In a hard fought contest, the Celtics beat the Jazz by holding them to 42 second half points while scoring 53 of their own. 24 of those belonged to Paul Pierce.
If this was a test, they passed. For while it looked like they wouldn’t.
It was Boston’s 3rd straight win on this road trip, 5 straight overall, and the Beantown Ballers are 14-1 since a loss to Cleveland on Nov. 27.
Paul Pierce put the Cs on his broad shoulders for much of the 2nd half as he scored all 24 of his points to lead the team in scoring and carry them now for 2 straight games. He had 37 against Seattle on Thursday. But note: Boston did not lead for good until 28 seconds were left when Pierce made a driving lay-up to give Boston a 100-98 lead. It was a difficult win that looked like a loss for much of the game.
There was a determined effort to go to Paul right from the start of the 2nd half. Paul scored 10 straight for Boston coming out from the break. The Truth delivered throughout on a variety of drives to the hoop, where he either made the shot, got fouled or both. He mixed things up with 2-4 from downtown and made 10-11 foul shots, many of them late, while under pressure. Most of the fouls were strong ones, courtesy of Matt Harpring as he tried to be physical with Pierce. This was simply a great performance by Paul, especially considering that he was scoreless (0-6) for the first half.
But it was a true team win as Ray Allen contributed 23 of his own, including a huge 3 pointer with the game tied at 95 with 2:18 left, and a man in his face, as the shot clock was winding down.
An Eddie House 3 pointer early in the 4th gave Boston its first lead since the 1st quarter. Tony Allen’s flurry of 3 consecutive steals accompanied by 4 straight points of his own, solidified the Boston lead 83-78, though that too would not be safe.
Boston closed to within two points (or less) 5 times in the 3rd quarter, but Utah refused to relinquish the lead, looking very much a like team that was 10-2 at home instead of a team that was 16-15 on the season.
Kevin Garnett and Kendrick Perkins did their job by keeping the most successful points-in-the-paint team out of the paint. Instead, Utah shot like the Suns from outside to stay close, and then take the lead for much of the game.
Garnett contributed 15 points and 9 rebounds on the night, in one of his quieter games.
Perkins rebounded well with 9 total (5 offensive) in just 22 minutes, to tie KG for the team lead. He also added 11 points, though he had a couple of wild passes (3 TOs) on the night as well.
Yet, the Celtics James Posey had the best plus/minus (+11) and Kendrick the worse (-7), suggesting that Mehmet Okur, a perimeter player, was better guarded when Posey was on the floor. Not surprising really, as Posey is much quicker. Okur even hit a difficult three with Posey in his shirt, that banked in, while Utah was making yet another run to take the lead in the 4th.
Rajon Rondo had his hands full with Deron Williams (9-13, 22 points) for most of the night, but he played him well during the decisive 4th quarter and had a huge deflection on Williams that Posey picked up to send down court to help the Cs seal the win. Deron had 7 TOs on the night to go with 11 assists.
Paul Pierce started tentatively offensively as he let the game progress around him. Paul finished with 6 rebounds, 4 assists, one block, two steals and numerous deflections while playing notable solid man D, in addition to his offensive outburst.
The Utah Jazz put on a shooting clinic in the first half with .649 FG% on 24-37 attempts. They finished with their biggest lead of the game at 56-49 to that point. It was a balanced scoring attack led by Deron Williams 12, and C.J. Miles 11. Carlos Boozer and Paul Millsap followed with 8 points apiece.
On the green side of things for the half, Kevin Garnett led with 12, followed by Ray Allen with 11. Kendrick Perkins followed with 8 and Eddie House added 6 on 2-3 from downtown. The Celtics stayed close throughout, weathering the blistering shooting by outrebounding the Jazz by 20-12.
Kendrick and Kevin led with 6 boards each, followed by Glen Davis with 5 (in 3 minutes, including an offensive board off of his own missed lay-up). Rajon Rondo made a fantastic drive in the first quarter after being harassed by 2 defenders in the left top corner of the offensive set.
The Jazz were fired up after last night’s convincing loss to the Lakers. The Celtics didn’t ever really take control of the game.
In the first half, the Jazz were running an intricate offense based on their usual motion and cutting. The Celtics couldn’t solved it.
By the end of 3rd, the Celtics led in rebounds 30-20. Jazz were still shooting .589 33-56. Celtics improved to 29-61 .475.
But it was the Celtics defense that held Utah to 7-17 shooting in the pivotal 4th quarter, while Boston’s offense made big play after big play.
This was a great road win against a tough home team that refused to quit. The Celtics can expect more of the same Sunday night at 10:00 pm against the 19-10 Los Angeles Lakers.
That game should be even tougher. The Lakers are 8-2 in their last ten and 11-4 at home, as Andrew Bynum is becoming a force in the middle for the Kobe Bryant led team. They also lost to the Celtics rather decisively in their only trip to Boston this year. I’m sure that is on their mind, as well.
