Ray Allen shows signs of shaking slump

Though he only took six shots, Ray Allen may be fighting out of a late-season slump that has seen his shot attempts drop.

Last night’s 13-point, 5-for-6 shooting performance included a fourth-quarter 3-pointer and a return to the efficient offense normally associated with the Celtics [team stats] guard.

“He’s going to be huge for us,” Kevin Garnett said after the 101-90 win over the Detroit Pistons. “I’m trying to take it on myself to get him some looks. Just know the past couple of games that we haven’t had a rhythm, and we have to establish a rhythm. He’s going to be huge for us, where we’re going.”

Allen admittedly doesn’t feel comfortable in the offense right now, with the most notable difference his drop in attempted shots from a season average of 12.4 per game to an even 9.0 over his last seven games. But he doesn’t agree with an assessment by Doc Rivers, who said following Friday’s loss to Atlanta that Allen had to relax and stop dribbling so much.

“Relax? I feel very relaxed and I don’t think I’m dribbling too much,” Allen said before the game. “Right now attempt-wise I’m not getting a lot, but I can’t say that I’m not relaxed because I feel good. I feel like I’ve felt all year. Nothing about me is different; nothing about me has changed.”

Allen instead pins the drop in his shots on the offense.

“I’ve noticed a change, I don’t know what it is, but I’ve felt this way for a couple of weeks,” he said. “We are making it harder on ourselves. My looks are always interesting, because I’m usually open for a split second and I’m not anymore, so you have to do the best with what you have.

“I believe when you’re not scoring, or a team is scoring on you, it has everything to do with everything. You can set better screens, I could make better cuts, you get better stops on defense, you get open looks — it’s a trickle-down effect. It’s not one thing, it’s everything.”