POST GAME LA CLIPPERS - AWAY - BOS 115, LAC 140 Final

Celtics Wrap: Lou Williams Nets 34 As Boston Falls 140-115 To Clippers

NESN by Michael McMahon on Tue, Mar 12, 2019 at 12:52AM

The Boston Celtics couldn’t pull off the California sweep, as hopes of a 4-0 West Coast trip were dashed in a 140-115 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday night.

Boston simply had no answers for the Clippers’ hot shooters, who shot 61 percent from the floor. The Celtics led after the opening basket, then trailed for the rest of the night.

Lou Williams led the Clippers off the bench with 34 points in just 23 minutes. Danilo Gallinari followed with 25 and Montrezl Harrell had 20. The Celtics were paced by Terry Rozier who finished with 26. Jaylen Brown (22), Kyrie Irving (18), Marcus Morris (11) and Al Horford (10) also finished in double figures.

With the loss, the Celtics drop to 41-27. The win moves the Clippers to 39-29.

Here’s how it all went down:

STARTING FIVE
PG: Kyrie Irving
SG: Marcus Smart
SF: Jaylen Brown
PF: Marcus Morris Sr.
C: Al Horford

CLIPPERS GAIN EDGE
A wicked opening quarter from Gallinari gave the Clippers a 25-19 lead after one.

The teams largely were inseparable for the opening minutes of the first quarter, with Irving and Horford finding an early connection.

Gallinari got off to a scorching start for the hosts, scoring 13 points in the first eight minutes as the Clippers led 17-14 with 3:30 to play.

LA closed the quarter on a 10-5 run.

HOSTS ARE HOT
The hosts continued to shoot the lights out at Staples Center, converting 63.9 percent from the floor to take a 62-49 lead over the Celtics at halftime.

The Clippers jumped out to a 12-point lead when Williams drained a trey to make it 34-22 with 9:55 left in the half.

Rozier was the first Celtic to double digits, starting 4-for-4 from the floor and hitting a 3-pointers to make it 36-29 with 8:43 left.

Morris brought the C’s within four with a trey, but the hosts responded with a 9-0 run to take a 55-42 lead with 2:13 to play in the half. Harrell capped a three-point play in the final minute to give the hosts a 13-point lead at the break.

Irving led all Celtics at the half with 14.

CLIPPERS CAN’T MISS
Los Angeles remained sizzling shooting 63 percent through three quarters, including 53 percent from deep, taking a 101-85 lead over the C’s.

Boston upped the intensity in the opening minutes of the second half, with Marcus Smart draining a trey in transition then making a beautiful defensive play to set up Brown for the Euro step lay-in.

Brown got hot from deep, hitting three straight in the quarter, but the Celtics were unable to climb within double digits with Gallinari matching Brown blow-for-blow, sustaining a double-digit lead.

A 7-0 Clippers run gave the hosts their biggest advantage, leading 99-80 with 56.4 seconds to go in the third following a Patrick Beverley trey.

Rozier hit a fadeaway three in the closing seconds to make 101-85 heading into the fourth.

WARM UP THE PLANE
Williams took over in the opening minutes of the fourth and stuck a dagger through any Celtics comeback hopes as LA capped the blowout.

The Clippers’ lead grew to 20 points early in the fourth quarter when Williams drained a trey to make it 106-85 with 10:57 to play.

Williams continued his tear in the fourth, scoring 13 points in the fourth quarter despite being subbed out with 7:06 to play, and effectively put the game out of reach.

PLAY OF THE GAME
Two defenders? No problem for Kyrie.

UP NEXT
The Celtics return home for a tilt against the Sacramento Kings on Thursday. Tipoff from TD Garden is set for 7:30 p.m ET.

112288

Looked like a damn layup line out there.

Congrats to Lou Williams who was inspired last night. He became the #1 bench scorer in NBA history, passing Steph's father, Dell.


bob



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3 teams in 50 years have gone 4-0 on a California trip.

Still a wildly successful trip by any measure.

No one's going to beat those numbers and the hot shooting Gallinari. 3-1 road trip out West? I'll take it. IND will go 0-4 coming up on the same trip. We still picked up a game on IND and PHI as a result. Next! Uh, oh! I hope SAC doesn't have a bone to pick with us!

db

Maybe it was just time to shake the nasty out after three good games.

Missed Tatum, especially on D.

Got beat in the paint on both ends.

Brown and Smart are obviously big Williams fans; wanted to see him get the record up close and in person.

They capitalized on a greater number of turnovers, even though they turned it over more times.

It happens. Onward.

The Williams I'm a fan of was on our bench. He might have made a difference, but I know that's dead issue this year. When a team can drive as easily on you as the Clippers did last night, the defense sags and the 3s open up. Super effort can make up for lack of a center, but I don't know how many games in a row they can keep up super effort.
Still, good road trip. Go Celtics! Hawk

The Celtics should have forfeited the game, came home a day early.

3-1 solid trip but I am still disappointed that they got beat real bad.

Tom Westerholm @Tom_NBA
about 5 hours ago
Over the four-game road trip, the Celtics were +15.4 points per 100 possessions with Al Horford on the court, and -6.1 when he was off.

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bob


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Average Al

mrkleen09 wrote:Average Al

Was that Tanguay?


bob


.

bobheckler wrote:

mrkleen09 wrote:Average Al

Was that Tanguay?


bob


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Lou Merlloni

mrkleen09 wrote:

bobheckler wrote:

mrkleen09 wrote:Average Al

Was that Tanguay?


bob


.

Lou Merlloni  

Dumb and Dumber


bob


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NY Celt gets the Sarcasm 2019 Award for this:

"Brown and Smart are obviously big Williams fans; wanted to see him get the record up close and in person."