A Tale Of Two Cities: C's Passed In Philly, Sixers Bombarded In Boston

If turnabout is fair play, then after winning the game by a single point last night in Philadelphia, the Sixers got fairly played and turned about as the Celtics came back with Gino time at home in the Garden in the second night of this back-to-back home and home series.

Last night at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, the Celtics played the 76ers to a standstill all game long to the point that they had to settle things in overtime. Though the C's had several chances to take control of the game, Celtic-killer Wayne Turner hit a cold-blooded go-ahead jumper with 3.9 left on the game clock and a play drawn up for Kevin Garnett wound up a Rondo jumper launched awkwardly as his foot slid out from under him, throwing him off balance. Miss and a loss: 94-95.

Several great performances went for naught including a phenomenal game from Rajon Rondo who scored a triple-double with 16 points, 14 assists, 13 rebounds, 3 steals and an incredible 3 blocks; a 27-point, 5 assist, 4 rebound night from Captain Paul Pierce; 17 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal from Kevin Garnett; and the continued emergence of Mean Jeff Green who tallied 19 points, 8 rebounds, 1 steal and 1 block. Unfortunately, Green was the only bench player to make any kind of impact, and so...

 

Box Score

 

And, here's the Tale Of The Tape.
 

But, no matter...in less than 24-hours, the Celtics flipped the script and showed Philly how lucky they were that they saved the total team effort for the back half of the series. 

 

Kevin Garnett continued to dip into the pod-pool from Cocoon and delivered yet another youthful, superhuman effort, scoring 19 points 2 assists and one steal. Though he also achieved an extremely rare feat for his career, failing to grab so much as a single rebound for the game, his offense was devastating to the Sixers' hopes as they tried to mount a comeback against the Big Ticket's lights-out performance in the 3rd quarter in which he scored 11 points on 5-5 shooting with a series of smooth-as-glass jumpers and shake-you-out-of-your-shorts upfakes. Jeff Green stayed mean, going for 16 points on 7-12 shooting with some emphatic throw-downs thrown-in. Paul Pierce was an all-around problem for Philly, dropping 13 points, 9 assists, 3 boards and 1 steal. Rajon Rondo? Only more excellence, with 11 assists, 9 rebounds, 7 points and 3 steals.

Chris Wilcox and Jared Sullinger subbed in for critical stretches, allowing for a garden-fresh Garnett to come in and stick it to the Sixers. Sullinger was particularly impressive in 22 minutes, snaring 9 rebounds to go along with 7 points.

Thaddeus Young's 22 and Evan Turner's 13 just weren't good enough against an energetic, defense-oriented Celtics team that (I know, the CD's skipping again, but...) continues to improve.

 

The C's are now tied with the 76ers at 11-9 on the season.

 

Box Score

 

And, here's the Tale of the Tape.

 

Next up: The Dallas Mavericks.

THE BUZZ:

Boston Celtics vs. Dallas Mavericks
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
8:00 p.m.
@ Boston Garden

Celtics Eighty-Sixed By 76ers: 106-100

I was going to call this one, "Celtics Get Their Liberty Bells Rung By Sixers Despite Wild Comeback," but I wasn't so wild about this comeback and that would have been putting it kindly.

Okay, folks...this one is going to be a quickie...kind of like how fast people have been jumping off the Celtics' bandwagon lately.

So...

The C's played from behind the entire game, trailing 57-45 by the half and 83-74 after the third quarter. Though the green would stage a furious rally and come within four in the fourth quarter, ultimately, the clock ran out before they climbed their way to daylight from the hole they'd dug themselves for most of the game.

Certified Celtic-killers Evan Turner, Jrue Holiday, Thaddeus Young and Dorell Wright (and even Nick Young!) did pretty much as they pleased, scoring 76 points (nice co-inkydink, don't you agree?) of the team's 106 final total.

I can almost cut and paste the results from the first four games with respect the C's top performers - Paul Pierce led the team with 24 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds and 2 steals. KG scored 19 and pulled down 10 boards, two steals and two assists, while Rondo kept his double-digit assist streak alive, dishing a monstrous 20 dimes to go with 14 points and 2 steals. The only other Celtic in double figures was Jason Terry, who scored 13 on 5 for 7 shooting and seems to be rounding into form in the last couple of games.

Not to sound like a broken record here, folks, but this thing is going to take some time. The effort is mostly there most nights, but everyone still has work to do to get on the same defensive and offensive page. But, I'm still confident that this is a great team in the making.

Unfortunately, the C's have a very short window to turn it around before facing their next quality opponent - a confident Milwaukee Bucks team that will draw upon the shellacking that they gave the boys from Boston last week.

Box Score

Boston Celtics vs. Milwaukee Bucks
Saturday, November 10th
8:30 pm