 
Garnett, Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo.
If anyone needs a refresher course on what was lost when Ray Allen decided to head down to Miami to team up with Dwyane Wade and LeBron James, last night’s performance by the Celtics against the Washington Wizards helps to put things in perspective.
Playing the Wizards for the second time in less than a week turned out to be a solid overtime test for a team that is attempting to find its identity. Boston fought through stretches of sloppy play and confusion despite winning by the score of 100-94 in overtime.
“Obviously, there were some parts of the game that you can look at and see that we have to improve,” said Kevin Garnett. “We came out strong but we kind of got calm a little bit and we got it back in the second half, but that’s not up to our standards.”
Clearly a jump-shooting team that has the potential to thrive as the result of floor balance and spacing, along with the the strong and wide screens that can be set by Kevin Garnett, Brandon Bass, Chris Wilcox, Jeff Green and even Darko Milicic, the Celtics are working to make forward progress daily as teammates both new and old learn the offensive principles as well as the teammates they are now playing with.