Celtics Head Back To Boston, Up 3 Games To One

After going up 3 games to 1 against the Heat in the quarterfinals, the Celtics tried to close out the series today in Miami, but were stopped by Dwyane Wade's resilient performance.

Game two on Tuesday night brought an in-your-face 106-77 win for the Celtics.  Dwyane Wade tried to put up a fight with his 29 points and 5 assists, but that was nothing compared the team effort by Boston.  Ray Allen scored a team high 25 points, and had five rebounds and three assists.  He was followed by a surprising performance by Big Baby Davis who contributed with 23 points, 8 rebounds, and 1 assist.  Paul Pierce and Kendrick Perkins also helped out with 13 points each, along with Rajon Rondo who had an impressive 7 rebounds and 12 assists.  And all of this was done without Kevin Garnett, who was suspended for this game because of a fight in game 1.  Check out the highlights:




Friday night the teams met in Miami for one of the most exciting games I have seen in a while.  Literally an epic battle from the start, the two teams remained even for the entire first half and went to the locker rooms with Miami up by 1 point.  Pierce came in strong during the 3rd quarter to give Boston an 8 point lead going into the fourth.  However, Miami turned up the Heat in the fourth and with only 3 minutes remaining in the game they had tied it up 92-92.  Finally, with the score tied at 98 and just seconds to go, Paul Pierce hit a jumper at the buzzer to win the game 100-98!! He had a total of 32 points along with 8 rebounds throughout the game. Ray Allen tacked on 25 points and Rajon Rondo contributed 17 points.  Here are the highlights:




Tonight the Celtics had the opportunity to finish the series and knock out the Heat, but unfortunately Dwyane Wade had a huge performance and Miami won their first game of the series by 101-92.  Might as well start off with the craziest part and tell you that Wade scored FORTY-SIX points. Hard to beat that, lets be honest.  The Heat was actually up by 18 points at one time during the 1st half, then the Celtics came back during the second half to take the lead, but in the end Wade was on fire and started hitting every single shot to secure the win for his team.  These are the highlights from game 4:





Game five will be played in Boston on Tuesday night at 7 pm.  If the Celtics manage to wrap up the series this time, they may have to play Lebron next. 

Buck Off

Last night the Celtics defeated the Milwaukee Bucks 105-90 in a game that may have well been a preview for the first round of the playoffs.  It was a close game through out the first three quarters, but the Celtics managed to take it away in the fourth and secure a big win.  This quarter included three straight jumpers made by Pierce, a few flagrant fouls and technicals called, an ejection of the Bucks coach, and 2 clutch free throws by Ray Allen.  Pierce and Allen also led the scoring for the night with 24 and 21 points respectively, followed by Rondo who had 15 points on the game.  Rasheed Wallace and Big Baby Davis had big defensive games with 7 rebounds each, and Rondo had an impressive 10 assists (out of a total of 15 assists for the whole team!).  The Bucks were led by John Salmons who racked up 21 points, and Brandon Jennings who added on 19 points.    

Here are the highlights from last nights game.

The energy and intensity were extremely high in this game, which is something we can hope to see a lot more of come play offs.  Kevin Garnett didn't play this time, but we all know his presence in future games will boost the intensity ten-notch. 

Doomed By Durant

Kevin Durant is a beast.  This Thunder player was the sole reason for the Celtic’s nail biting 109-104 loss to Oklahoma City last night.  We were winning by 4 at the half, but Durant’s unbelievable 37 points was Lebron-esque and too much for the Celtics to handle.  The Thunder’s Russell Westbrook and Jeff Green backed Durant up with 21 and 17 points each.  It’s a shame that the Celtics lost because the scoring on our side was as unbelievably well-rounded as Durant was during this game.  Kevin Garnett and Rasheed Wallace led the team with 18 points each, followed by Rondo with 16 points and Pierce with 15 points.  Ray Allen also knocked down 13 and Big Baby Davis hit 10 points.  Every single starter and player off the bench scored points to try to help the Celtics stay in this game.  It was a tough loss, but at least the boys still put on a good show.    

Can’t Figure Out Lebron

On Sunday the 14^th while I was basking in the sun in beautiful Mexico, the Celtics were once again stumped by Lebron James.  There’s something super human about this guy that the Celtics have not been able to get around this season.  This time losing 104-93 to the Cleveland Cavaliers, I’m almost starting to wonder if it’s even possible to get by this team once the playoffs get here.  Lebron racked up 30 points throughout the game, with team mate Anderson Varejao behind him with 17 points.  Ray Allen scored 20 points, Pierce and KG each had 18, and Rajon Rondo ended up with 16.  Even with well-rounded scoring like this, it will never be enough when Lebron continuously scores 30+ points against us.  I’m dreading playing James and the Cav’s again on Easter Sunday, but maybe Doc will have thought something genius up by then.

The next night our heads were back in the game and the Celtics bounced back with a decisive 119-93 victory over the Detroit Pistons.  The Pistons weren’t much competition, with their high scorers Will Bynum and Richard Hamilton only getting 16 and 14 points.  The Celtics had an even lower high score of 15 points, but three different players reached that, which one coming from the bench.  Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Michael Finley all scored 15 points, with KG and Big Baby Davis close behind with 14 and 13 points.  Every single player contributed to the win, including the 2 points from Tony Allen in 7 minutes of play.  Kendrick Perkins and Nate Robinson both had separate technical fouls, but neither affected the game.

 

On Wednesday the 17th (most appropriately St. Patty’s Day), the Celtics added another win to their record by defeating the New York Knicks 109-97.  It was a battle between Knicks’ David Lee and Celtics’ Paul Pierce who each scored an impressive 29 points.  The only problem for Lee: he doesn’t have the team to back him up like Pierce does.  The next highest scorer for the Knicks was Al Harrington with 16 points, whereas the Celtics had Kevin Garnett working extra hard to rack up 22 points to support Pierce.  Like I’ve said before, it takes a team to win, which is why the Celtics usually come out on top.

End Of The Four Game Winning Streak

Unfortunately the Celtics brought an end to their winning streak on the Tuesday night leading into Fordham’s Spring Break with a heart wrenching last minute 86-84 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks.  Rajon Rondo led the C’s scoring with 20 points, but his sole efforts weren’t enough to hold onto the lead through all four quarters.  For the first time in a while, Ray Allen was basically useless as he played 34 min and only managed to score 3 total points.  KG and Pierce helped out a little with 12 and 14 points respectively, but Rondo needed much more help than that to defeat Andrew Bogut and Carlos Delfino of the Bucks, who scored 25 and 19 points each.  The Celtics held onto the lead until the fourth quarter, when it became a battle the finish with the Bucks ending up on top by 2 mere points.  There was also some drama 4 minutes into the fourth quarter, when Big Baby Davis got into an argument with Buck’s player Brandon Jennings, and both received technicals.

The next night on Wednesday March 10^th, the Celtics added to the misery by losing horribly at home in a 111-91 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies.  I understand losing to the big dog teams like the Lakers and Cavaliers, but it just hurts seeing the C’s get crushed by a team like the Grizzlies who have a record of 34-31.  We were never even close in this game, only scoring 12 points in the entire first quarter.  The Grizzlies Rudy Gay easily scored 28 points, while the Celtics leading scorers were Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo with 17 each.  Pierce also had 14, but when you fall that far behind early on it’s nearly impossible to catch up.  I can’t imagine the fans at the Garden were very pleased with this performance, especially when we’re vying for a playoff spot.

I’m not sure what Doc Rivers had to say to his team after the previous two games, but whatever it was it worked because the Celtics came back strong on Friday March 12^th to defeat the Indiana Pacers 122-103 in the Garden.  With the Pacers sad record of 21-44, its no wonder we won, but at the same time we needed this victory to boost morale again.  The Celtics had a HUGE 2^nd quarter with 38 points and then never looked back.  Not surprisingly, Pierce led the scoring with 20 points and Rondo trailed behind him with 16 points.  However, the key to this game was the enormous help from the bench which scored a combined total of 54 points!!  Big Baby Davis and Nate Robinson each racked up an impressive 15 points during their time on the court. 

I will continue to post more of the updates tomorrow, so check back here and pray that this game gave them the momentum they need to roll on through to the playoffs. 

Celtics Cruise Through Pistons and Bobcats

The bench was a big help in Tuesday nights 105-100 win over the Detroit Pistons.  The game high scorer was once again Ray Allen, but this time with only 18 points.  Pierce finally came back, but seemed to be taking it easy and only scored 9 points.  Luckily, Nate Robinson and Big Baby Davis were huge off the bench with a combined total of 26 points.  The Pistons also had 18 turnovers, which didn’t hurt either.

Then last night, the Celtics hosted the Charlotte Bobcats and rolled over them with a 104-80 victory.  Its not too surprising that we won, seeing as how the Bobcats were terrible and only two of their starters reached double digits with a mere 10 points each.  But nonetheless, a win is a win is a win.  Paul Pierce was 100 percent back in action, scoring a game high 27 points.  The next two highest scorers were Robinson with 16 and Garnett with 12 points.  Besides Pierce outshining everyone, it was an extremely well rounded game with almost all members of the team contributing (poor Brian Scalabrine was 0-3 in his eight minutes of play).  Haha, go figure.