Celtics Blow The Lead But Win The Game

Boston: 107, Warriors: 103

Yet another frustrating second half against an inferior team, but yet another game the Celtics won. In the first half yet again it looked like the Celtics were going to run away with one, and the C's were up a solid 11 points after two frames.

Down the stretch though the Celtics' defense started to crumble, and you could see the big man rotation again was really hurting, especially with Glen Davis out. The Warriors got the lead down to 1 with 3 minutes left in the fourth on the backs of spectacular offensive performances from Monta Ellis (41 pts, 11-12 FT's) and David Lee (26 pts, 12 rebs). Monta in particular just looked like superman out there for some isolated stretches. You would never know he still only shot 50% from the field.

Paul Pierce and Ray Allen came to the rescue when it counted and kept the C's ahead. Combined they scored 13 of the Celtics' 19 points in the 4th, and the Warriors just couldn't quite climb out of the hole they created in the first half. They both had 27 points a piece on the night.

This game will forever be to me the first official appearance of Jeff Green. I know he has played a few games for us now, but in 28 minutes Green managed to shoot 8-11 from the field (scoring from all over), and ended up with 21 points and some real meaningful minutes in the last frame (6 points in the first 5 minutes of the 4th).

Rondo had a pretty bad shooting night, making only 27% of his shots, but like he is prone to do, Rondo contributed in other areas, coming up with 16 assists and 5 steals. Kevin Garnett couldn't quite keep up with his string of double doubles tonight, and Troy Murphy had another disappointed outing.

In the end, it was not the game you expected after the first half, but it was a win and I will take it. Quote of the night:

"Some guys miss a free throw and they look mad, when Ray Allen misses a free throw he looks genuinely perplexed." - Mike Gorman