With a 14-game winning streak hanging in the balance of a close game against the Orlando Magic, the Celtics weren't able to close out the game. Abracadabra, the win streak was gone and so was the Celtics' ability to close out a close game. In fact, aside from the very beginning and very end of the game, the Celtics looked pretty good. Despite spotting the Magic a 13-0 lead to start the game, they did hold double-digit leads. The only problem was that their late game collapse issues of last season made a re-appearing act at least for this game.
Let's all hope that it was one of those special David Copperfield "One Night Only" disappearing acts and based on what we've all seen thus far this season (despite the injuries) it would certainly appear that way. The Celtics did do quite a few things well however and with the return of GreenLights, I will show most of the good plays. Watch the clips below for how the Celtics did execute well for some stretches during the game on both ends of the floor.
Q1: The game got off to a rough start, with the Celtics trailing 13-0 to start. In the first clip, there's some good defense on a driving Jameer Nelson who loses the ball. Then Shaquille O'Neal shows that he can still guard Dwight Howard pretty well with single coverage in the post. Other highlights include:
- More good one-on-one post defense on Shaq, despite Brandon Bass working hard to score
- Paul Pierce getting the C's on the board with a spin-back jumper on Hedo Turkoglu
- Shaq with some fantastic help defense stripping Brandon Bass on his drive
- Pierce with the strong rebound off of the Turkoglu missed three
- Pierce knocking away the Jameer Nelson post-entry pass to Bass
- Pierce finding Kevin Garnett for the loud jam
- Solid teamwork on defense leading to an air-balled Jason Richardson three
- Big Baby getting the left hand up on Bass' missed jumper
- Ray Allen with the smooth floater of the dribble-drive curl
- Big Baby over-playing Howard in the post, stealing the ball
- That steal allowed Pierce to get out in transition and score a lay-up (goaltending on Howard) plus the foul
- Ray making the technical free throw (Stan Van Gundy got teed up)
- Pierce completing the three-point play with the made free throw
- Good post defense by Big Baby on Howard
- Big Baby drawing the offense foul on Howard
- KG with a nice post move on Bass and even though he misses his extra effort is something he could not do last year
- Big Baby meeting JRich at the hoop, causing him to miss a jam
- Pierce with a strong move to the basket, out-powering Nelson for the lay-up and 1
- Exceptional team defense forcing a desperation missed three by Turkoglu as the shot clock expired
- Jermaine O'Neal with a nice turn-around jumper to give the Celtics their first lead
- Big Baby with a nice recovery lay-up after JO got his jumper blocked
- Pierce drilling a three
- JO bothering Bass' lay-up enough to force the miss to end the quarter
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hl_ujTUegyU&w=445&h=275]
Q2: The second quarter begins with Big Baby driving to the basket drawing the block on Ryan Anderson, then he completes the fall with an interesting pose on the way up. Big Baby would go on to make both free throws. Other highlights include:
- Avery Bradley with solid 3/4 court defense on Gilbert Arenas, followed by Big Baby getting the left hand up on Anderson's missed baseline three, leading to JO tapping the rebound to Ray… good defense all around
- Ray tipping a rebound to Marquis Daniels
- Bradley with some more harassing defense on Arenas and even though Big Baby gets whistled for the foul, the effort is aggressive
- Big Baby with a jump hook off of the high-low-lower play from Quis, to Ray, finally to Big Baby
- Shaq with the no lay-up rule foul on Anderson
- Quis to Ray for the jumper off the classic curl play
- Ray counting the amount of time it takes Howard to shoot a free throw
- KG with the smooth deep jumper
- Howard getting whistled for the 10-second violation (too long to shoot a free throw)
- Howard gets whistled for the technical, Ray makes the free throw
- Big Baby with a nice spin move on Turkoglu, drawing the foul
- Big Baby with the nice anticipation steal, taking away a bad post-entry pass from JRich to Howard
- KG and Big Baby combining for the great defense underneath on Bass
- That leads to Nate Robinson finding a trailing Pierce for a transition three
- Pierce with the mid-range jumper
- Solid team defense forcing the bad pass by Nelson, forcing a turnover
- Big Baby gets blocked, but stays with it, earning a jump ball on the second effort
- Big Baby with more solid defense on Howard
- Nate finding KG for another smooth jumper
- KG with the great post anticipation defense, getting the steal
- KG with more good defense, this time jumping out on the Bass jumper, getting the left hand up
- KG finding a cutting Big Baby who misses the lay-up, gets fouled, and makes both free throws
- Pierce with the strong rebound out-working Howard
- Pierce then finds KG in transition for the slam over a trailing Howard
- Quis with the recovery block on Arenas from behind, then taking it all the way for two
- KG with more good defense in the post, knocking away Nelson's pass
- KG drilling a tough fade-away jumper over Bass as the shot clock expires
- Big Baby out-working Howard for the rebound
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDYPkDHoEbE&w=445&h=275]
Q3:The second half begins with KG nailing a jumper over the JRich/Nelson double-team. Tough jumper gets the offense going. Other highlights include:
- Nate drawing the illegal screen call on Howard
- Exceptional team defense for 24 seconds, forcing a desperation bomb that Nelson misses
- Good defense by Shaq, first poking away the ball from Nelson, then rejecting Nelson's attempted lay-up
- Shaq with the good box-out on Howard getting the rebound and drawing the holding foul
- Nate getting under Howard's skin with a little after-the-whistle activity
- KG with the tough fall-away bank shot over Anderson
- Another good defensive set, anchored by KG
- KG with the block on Nelson's attempted lay-up
- KG finding a cutting Nate for the lefty lay-up
- KG with the steal on Nelson, getting out on the break then getting hammered by Turkoglu… KG made one of two free throws
- Great defense by Big Baby and KG on Bass, causing the 24 second shot clock violation
- Nate draining a transition three
- Big Baby catching a bad Pierce fastball, then tossing it to Ray who drains a three
- Big Baby with a nice spin move on Bass in the post, drawing the foul and making both free throws
- Pierce getting absolutely thrashed by Turkoglu on a drive then getting teed up for complaining on the lack of a call
- Ray finding Pierce underneath who gets fouled then makes both free throws
- Bradley, KG and Big Baby with some nice defense on Arenas to force the turnover
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcNEIVh43hk&w=445&h=275]
Q4: The final quarter begins with some solid defense even though JO gets whistled for the foul on Howard. Then we see Pierce now counting as Howard takes quite a while to shoot the free throw. Other highlights include:
- Shaq with good post defense on Howard, causing the turnover leading to Nate getting horse collared by Arenas on the drive… Nate made both free throws
- Nate finding Shaq in the post who sealed off Howard allowing him to spin for the lay-up
- Howard with the good acting job, taking a dive to foul Shaq out of the game
- Nate with solid defense on Arenas helping him miss his jumper
- Big Baby with a tough baseline jumper over Howard
- Big Baby drawing the traveling call on Howard
- Good defense forcing the missed Anderson drive
- Ray finding Big Baby off the bounce-pass for the jumper
- KG bouncing off of Howard for the tough jumper
- KG with the tough fade-away over Howard for two
- Pierce finding KG for the pick-and-pop jumper which was the C's final field goal of the game with 3:23 still left to play
- Game tied at 77 with just over a minute to play, Turkoglu forces Pierce to miss a tough fade-away jumper as the shot clock expired
- Nelson hitting a step-back three to give Orlando the lead
- KG gets fouled on his drive, hitting one of two free throws
- JJ Redick hitting a jumper on the next possession
- Ray air balling a three
- Nate missing a bomb at the end of the game after Orlando made a bunch of free throws
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbqZl1LEFxE&w=445&h=275]
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