We’ve got ourselves a new candidate for worst loss of the season, folks.
After a pretty comfortable first and sloppy, but still positive second, the Celtics came out in the third quarter and absolutely sucked. They got down as much as 9 in the 4th before coming back to take a 5 point lead with 1:32 left. But they never scored again, New Orleans went on a 6-0 run over the last minute-and-a-half, and they stole an 87-86 win to sweep the season series against the Celtics.
The Green
Jeff Green’s first quarter: He was basically an extension of the Heat game. 11 points on a perfect 4 of 4 shooting and a couple of free throws. He dunked, he swooped in for lay ups, he nailed a 3. I thought for a second he was going to have another 40 point night.
Avery Bradley’s D: The kid had 5 steals on the night and they were mostly the legit, I’m picking your pocket kind of steals. He’s a menace out there.
Kevin Garnett’s second quarter: 4-5 shooting, 2-2 free throws, 10 points and 4 rebounds
The Gross
Jeff Green’s second-fourth quarters: He was 0-4 with 2 points on free throws after the first quarter explosion. Doc blasted him during a time out and benched for most of the 4th quarter
Avery Bradley’s O: 2-10 shooting, 0-5 from 3. 5 points. #Ouch
Pretty much the entire 3rd quarter: The Celtics shot 5-18 (27.8%) and 5 turnovers (6 NO points), en route to 12 points in the quarter.
Jordan Crawford: I’ve decided he’s the Tasmanian Devil in a basketball uniform. Just nothing but arms and legs that often work independent of one another and, occasionally, they all find a rhythm and work. Tonight, they did not.
Jason Terry: 0-5 shooting and he didn’t take a shot until 2:27 in the 3rd quarter.
The final tip-in: You could sense this loss coming a mile away. Avery Bradley forced the Eric Gordon miss, but KG didn’t box Anthony Davis out. Ball game.
The Greenlights
The Grid
- Paul Pierce scored 11 of Boston’s 19 points in the 4th quarter. He finished with 28 points on 9-17 shooting.
- Garnett: 20 points (9-16 fg) 6 reb, 3 ast, 3 stl.
- Bench scoring: New Orleans 37 – Boston 17 . It was 13-7 Boston after the 1st quarter. So the Celtics bench was outscored 30-4 over the next three quarters.
- The Celtics shot 60% in the first half, 32.4% in the second half.
- Free throws: Celtics: 16-17, Hornets 20-26
This was a disgusting loss. Doc hung with weird line ups for long stretches… which was either an attempt to rest guys or send a message to others. Regardless, the guys on the floor showed no pride in that second half. The third quarter was an abomination that set the game back for years. It was so bad, that the “we shoulda blown it up” people came storming out of the woodwork.
The Celtics needed this win to keep pace with the rest of the East. Now they sit alone in the 7th seed and closer to the 8th seeded Bucks (2 games) than the 5th seeded Hawks (2.5 games). They now head to Dallas for the front-end of a back-to-back that finishes with Memphis. Their chances of a winning road trip just took a major hit tonight.
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