Celtics Back To .500 After Second Win In As Many Nights

I've been negative for much of the 2011-12 season but this evening was a time to be happy about the Boston Celtics.

The Celts (17-17) got back to the .500 mark and won their second game in as many nights by holding off the Milwaukee Bucks (14-21) 102-96 at TD Garden.

You know I love statistics and there were some tasty ones from this win. Kevin Garnett scored a season-high 25 points to go along with 10 rebounds. His second solid performance, showing that the All-Star break did plenty of good for his old body. Last night, Rajon Rondo went scoreless but had 11 assists. Tonight, he notched his third triple-double of the season with 15 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists.

Other guys stepped up too: Brandon Bass had 16 points and seven rebounds, Ray Allen scored 15 and Paul Pierce had 10 points, six rebounds and five assists. Chris Wilcox put up seven points and 13 rebounds off the bench while Keyon Dooling scored eight points.

It was the seventh time that Boston has scored 100+ points, they are 4-3 in those games.

What the Bucks lack in talent, they make up for in effort which sounds cheesy but not when you think of all the lazy teams in the NBA. If they can ever keep Andrew Bogut healthy, they could be pretty decent. Ersan Ilyasova (25 points, 10 rebounds) is playing the best basketball of his life while Drew Gooden had 23 points and eight rebounds. Mike Dunleavy added 10 points off the bench. Milwaukee won't win many games that Brandon Jennings is held to six points and eight assists.

After an even first quarter (25-25), the Bucks led 54-50 at halftime before the Celtics turned it around in the third quarter (27-13). Boston looked poised for a rare blowout win since they got up 90-73 in the fourth but they had to sweat it out as Milwaukee cut it to 98-96 with 24 seconds left. KG hit all four free throws as the Celts held on for the second game in a row (something they couldn't do in the first half of this season).

Boston will look to make it three consecutive wins as the New Jersey Nets come to the Garden on Friday night. The Celts beat them 89-70 on January 4 but that was without Brook Lopez who just returned to the lineup.

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