The Celtics had their chances in this one. But they just made way too many mistakes.
The Celtics turned it over 18 times. They got crushed in the paint. They got crushed on the boards and in second chance points. And in the last minute of the game when they were trailing by 1, Rajon Rondo launched an ill-advised floater rather than getting the ball to a scorer. Then trailing by 3, Glen Davis shot a 3 with 7 seconds still showing on the clock.
I'm sorry, that's just terrible decision making. Especially by Baby.
The C's got everything Chuck talked about in the preview. Paul Pierce got the ball (sorta… more on that shortly) scoring 22 points to lead the C's. 18 of those points came in the second half. They stopped Zach Randolph (13 points and 8 rebounds). Rondo was effective (sorta… more on that too in a minute) dropping 6 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists. But the rebounding and turnovers were too much. The turnovers & second chance points gave Memphis 14 more field goal attempts.
Here's more on the sortas: Pierce had 10 field goal attempts. He needed more than that. KG was 3-9. Ray Allen was 4-10. Meanwhile, Rajon Rondo was 2 of 12 and Glen Davis was 5-11. There's no way those guys should get more shots than the Big 3.
I don't want to get too down on Rondo because he did play a great game in almost every aspect aside from his shooting. He had 7 steals. He did have 4 turnovers though.
The first quarter saw the C's miss a ton of makeable shots. There were a bunch of shots at the rim that they just couldn't finish. They only gave up 20 points, but scored 15 on 33% shooting. They were also out-rebounded 14-9 in the quarter while turning it over 6 times. Not pretty but they managed to escape a crappy quarter only down 5.
The first half belonged to Rajon Rondo. He went into halftime with 6 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals. Rondo got 4 of his assists in the second quarter as the C's doubled their first quarter output. Ray Allen scored all 9 of his first half points in the 2nd quarter. The C's found the range in the second… upping their shooting percentage to 45.2%. They also out-rebounded the Grizzlies 9-6 in the quarter… which went a long way towards fueling the comeback. The C's went into halftime with a 45-44 lead.
There was a lot of pushing and shoving between KG and Zach Randolph. On one play, Z-Bo damn near tried to rip KG's arm off and there was no foul call.
While we were all busy talking about Tony Allen's return, we forgot about Leon Powe, who was 3-3 in the first half for 9 points. He finished with 13. TA had 8 points, 7 rebounds a steal and a block but he was tyipcally Tony offensively. He chucked up a few airballs in the second half.
Some positives: KG moved into 20th all time on the all time scoring list tonight. Jeff Green had a good shooting night. Delonte's jumper also looked good.
Doc: "Paul is pretty good. And he's got to get more touches in games. I've got to get Paul more involved."
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