WARNING: Rated R – May not be suitable for all audiences
My God. This is a game that you hoped the Celtics would be competitive, and at least give us another reminder that we were close to becoming a serious team. Instead the Celtics got absolutely spanked at home in a game that even had the most optimistic fans wondering if it was too late to start tanking. For the night Boston will be out of the playoff picture. The’re 2-5 since beating Philadelphia.
The game started off with the Clippers quickly going up 21-13 midway through the first. Starters came out flat again, and Stevens was quick to go to Isaiah Thomas and Jae Crowder. It did little to slow down the Clippers who scored 34 in the quarter with Chris Paul, J.J Reddick, and Blake Griffin combining for 26 points. Boston struggled to score and defend with Crowder picking up 3 fouls by the end of the frame. It was 34-20 after one.
Second started off with much of the same with the Clippers ballooning to a 42-25 lead. Boston continued having trouble keeping up with Reddick who was off to a blistering start scoring 14 points on 6-8 shooting. By midway through the second it was 49-27, and the Clippers starters were cheering on their bench like it was garbage time. It didn’t get any better for Boston as Clippers continued to excel offensively, but led by Thomas, Boston made it a slightly manageable 68-47 deficit. Thomas finished the half with 15 points.
The Celtics started the second half by giving up a 12-4 run, and went down 80-51 quickly. And from there the rout was on. Besides for a few buckets here and there the Clippers cruised on comfortably to a… oh wait the Celtics are making a run. Holy shit the Celtics are on a 18-2 run and just cut the lead to 11, 111-100. Boston is putting the hack-a-Jordan and so far it’s working, Jordan is shooting 2-12 from the line. Celtics gave up a costly offensive rebound after a Jordan miss to Barnes who scored, followed by an even more costly turnover by Phil Pressey. After another set of free throws by Jordan in which he made the first and missed the second, Celtics allowed Barnes to tap it back to the Clippers where Chris Paul just about iced the game with two free throws going up 116-100. Celtics had some opportunities late, but in the end the Clippers held on to win 119-106.
The Green
- Isaiah Thomas looked a bit more like his old self going for 19 points and 6 assists while getting to line 10 times
The Gross
- Celtics allowed multiple 34 point quarter, then gave up a whopping 37 point third.
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.jsThe Grid
- Celtics had 47 bench points
- Boston outscored the Clippers 27-14
- Celtics were 42% from the field (39/93)
The Greenlights
Box Score
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
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