The Celtics pasted the Portland Trailblazers at TD Garden, 96-78. Courtney Lee and Jeff Green both stepped-up, and Kevin Garnett was vintage KG. He scored his 10 points on a variety of bank shots, fadeaways and sweet jumpers. Ticket also finished with 5 boards & 4 assists in 23 minutes. Jeff Green was aggressive from the jump and led the C’s with 19 points. He also played great defense and combined with C. Lee for 7 steals. Courtney had a solid line of 10 pts, 3 steals, 7 rebounds & 5 assists. It was his uptempo play that really set the tone. It was as if he was set free.
The Green: The Celtics were very aggressive on both ends of the floor tonight. Led by Courtney Lee and KG, the C’s defense held the Blazers to a miserable 23% from the floor in the first half-Celts tallied 8 steals in the first 24 mins. Boston had their biggest lead of the season, 25 points, near the end of the 3rd. They went into halftime up 56-33.
Jeff Green was fantastic. It was obvious that “Angry Jeff” showed up tonight, and he was quite impressive. Green had a team-high 19 points to go with 4 steals, 3 boards & 2 assists. Check out the video of his athletic and-one dunk below. Jason Terry quietly had a solid game with 17 points on 7 of 11 shooting. Paul Pierce had 12, 8 & 5 in 27 minutes.
Celtics played great defense. Portland was held to 34% FG for the game and Boston’s aggressive defense forced many of the Blazers’ 21 turnovers.
The Gross: Celtics became “disjointed”, as John tweeted, during the 3rd quarter. After KG sat down at the 5:54 mark, their 24 point lead was cut down to 16 by the end of the 3rd. Garnett could have sat for the entire 4th on the first night of back to back, but alas, Ticket had to return to action to begin the final quarter. But that’s all the “gross” you’ll get from me.
The Greenlights:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3GxbZTy_04
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTEPZ38r6wg
The Grid: (quick stats)
Celtics had a season-high 16 steals as a team tonight.
Blazers came in as one of the leaders in the NBA with 8.5 made threes a game, but Boston held them to 20% on 3 of 15 from downtown.
Boston shot 90% from the free-throw line, putting in 18 of 20 from the stripe.
Sully had another nice “blue collar” game, filled with hustle plays and grit. 9 pts, 8 boards & 2 steals.
Celtics are now 9-7 and head to Milwaukee where they’ll face the Bucks tomorrow night. Tip-off at the Bradley Center is at 8:30pm ESt>
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