C's Get Bucked Up By Milwaukee: 94-99

 

Well...

Here's the bright spot: At least the Celtics don't face the Milwaukee Bucks again this year (good luck if we happen to meet in the Playoffs, though!).
 
It's late and I really don't have the energy left to explain what went wrong here.

What I will do is spend this very short post praising Paul Pierce.

Seriously,
though, for games like these, he might want to conserve his energy and just hire someone to go out on a mission to visit every single sports "expert" who has ever called him old and deliver the gentleman's glove-slap to their undoubtedly red-from-embarrassment face. This man is straight-killin' em at the ripe "old" age of 35. I mean...40 points two nights ago against Cleveland and now 35 on 13-23 shooting and 12 rebounds(!!) 5 assists and 3 steals with the key trifecta to send the game into overtime against the Bucks the following game? He is truly the truest Truth that ever spoke truth to power, and that's the truth.

So, details? Naaahhhhhhh.....I think I'll let the Tale Of The Tape do the work for me. Suffice it to say, the C's had 10-point leads at multiple junctures in this one and had several more chances to win the game, but it wasn't meant to be. The Bucks are just going to be that team for us this year and we're going to have to move on and get ready to show Brooklyn what's-the-what on Christmas.

Celtics that performed admirably? Jeff Green had 14 before Ersan Ilyasova knocked him from the game with an errant elbow that bruised his cheek and chipped multiple teeth, KG had 12, Rondo had 11 assists, Lee had 11...

The usual suspects put the antlers to the C's collective heinies...Monta Ellis had 27 points, 7 boards  and 5 assists. Larry Sanders laid his show on the Celtics once again with 17 points, 20 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks. Brandon Jennings had 12 points, 11 assists, 8 rebounds and 2 steals. Even Luc Mbah a Moute put the hoof down on the Green with 20 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists.

Hey, at least the C's held ol' pal Marquis Daniels to 0-5 shooting for the goose egg.

Bah. Humbug.

Box Score

What The Buck?!? Celtics Blow 17-Point Lead, Lose To Milwaukee: 88-91

Okay...deeeeeep breath....

The Celtics came out in attack mode from the outset, much as they did during last night's game against Portland. Racing out to an easy 17-0 first-quarter lead that seemed to say, "Hey, Bucks fans...if you order your food now, you can pick it up on the way home and be watching movies on the couch by halftime!"

Unfortunately for the C's, Milwaukee posted a 36-point second quarter (the Celtics scored just 21) and essentially allowed a game to break out in the middle of a runaway. As the old saying goes, "if you give your opponent life, they may wind up taking yours."

Ultimately, the Celtics allowed the Bucks to believe that they could win, and so, they did.

In the end, the C's bit off too much Larry Sanders (career-high 18 points, 16 rebounds, and 5 blocks), Monta Ellis (17 points), Ersan Ilyasova 15 points, and Brandon Jennings (13 points, and the game-winning go-ahead 3).

It's too bad, too, because some great performances by many of the C's stepping up in the absence of Rajon Rondo, who was serving out the final day of his two-day suspension, were lost in the shuffle.

Swiss-army knife Paul Pierce led all scorers with 19 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds, 3 steals and one block, but missed one of the final two attempts made from deep in Threeland to try and tie the game following Jennings' huge trey.

Jeff Green put together great back-to-back games for the first time this season, following up his season high 19 points against the Blazers with 18 on 8-11 shooting on this night. Jason Terry channeled his inner Rondo with a line of 15 points, 11 assists, 3 rebounds and 3 steals. He attempted the other three from well beyond the arc as the game clock expired, to no avail. Kevin Garnett continued his remarkably steady play, posting 17 points, 7 boards, 4 assists, 1 steal and 1 block in 33 minutes of play. Speaking of steady, Courtney Lee once again delivered great defense and contributed 13 points on 6-11 shooting to go along with 3 rebounds and 2 assists.

Center Jason Collins came off the bench for 13 minutes and 5 rebounds -- almost mirroring Jared Sullenger's output for the game. In an unusually low-key night, Sully demonstrated a heretofore unseen skill playing shot-blocker and registering 3 swats for the game to go with 5 rebounds and 2 points.

Playing on the second night of back-to-back games, the two teams battled to a virtual standstill on rebounds, leaving the Celtics with a rare edge on the boards -- 43-42.

The C's now drop to 9-8 on the season and are headed home to face the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday. The bright spot? The return of Rajon Rondo, who will be embarking upon a new streak of consecutive games played without an ejection (joking, of course!).

 Box Score

Video Recap

THE BUZZ:

Boston Celtics vs. Minnesota Timberwolves
Wednesday, December 5th, 2012
7:30 pm
@ Boston Garden

C's Buck Recent Trend, Finish Strong Against Milwaukee: 96-92

In a game featuring many of the same exciting and frustrating characteristics that they've displayed through the first five, the Boston Celtics proved that when they focus on the kind of defensive effort that they delivered in the fourth quarter against the Milwaukee Bucks, more often than not they'll leave the other team staring back at them like a deer caught in the headlights.

 

I won't go into too much of a rehash of the past few posts -- blah blah blah "The Captain, The Truth" Paul Pierce did it AGAIN, scoring 25 with 9 rebounds, 3 assists, a steal and a blocked shot and solid "D"...yadda yadda Rondo, double-double with 10 points, 10 assists, streak still alive...Kevin Garnett, defensive powerhouse, 18 points, 6 boards, 3 assists -- but I will say that they were great again and really anchored the defense down the stretch when they made their run against a Bucks team that led by 4 heading into the fourth quarter behind a massive you-knew-it-was-coming breakout game from guard Monta Ellis, who scored 32 and dished 8 assists in a losing cause to counter his relatively quiet showing in the previous tilt against the C's.

Ellis was joined by center Sam Dalembert who scored 14 points and pulled in 8 rebounds; old-pal and former Celtic Marquis Daniels, who scored 12; up-and-comer and former fictional talk show host (not!) Larry Sanders, who hung a double-double on the C's with 10 points and 14 rebounds; and Ersan Ilyasova who put up 10 for Milwaukee.

The Celtics continued to make incremental improvements, both on offense and defense, with Jason Terry netting 15 in a starting role and Jeff Green supplying the kind of defense that will undoubtedly earn him more court time. Green, along with Pierce and Garnett, helped turn back the running of the Bucks with timely scoring and tenacious defense to help put the game away in the final minutes and seconds. Chris Wilcox continued to show signs of a return to his pre-open-heart form in fifteen active minutes.

Box Score

THE BUZZ:

Next up for the C's are the flower-less (No Rose...get it? No? Okay!) Chicago Bulls and then the Utah Jazz, Brooklyn Nets and Toronto Raptors. Should be an interesting week with more answers about how the chemistry experiment is coming along for the Doc(tor).