After three losses, the Boston Celtics finally won a game on this west coast trip, beating the Portland Trailblazers by 112 -102.
They trailed by 17 in the first half. Got it to 54-47 by half time and took off for a 37 point turnaround at one point in the second half.
Paul Pierce led the way with 30 points on a sparkling 12-14 from the floor and 4-5 from down town to go with 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 6 TOs in 42:21 minutes.
Ray Allen supported that with 19 points on 7-8 shooting, another 4-5 from downtown, and 4 assists.
Rajon Rondo, and James Posey tied for third with 15 points each. Rondo added a team high 8 assists, 3 rebounds and 2 steals. Posey must have eaten what Pierce and Allen had, as he shot 6-8 from the field and 3-5 from downtown. Eddie House joined the 3 party with 3-5 and 11 points in just under 15 minutes. Kendrick Perkins was in foul trouble with 4 in 13 minutes, but added 5 rebounds (4 offensive) and a block, to go with 4 points.
Kevin Garnett played 31 minutes and scored 10 points on 5-15 shooting, to go with 7 rebounds and 3 assists. He is still working his way back, it seems.
Brandon Roy went out in the second half with a re-aggravated sprained ankle.
After being the hottest team in the league at one point, the Blazers have fallen back to earth hard, and are 2-8 over the last 10 games, barely keeping themselves above .500.
The team shot 14-21 from the three point line in this game.
I didn’t see this one, but I’m glad the Celtics got it going today. It sounds like the Blazers didn’t want to go out and cover the shooters, setting up a hot day from beyond the line. The Celtics ended up shooting .579 to the Blazers .453, while outrebounding them 37-31.
Pierce was a driven man after his last performance and made sure it wasn’t a 4 game losing streak.
The team goes to L.A. for the Clippers, and Sam I Am Cassell, on Monday night. Maybe he will be changing uniforms after that game (Tuesday).
