Twenty turnovers, missed shots, poor foul shooting, and poor execution down the stretch did in the Celtics on their final game of the longest road trip of the year. Except for those minor details, they played well.
Call it the trap game. The Celtics return home 4-2 from this trip after losing to the now 15-43 Los Angeles Clippers.
It was the “good team vs bad team” trap at the end of a long journey. The bad team won. Zach Randolph scored 30 points on 12 of 30 shot attempts and put in an air ball miss with 19 seconds left to give the Clippers the final lead, 92-91.
Paul Pierce missed a good look with his mid range jumper with 9 seconds left. After Davis and House fouled, Randolph made one of two foul shots with 5 seconds left for a 93-91 lead.
With no time outs left, the Celtics had to take the ball out from underneath their basket. Rajon got the ball up the floor quick enough for a decent look at a shot, but Rondo and House got mixed up when Rondo went by House with the ball near the left side of the arc. The ball dribbled away as time expired. That was pretty much how the stretch went for the tired Celtics.
Davis’ Shot Coming Around
Glen Davis had a solid game. After making 4 straight foul shots, he missed two straight foul shots that would have tied the game. He then hit his 4th jumper of the game to tie things at 88. He had a season high 14 points with a fairly good floor game at both ends of the court.
After that Ray Allen had a lay-up blocked by Camby, Davis missed a jumper, Pierce missed 1 of 2 free throws and Rondo missed 2 of 4 free throws, leading up to the final sequence.
Suggesting why Stephon Marbury might have value for the Celtics in the waning moments of games, Rondo missed two of four foul shots in the final 1:14 of the game. Rajon finished 4 of 8 from the line, but had 17 points on 6 of 10 shooting with 7 rebounds, only 3 assists, a steal and 4 turnovers.
Paul Pierce led the Celtics with 20 points, but had 3 turnovers. Glen Davis produced his season high of 14 points on 5 of 7 shooting, but had 4 turnovers. Davis once again started in place of the injured Kevin Garnett.
Leon Powe grabbed 9 rebounds to tie Kendrick Perkins for team honors and Eddie House drained ten points on 4 of 7 shooting, 4 rebounds, 2 steals and 3 ill-timed turnovers.
It appeared that the somewhat lethargic Celtics might pull out the win without putting in a solid game. They broke open a close game with a 9 point lead (82-73) in the 4th, climaxed with a tranistion alley oop dunk from Ray Allen to Powe. That was the Celtics biggest lead of the game.
The Clippers then went on an 8-0 run with baskets by Fred Jones, Mardy Collins, Zach Randolph and a put back by Marcus Camby to close within 81-82.
It was not an easy game for Pierce who shot 7 of 19 and had his thumb dislocated twice on slaps at the ball by Baron Davis. You could see Celtic trainer Ed Lacerte put the thumb back in place right in the walkway leading out of the arena. Paul also got into an exchange of words with Mardy Collins and was given a technical for it.
The Numbers
Besides Pierce’s 20 points, he had 4 assist and 3 rebounds.
Ray Allen had 17 points, 6 assists, and 4 rebounds.
Rajon Rondo added 17 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists.
Glen Daivs had 4 rebounds, an assist, a steal and a block with his 14 points
Kendrick Perkins added 3 points, 9 boards, an assist, a steal and a block.
Leon Powe had 3 points, 2 blocks, a steal, and an assist to go with 9 boards
Eddie House had 4 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 assists with his 10 points
Mikki Moore played his first game as a Celtic and scored 4 points on 2-2 shooting with 2 assists and a rebound.
Next up: The Pacers Friday night in Boston
A very shabby performance by the Celtics, trap game or not. In their last 4 losses, they have failed to hold on to 4th quarter leads due to very poor execution. And I can’t believe that this far into the season, turnovers are still such a big problem. What ever happen to gaining poise from being a champion?
Comment by mev — February 26th, 2009 @ 11:14 pm
hey mev,
Nice to hear from you.
well… your comments are all true.
A couple of things…
1) losing leads in 4th quarters of losses – isn’t that why they are… losses?
The team is 46-13. That is better than I expected of them heading into the season. Maybe you were expecting better.
I suppose you can lose the lead earlier in the game as well, though I’m not sure that is any better, right? J/K
But I would break down the 4 losses three ways.
1) the first two were close enough to go either way and were against possible finals competition. They definitely hurt. But I wouldn’t panic about either.
The Celtics themselves seem to feel those things are correctable. Ray Allen was fouled and it wasn’t called on the last attempt in one of those games. You have to live with that.
2) Utah loss – KG went out and they weren’t able to recover. Understandable, IMO. Utah is brutally tough at home.
3) Clippers – the team was semi-lethargic throughout. Rondo actually did not play very well, though the numbers might not say that. Ditto for most of the rest of the team.
It is a question of how hard to drive the players for every bloody win. I think Doc could have had one of those challenging time outs where he says, ‘We need this game. Go get it.’
But you can’t drive your team at pell mell speed all of the time. You saw what happened when the winning streak became ‘the thing’ (regardless of what the Celtics said publicly).
It’s a long season. Pierce is averaging over 37 minutes again.
That is not to say that the team hasn’t had brain farts at critical times. The Ray Allen Ginobili steal on the inbounds is one. The Rondo botched play with House at the end of the Clippers is another.
Those are rare and fixable.
End of game management needs a closer look against the best teams no doubt. But KG is out and the team is in a different mode without him.
The Clippers drove the middle with impunity. They had about 60 points in the paint. That is a big number. That doesn’t happen with KG there.
The high turnovers are another story. Doc doesn’t seem to want to make an issue out of them (publicly) for some reason. Your guess is as good as mine.
I welcome any thoughts you have.
Tom
Comment by Tom halzack — February 27th, 2009 @ 1:11 am
Fair points, but these kind of losses can make the difference between having and not having home court advantage.
Our overall record is good, but that is primarily due to the 27-2 start, not as much for our play as of late. I would just like to see better quality basketball as the year progresses, especially when it comes to turnovers.
Besides, if I stay up to nearly 1 am, the team owes it to me to play better!!!!! They must have missed my memo to them.
Comment by mev — February 28th, 2009 @ 12:15 am
Well…I wasn’t expecting home court advantage when the season started.
I’ve always thought that this team will need to win at least one away game in the final two series. And I think they can.
If you can’t, do you really deserve to be champion?
next time, I’m there, I’ll look to see what happened to your memo!
best,
T
Comment by Tom halzack — February 28th, 2009 @ 10:58 am