Tonight’s first quarter was absolutely atrocious for Boston. The C’s only managed to score 13 points and looked sloppy. Luckily, the Spurs weren’t a whole heck of a lot better. Thanks to a nice performance off the bench by Jonas Jerebko & some good rebounding, it was only 23-13 after 1Q. It easily could have been much worse.
The Celtics managed to find a little bit of rhythm in quarter number two, but they still had trouble converting and were careless with the ball. They failed to get to the rim, and the free-throw line by settling for jumper after (missed) jumper. Stevens brought Isaiah Thomas in to try & inject some life into the offense, but IT struggled-Thomas shot 1 of 9 in the first half, and as a team the Celts went 14 for 48. Behind the usual suspects, Kawhi Leonard (10 pts) & Manu Ginobli (10 pts, 4 rebs & 2 steals) the Spurs went into the locker room up 44-31.
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.jsRoles were slightly reversed in the 3rd quarter, as Gregg Popovich’s squad suddenly became sloppy. The Spurs committed 10 turnovers in the third, and Boston was able to turn those turnovers into 13 points. Avery Bradley (7 pts)led a balanced attack that saw 6 different Celtics score. But unfortunately Brad Stevens’ guys continued to chuck up three balls. Boston went 1 of 8 from downtown, and headed into the 4th quarter down 64-54.
Isaiah Thomas hit back-to-back hoops to open up the final quarter, and the Celtics were down 66-59 with 10:53 left in the game. But LaMarcus Aldridge was having no part of any Celtics comeback. After a Smart floater cut the Spurs’ lead to 77-72 with 5:25 left, Aldridge took over, hitting three straight hoops to increase San Antonio’s lead to 83-75 with 3:52 left. Boston made it interesting over the final three minutes, but the Spurs were just too much, handing Boston a 95-87 defeat this evening. Kawhi Leonard had 19 for the Spurs, and Aldridge’s 24 led all scorers. This was quite the helter skelter game for Boston, but give them credit for never giving in. After that dreadful first half, it would have been easy to concede defeat to the elite Spurs, but Stevens’ guys weathered the storm and scratched & clawed until the final buzzer. Boston is now off until they play the Pacers in Indiana on Wednesday. Tip-off is at 7pm.
The Green:
- The back court of Avery Bradley & Marcus Smart combined for 35 points, 6 rebounds & 6 assists. Smart was all over the floor tonight, diving, fighting & doing whatever necessary to try & bring the Celts a win. Tommy even gave the “Tommy Award for the year…”
The Gross:
- Rough night for Isaiah Thomas. IT went 4 of 18 from the floor and 1 of 4 from three.
- The Celtics shot 6 of 29 (OOF) from three
The Greenlights: https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
The Grid:
- Rebounds: SA 51 BOS 45
- Points in the paint: BOS 52 SA 38
- Tyler Zeller saw just over 6 minutes of playing time
- The Spurs have now won 8 in a row over Boston
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