Kyrie Irving Must Be Counting the Days Until He Can Get out of Hell, I mean Cleveland

The less said about the pile of monkey shit known as the Cavaliers the better. The Celtics had another forgettable Saturday afternoon game at TD Garden and this time, they made it a positive memory with a 103-100 win over Cleveland. In typical Celts (13-17 overall, 8-8 home) fashion, it became way more difficult than it had to be: they were up 19 heading into the fourth quarter but had to hang on for dear life as the Cavaliers (10-19 overall, 2-13 away) outscored them 34-18 in the final frame.

Luckily for Boston, they have that defensive force aka Brandon Bass (15 points, 6 rebounds, 2 blocks) who stuffed Dion Waiters (17 points, 2 steals) on Cleveland's last official shot. Of course, the Cavs had a chance to tie it after that but Earl Clark's (12 points) 3-pointer was an airball, oh and it came after time expired. Other than that, great attempt Earl.

As always, Kyrie Irving (game-high 32 points) was brilliant while his teammates were mediocre at best. Clark was the only other starter in double figures and Jarrett Jack put up 14 points off the bench.

It was all about balance for the C's with four starters and two bench players in double figures. Jordan Crawford (5 rebounds, 5 assists) and Jeff Green (8 rebounds, 2 steals) both led Boston with 19 points while Avery Bradley added 18 points, eight rebounds and two steals. Courtney Lee scored 11 and Kris Humphries notched 10 points off the bench.

The Celtics slowly built up their lead, 24-22 after one quarter, 59-44 at halftime and 85-66 heading into the fourth. Does Boston play night games anymore? Their next contest is another afternoon game at TD Garden: New Year's Eve (1, CSN) vs. Atlanta (17-13, 2nd in Southeast Division), who just lost Al Horford for the season with a torn pectoral muscle.

Tweet


Follow @RichSlate

Reports Of Paul Pierce's Demise Were Quite Premature As He Drops 40 On Cleveland

If it wasn't for one of the greatest games of Paul Pierce's soon-to-be NBA Hall of Fame career (statistically speaking at least), the Celtics very well could have lost to the Cavaliers. Instead after 40 points, eight rebounds, five assists, three steals and a block from The Truth, the C's (13-12, 9-4 home) snapped a three-game losing streak with a 103-91 win over Cleveland (5-22, 2-14 away) tonight at TD Garden.

Boston led from start to finish and seemed to be cruising to a rare blowout when somehow they let up on Cleveland since the C's were up 20 (80-60). The Cavaliers hit them with a 20-2 run to make it pretty scary. This was coming from a team that might be the worst in the NBA (the Raptors are riding a four-game win streak) and didn't have Anderson Varejao. There is no excuse for Boston playing a back-to-back since Cleveland was in the same miserable boat.

He has obviously played in a million bigger games in terms of stakes but it's hard to figure out how Pierce could have cobbled together better numbers: 13 of 16 from the field, six of seven on 3-pointers and eight of eight on free throws. Rajon Rondo added 20 points and eight assists, Jason Terry scored 15 and Kevin Garnett notched 12 points, six rebounds and three blocks.

Kyrie Irving led the Cavaliers with 22 points, rookie Tyler Zeller scored a career-high 20 points, another rookie Dion Waiters had 13 points while Tristan Thompson (11 points, 12 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 blocks) and Alonzo Gee both put up 11 points.

Along with Pierce's special output, you should frame some of these other amazing numbers by the Celts: they shot 59.7% to 40.9% for the Cavaliers; they made four more 3-pointers (9-5), six more free throws (20-14), handed out seven more assists (23-16), had two more steals (9-7), five more blocks (7-2) and 12 more points in the paint (18-6).

For the fourth time in a month and a half, Boston will meet Milwaukee (13-11, 2nd in Central Division) on Friday (7:30 p.m., CSN) at the Garden. The Bucks are 2-1 so far against the Celtics with two more contests remaining (including Friday). Most recently they beat Boston 91-88 on December 1 in Milwaukee.

UPDATE 12/21: Kris Joseph was recalled from Maine since Chris Wilcox (thumb) and Leandro Barbosa (personal matter) are both out tonight vs. Milwaukee.

Tweet


Follow @RichSlate