Celtics Central

If the Boston Celtics could only have gotten this game to end after three quarters, all would be well in Beantown tonight. As things are, it’s still not so bad. But it was almost perfect.

The Celtics played great basketball for 19 quarters on this trip. It looks like they mentally started to board the plane by the 4th quarter. Actually they met some great 4th quarter defense and apparently tired. Because of that, they go home 4-1. After being up most of the game, they uncharacteristically made poor plays on both ends of the floor and lost 113-106.

In their previous game, Boston shot .345%, was out rebounded by 2…and won in Dallas. Tonight the Celtics shot .554%, out rebounded the Hornets by 15….and lost. Usually 106 points scored is an automatic double digit win for the defensive minded Celtics.

After being up by 15 for most of the game, the Celtics still had an 8 point lead thanks to a Paul Pierce drive and difficult lay-up at the buzzer, ending the 3rd with his 22nd point(s). It looked then like the Hornets were making a move…finally.

A 5-0 sweep on their toughest road trip of the year would have been a reality if the game ended then and it would have been very sweet to fly home with.

Instead, the Celtics had to go south to be beaten by the West. David West, that is. The under rated Hornet power forward poured in 27 points in the second half in a variety of ways, and finished with 37 for the contest.

Instead, the Celtics fell apart in the all important 4th quarter. They were the team making bad passes, bad shots, and playing bad defense. They simply lost focus.

Instead, they turned the ball too many times to hold the lead. They had only 3 TOs sixteen minutes into the game. They had 13 in the second half. They coughed up the ball, and the win.

Instead, the tough defense played in the 4th quarter was against them, as they were held to 17 points. I stand corrected. I now know that more than Tyson Chandler plays defense on the Hornets. At least, they do when it is need it most.

Wells Steals the Show

Bonzi Wells alone stole the ball 8 times, and played aggressive defense on Paul Pierce in the 2nd half, especially in the 4th quarter. Paul had 22 points at the end of three, but finished with 28. Bonzi had the best plus/minus of the game, by far (+23). Yes, that Bonzi Wells. He had 6 steals (Hornets record) in the 4th quarter drive to take the lead, including 3 in two minutes, culminating with an assist to West for his 30th point, to take the lead at 94-93 with 6 minutes left in the game. It was the first time New Orleans led since 6-5 to open the game. Boston began to fade away.

At this point, Ray Allen had 2 big unforced TOs on bad passes and missed a hurried 3 pointer on consecutive plays that opened the door to David West scoring 7 straight points for a 98-93 lead. Perhaps too late, at this point Perkins was substituted in for Posey as even West was driving the middle.

Boston went 5 minutes, from 8:53 to 3:53 without scoring a point, while the Hornets scored 9 straight points to lead 99-93.

The Hornets continually found a man open in the right corner for most of the night, as Celtic rotations were late or non-existent. They never really solved that play.

For the first 30 minutes, it was looking too easy. The Celtics had gone up as much as 15 points in a ‘less than Celtic’ effort. I was losing respect for the Hornets by the minute. This was one of the top teams in the west? Really?

Instead, New Orleans was doing what most good teams do, they were not panicking. They were patiently waiting…..waiting for that opportunity that always seems to present itself in any game. They also kept slowly closing the point spread between themselves and the best team in the league.

Turnovers killed the Cs. After not doing so for a long time, Paul Pierced tried to force his way through double teams a few times. Pierce alone had 4 TOs in the 4th quarter. Bonzi Wells knocked the ball away twice and was guarding Pierce when Julian Wright doubled down and picked up another.

What David West and Bonzi Wells started, Chris Paul finished. CP3 got into foul trouble in the first half as Rajon Rondo aggressively attacked the basket for 13 first half points. Chris Paul re-entered the game with 5:21 left and the Hornets up 94-93. He scored 7 straight points in the final 2 minutes to maintain the lead and finished with 19 and 7 assists in 29 minutes.

Boston was led by Pierce with 28, followed by Rondo with 23 pts., 7 assists, 2 steals and 3 TOs. Kevin Garnett added 19 points and 12 rebounds.

The Celtic bench performed poorly while the Hornets bench, especially Jannero Pargo, played very well. When Chris Paul went to bench in the first half, they actually closed the gap with Pargo playing a big role for them. Pargo had 15 points and 6 assists in 20 minutes for them.

Contrary to the previous three games, this one did not feel anything like a play-off game, from the very start. While the Celtics can be forgiven for letting this one get away, it shows what happens when you let good teams hang around. A solid defensive effort would have iced this.

The next Celtic game is at home on Monday against the hot Philadelphia 76ers.