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

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).