Like The B's Last Week, The C's Welcomed Their Fans Back To The Garden With A Loss (Vs. Pels)

 

    After more than a year apart, the Celtics (23-24 overall, 13-8 home) finally allowed a small percentage of fans (12% capacity) to attend tonight's game vs. the Pelicans (21-25 overall, 7-14 away) at the TD Garden. Naturally with this season's mediocre squad, the Celts gave their fans a few wet farts in the form of no Jaylen Brown (who was unexpectedly out with a left hip contusion), swingman Evan Fournier's (0-for-10 shooting in 33 minutes with 2 steals and 2 blocks) Celtics debut went about as poorly as possible (minus Gordon Hayward's horrific ankle injury a few years back in Chicago) and they trailed by as many as 17 points en route to a 115-109 loss that gave New Orleans the two-game season sweep. 

    Boston entered with a little momentum after winning back-to-back road games at Milwaukee (29-17) and Oklahoma City (19-27) over the weekend but that was quickly snuffed out by a hungrier team that is in a playoff race of its own in the deeper and tougher Western Conference. New Orleans was led by its two young All-Stars: power forward Zion Williamson (team-high 28 points, 8 rebounds, 4 steals) and small forward Brandon Ingram (25 points, 9 assists) were more than your usual selfish guys from Duke. Speaking of which, their fellow Dukie swingman Jayson Tatum (game-high 34 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals) was superb but naturally with Brown out, the Celts didn't have enough depth to make up for his absence. Guards Nickeil Walker-Alexander (17 points, 7 rebounds) and Eric Bledsoe (13 points, 5 assists) also scored in double figures for the road team with shooting guard Josh Hart (15 points, 15 rebounds) notching a beefy double-double in 33 minutes off the bench. 

         Celtics point guard Kemba Walker scored 23 points while guard Marcus Smart added 15 points and two blocks then center Robert Williams (7 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 blocks) did some nice things in his third start in a row and he played a career-high 32 minutes in the loss. Additionally, guard Payton Pritchard (11 points, 5 rebounds) and Boston's new backup center Luke Kornet (11 points) both put together fine performances off the bench. New Orleans led basically the entire game as they were up 32-27 after one quarter and 64-55 at halftime. Boston took the third quarter by a basket (26-24) and they trimmed the Pelcians' lead down to three in the fourth quarter before they ran out of both time and energy. 

    New Orleans snuck into the bubble playoffs last season and let's hope that one of the more exciting young teams in the NBA likewise can return to the postseason this spring. The Pelicans shot 7% better from the field than Boston (50-43%), they hit two more 3-pointers (16-14), dished out nine more assists (30-21), had three more steals (8-5) and scored seven more fast break points (15-8) so yeah, I would say that they deserved to win. This was the beginning of a pivotal and season-high seven-game homestand for the C's, up next they host another young superstar-Luka Doncic-and the Mavericks (24-21 overall, 13-11 road) on Wednesday (7:30, NBC Sports Boston) at the Garden. With any luck, Brown will be back for that one and no matter what, Fournier figures to improve on his nightmare start as a Celtic.

Celtics Complete A 4-0 Week Post-Rondo With 106-104 Win Vs. Clippers

Thoughts of the Celtics just forfeiting (slight exaggeration) the rest of this season after Rajon Rondo went down with a torn ACL last weekend seem a bit silly now that Boston (24-23, 17-9 home) has won four games in a row (during a very favorable 4-game homestand) and gone over .500. This afternoon, they built up a 19-point lead before hanging on by the skin of their teeth 106-104 against the Chris Paul-less Clippers (34-15, 14-10 away) at TD Garden.

Clippers head coach Vinny Del Negro made the curious decision not to foul when his team was down only two 103-101 with the shot clock and game clock only two seconds apart. That awful coaching blunder cost LA dearly as Pierce nailed a 3-pointer for good measure. Jamal Crawford hit a 3-pointer as the game ended, haha not sure what the line was either way but I feel like that could have made many people very happy or upset.

Pierce led the C's with a team-high 22 points, five rebounds and two steals, Kevin Garnett was the only other starter in double figures with 12 points and five rebounds. The real story of the win was Boston's bench outscoring Los Angeles' 52-29. Jeff Green (2 blocks) and Leandro Barbosa had 14 points each while Jason Terry added 13 points and six assists.

Eric Bledsoe had a game-high 23 points, 10 assists, seven rebounds and two steals while Blake Griffin added 20 points, 11 rebounds and five assists. UConn's Caron Butler put up 18 points and five rebounds and DeAndre Jordan notched 12 points and five rebounds. Crawford has a broken nose so he started the game with a ghetto mask but ditched it on the way to 23 points and six assists, he might as well clear his trophy case at home for another Sixth Man of the Year award.

The Celts tied a season-high with a 33-point first quarter as they led 33-30 then 59-40 at halftime. Boston slowly lost steam in the third quarter (37-33 LA) before the wheels really came off in the fourth quarter (27-14 LA). Boston hit two more 3-pointers (11-9) and eight more free throws (23-15) than the Clippers.

A trip to Toronto (17-31, 5th in Atlantic Division) on Wednesday (7 p.m., CSN) is the first road test in the post-Rondo portion of the season. Former UConn star Rudy Gay was traded to the Raptors last week from the Grizzlies, a move that makes them believe they can be a playoff contender. Haha keep dreaming Canadians. The teams have only met once so far, a 107-89 Celtics win at the Garden on Saturday, November 17. After Wednesday, they play twice more. Oh joy.

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