After a completely listless performance the night before in Houston, the Celtics rebounded nicely for their largest comeback win of the year in New Orleans against the Hornets. It was a rare win on the second night of back-to-backs, especially on the road against a playoff team.
It was also a rarity to see the bench out-score the starters (largely due to big man closer Glen Davis), especially with Paul Pierce struggling to get anything in the bucket for the second straight game. Delonte West was huge in relief for Rajon Rondo, who semi-injured his pinkie finger in an incidental collision with Kevin Garnett.
Speaking of KG, he hit the huge jumper with just under a minute left to seal the win and get the C's back on the winning track. It may not have been the biggest win of the season but it was huge to bounce back and instill some confidence back to the team. Check below for all the GreenLights:
Q1: Pierce gets the C's on the board first by taking it to the basket, getting fouled and making both free throws. Other highlights include:
- Ray Allen with the nice steal off Marco Belinelli
- Rondo and KG working the pick-and-roll for a KG lay-up
- Pierce and KG working the two-man game, KG knocking down the baseline turn-around jumper
- Nenad Krstic stealing David West's baseline pass
- Rondo deflecting Chris Paul's pass, Krstic steals it, passes it ahead to Rondo who hands it off to Ray for the lay-up
- Good 24 seconds of defense, with Pierce stripping the ball from West
- Rondo knocking down the jumper from the right wing
- Jeff Green with the nice baseline move for the spin and lay-up
- Rondo knocking down another jumper, this time off a curl on the left wing
Q2: The second quarter begins with Big Baby knocking down the baseline jumper. Other highlights include:
- Solid defense forcing a Willie Green air ball and shot clock violation
- Ray finding Green underneath for two
- Davis with the spin move on Trevor Ariza, drawing the foul and making 1 of 2 free throws
- Delonte knocking down the jumper with the shot clock winding down
- Green with a jump-hook in the lane
- Delonte with an underhanded lay-up to beat the shot clock
- Delonte getting a couple of Tommy Points
- Davis with the turn around baseline jumper
- More good defense, forcing a near shot clock violation, then KG knocking down the turn-around jumper in the lane over Carl Landry
- Rondo knocking down another left wing jumper
- Ray finding KG for the one-handed slam on the baseline
- Pierce with the steal, getting out on the break, getting fouled and making both free throws
- Ray with the nice deflection
- Green knocking down the left wing jumper
- Good post defense by Green
- Rondo with the step back jumper to end the half
Q3: The second half begins with Rondo drawing a foul on Chris Paul and making 1 of 2 free throws. Other highlights include:
- Good perimeter defense by Pierce on Ariza, forcing the missed three
- Ray knocking down the three from the left wing
- Ray burying another three this time to beat the shot clock
- Back-to-back solid defensive sets on the same trip down the floor
- Rondo finding Davis for the right wing jumper
- Another great defensive set forcing a missed jumper by Chris Paul
- Davis with the up-fake to create space, then hits the jumper
- Ray with the tough turn-around on the baseline
- Two more solid trips on the defensive end, with a bogus foul called on Big Baby as he steals the ball on the over-play in the post defense
- Good one-on-one defense by Delonte on Chris Paul, forcing him baseline and out-of-bounds
- KG working Emeka Okafor in the paint for two
- Steal by Davis, then Delonte finds him with the behind the back pass for the jumper on the offensive end
- Another dual-defensive effort on one trip, highlighted by a spectacular KG block on West
- Ray knocking down the left wing jumper off a curl
- Davis with solid one-on-one post defense on West
- Green slashing to the hoop for two
- Delonte jab-stepping Chris Paul out of the way for a jumper
- More good defense forcing West to miss a jumper
- KG feeding Ray on the give-and-go for the lay-up
- More good defense, then Delonte with a nice bounce pass to a cutting Davis who lays it in to end the half
Q4: The final stanza begins with Delonte blocking Jarrett Jack's jumper. Other highlights include:
- Delonte hitting the jumper in the lane, getting fouled and making the free throw
- Ray with a floater on the baseline for two
- Pierce drawing the foul on Jack and making both free throws
- Big Baby rolling to the hoop for the lay-up
- Davis with the jumper for two
- Pierce drilling his only field goal of the game, a big three-pointer
- Krstic and David West getting into a little scuffle and Tommy Heinsohn is not too thrilled about it
- Davis drawing the foul in the lane and making 1 of 2 free throws
- Solid defense, forcing Okafor to bumble the ball, then the shot clocks expires
- More good defense forcing the missed floater by Chris Paul, then KG blocks Okafor but a jump ball is called
- Ray stripping the ball from a driving Belinelli
- Pierce working for the offensive board, and keeping the possession alive by knocking it off Ariza's head
- Pierce and KG working the pick-and-pop as KG knocks down the jumper
- Ray with a huge offensive rebound
- Pierce getting fouled several times, instead the officials grant him a timeout
- Davis and Ray each making a pair of clutch free throws to seal the game
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