"The last time Ray Allen played at Madison Square Garden, he left the arena with seven stitches and a bandage above his right eye.

"It was a bloodbath,'' Celtics coach Doc Rivers said at the time, referring in part to a Jared Jeffries elbow Allen absorbed in the third quarter of that March 21 game. "I thought that was beautiful.''

Game 3 of the Celtics-Knicks playoff series last night was a different kind of bloodbath, and Allen's performance was also beautiful, though the circumstances could not have been more different.

Instead of trading punches with the Knicks in a knock-down, drag-out fight, the Celtics inflicted a painful 113-96 loss on the Knicks to take a commanding series lead. Instead of taking punishment, Allen dished it out, overcoming the battle scars from that March game to hit 8 of 11 3-pointers last night. Allen is a staggering 15 of 20 from the 3-point arc in this series.

"Our bigs set great screens,'' Allen said. "I was able to get open. Paul [Pierce] was able to get open . . . This building has always been intense. It was no different tonight.''"