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!!!

Everythings Bigger In Texas

Over the weekend and the last few days of freedom/Spring Break, the Celtics went 2 for 3 on the road.  On Friday March 19^th, the Celtics faced the Houston Rockets (sans Yao Ming) and pulled off a 94-87 victory.  The Big Three had a big game with Paul Pierce racking up 26 points, Ray Allen knocking down 19 points, and Kevin Garnett adding 15 of his own.  Some worthy competition came from the Rockets’ Luis Scola and Kevin Martin who each had 17 points each.  I have a feeling that the Rockets are missing Yao Ming a lot during his absence from his foot injury and surgery.  The Celtics rounded off this solid win with 11 team rebounds and a 62.5 shooting percentage. 

On Saturday the 20^th, the Celtics moved to another part of Texas where they had a 102-93 victory over the Dallas Mavericks.  Both the 2^nd and 3^rd quarters ended with the Celtics being a mere 1 point ahead of the Mavericks.  However, the Celtics came out strong in the final quarter and outscored Dallas 29-21 to ensure the victory.  Impressive scoring came from Pierce with 29 points, Ray Allen with 21 points, and Rajon Rondo with 20 points.  Rondo also had 10 rebounds and 5 assists to really be a team player.  Dallas had a good showing by Dirk Nowitzki (28 points), Jason Terry (18 points), and Shawn Marion (16 points), but came up short in the 4^th quarter. 

Then on Monday the 22^nd, we suffered a hard 110-97 loss to the tough Utah Jazz.  The Celtics were up by 5 at halftime, but apparently decided not to show up for the rest of the game.  The 3^rd quarter especially killed us as the Jazz outscored the C’s 33-19 to take the lead and hold onto it until the final buzzer.  Sadly Ray Allen was our higher scorer with only 15 points, followed by Big Baby Davis with 13 points and Pierce with 11 points.  Utah’s CJ Miles and Deron Williams were huge parts of their victory with 23 and 22 points each.  To make matters worse, the Celtics had 18 turnovers which could have only added to their second half demise.