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. 

Third Quarter Malfunctions

It always stings just a little bit more to lose to New York, regardless of the sport.  Last night the Celtics suffered a close 104-101 loss to the New York Knicks.  We were down by only 1 point at the half, but as some more previous games have gone, we ended up being outplayed in the third quarter which clinched the win for the Knicks.  We came back slightly in the fourth, but it was just short of what the Celtics needed to win.  Ray Allen led the team in scoring with 17 points, followed by Kevin Garnett and Kendrick Perkins with 14 each, and Paul Pierce who added his own 13.  Perkins also had a great defensive game with 8 rebounds and 3 assists.  Unfortunately on the other side, Danilo Gallinari dominated for the Knicks with 31 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 assists.  Earl Barron also played a tough game against us, racking up 17 points along with 18 total rebounds.  It may have also helped slightly if the Celtics didn't turn the ball over 18 times, just a thought.

Third Loss In A Row

I’m not sure why, but apparently were trying to start a losing streak instead of a winning streak.  Not only was last night’s 119-114 loss against the Houston Rockets our third loss in a row, it was also our second loss by 5 points in a row (woohoo…).  Once again though, at least it was a good show by the Celtics who rallied in the fourth quarter to send the game into overtime.  Pierce and Rondo tried their hardest and racked up 27 and 23 points, trailed surprisingly by Kendrick Perkins with 15 points.  We could have used a little more from Ray Allen this time, who only got 5 points last night.
  

The Rockets’ Aaron Brooks was the high scorer for Houston with 30 points, followed by Luis Scola with 27 and Chase Budinger with 24.  Apparently they aren’t missing big Yao Ming as much as I speculated in an earlier post.  I also think a big part of this loss came from not taking advantage of the 23 turnovers that Houston had.  We can make them turn over the ball as much as we want, but if we don’t score off of those then they are useless.  I am sick of this losing streak!!!

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.