Crazy bench stats from last night's win

Green's back to back huge dunks helped pace a great effort by the Boston reserves.

I was at the Garden for the Celtics victory over the Suns yesterday.  While I noticed that Doc gave the bench an opportunity to win the game by leaving them out there for much of the 4th quarter, I had no idea exactly how unusual the night was until I got home and looked at the numbers.  

Only one Boston starter scored in double figures (and just barely at that), Kevin Garnett with 10.  In fact, oddly enough the Celtics starting 5 posted 6 (Bass), 7 (Pierce), 8 (Rondo), 9 (Bradley), and 10 points each.  The team's top three scorers all came off the bench; Sullinger's 12, Terry's 13, and Green's 14.  Jeff Green's 14 points were the lowest amount posted by the team's leading scorer in any game this year.

But most impressive of all were Sullinger's 16 rebounds, the biggest number in the entire box score for either team (although Luis Scola did also score 16).  Another stat worth noting (that we may hear a lot more about if the trend continues) was the Celtics difference in +/- at the power forward position: They were 41 points better with Sullinger (+24) on the floor than Brandon Bass (-17).

While last night's game showed off the balance and depth we've been hoping to see from this roster all season, I'll get a lot more excited about it when they do it against a team not plummeting to the bottom of the standings.

Follow Mark on twitter @LucidSportsFan