Post Game - Washington Wizards - Home

http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/celtics/post/_/id/4716142/celtics-101-wizards-93-sorry-truth

BOSTON -- The Washington Wizards brought in former Boston Celtics captain Paul Pierce in large part because of his ability to make late-game shots. But playing against his old team, Pierce couldn't come through in a big spot.

Pierce missed a potential go-ahead 3-pointer with less than a minute to play, and Avery Bradley responded with a triple at the other end as the Celtics hung on for a 101-93 triumph at TD Garden.

The Celtics led by 18 entering the final quarter, but it took the Wizards little more than two minutes to trim their deficit to single figures. Washington clawed within a possession a handful of times with less than four minutes to play -- twice getting as close as a point with 2:50 to go -- but could never get all the way back.

The Wizards were down 94-93 when Pierce missed a quality look beyond the arc with 45 seconds to play. The Celtics raced the other way in transition and Jeff Green fed Bradley for a corner 3 that helped seal the victory.

Rasual Butler sparked Washington's fourth-quarter rally while scoring 22 points behind six 3-pointers, three of which came early in the final frame.

Rajon Rondo registered his 31st triple-double of his career by posting 13 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists. Green finished with a team-high 25 points on 9-of-21 shooting.

Pierce finished with 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting with three rebounds and an assist over 30 minutes.

• C's build lead with defense: The Celtics built a 17-point halftime lead while limiting the Wizards to 31 percent shooting (13 of 42). Washington also turned the ball over 12 times (leading to 11 points) and Boston got a bench spark from Marcus Thornton (11 first-half points) to lead 53-36 at the intermission.

• Loose balls: The Celtics went with a 10-man rotation. Rookie Marcus Smart played only eight minutes as he continues to work his way back from a left ankle injury and struggled defensively against John Wall's speed. ... Phil Pressey, Gerald Wallace and James Young were healthy DNPs. ... The Wizards shot 36.6 percent overall.

• What it means: The Celtics have won a season-high three straight while improving to 7-11. The Wizards fall to 13-6. The teams meet again to close out a home-and-home series on Monday night in the nation's capital.

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/celtics_nba/celtics_insider/2014/12/celts_survive_beat_wizards_in_pierces_homecoming

Jeff Green had 25 points, Rajon Rondo had a triple-double (13 points, 13 rebounds, 11 assists), and the Celtics survived yet another of their late-game swoons, spoiling Paul Pierce's latest homecoming with a 101-93 victory over the Wizards today.

Coming on the heels of five consecutive losses, it was the Celts' third straight win.

More Celtics:
•The meaning of Paul Pierce to a new team
•Despite another new uniform, Paul Pierce's legacy thrives

That it would come over Pierce's new club was a surprise. The Wizards showed up with wins in their last four games and a 13-5 record that was second-best overall in the Eastern Conference behind Toronto. Prior to the game, Celts coach Brad Stevens stamped the Wiz as heavy contenders for the conference title.

But the C's did a great job of making Washington look bad through most of three quarters on this first day of a back-to-back home-and-home set. Green went for 11 of his points in the third quarter as the Celtics stretched their lead to 25.

An 8-3 Wizard run made it an 18-point game entering the fourth quarter, and things began to get interesting when Rasual Butler hit 3-pointers on Washington's first two possessions.

John Wall's 18-footer with 3:38 left made it a two-point game, and Butler missed a transition layup with a chance to tie.

Tyler Zeller loosened the Green collar with two free throws, but Butler replied with his fourth trey of the quarter to get the Wiz within 92-91. Zeller then hit two more freebies, and Evan Turner tipped away a Wall layup. Rondo turned the ball over, but made up for it by stealing the ball from Pierce at the other end. Rondo got the ball back in transition and his layup was originally called a goaltended on former Celt Kris Humphries. The ruling was reversed on video review, and Humphries beat Green on the center court jump ball. Wall got the Wiz within 94-91 on a drive.

Avery Bradley and Pierce then missed 3-pointers, but Bradley hit from that distance on the next possession, giving the Celts a 97-93 edge with 37 seconds left. Rondo then stole a Wall pass, and Green finished the fast break off on an assist from Bradley for a six-point cushion with 22.2 to go.

Green made two free throws after a Wall missed trey to ice it.

The day couldn’t have started off better for the Celtics or their fans.

In the latter case, they gave old friend Pierce a long and loud ovation when he was introduced last with the Washington starters.

Then the Celts went out and put together a solid first quarter on both ends of the floor. Green had eight points and Rondo added six as the hosts rolled out to a lead as great as 12 before settling for a 24-15 lead at the end.

While offense can come and go, the C's were most impressive on defense, where they held the Wizards to 25 percent shooting and forced them into a whopping nine turnovers.

The Boston lead grew to as many as 19 in the second frame and was still at a hefty 17 by halftime, 53-36.

The Celts shot just 39.1 percent in the new period, but they had 10 second-chance points, and Marcus Thornton threw in 11.

The Wizards got six points from Pierce, but they hit just 8 of 22 shots (36.4 percent).

At that stage of the game, Rondo was outscoring the Washington starting backcourt of Bradley Beal and John Wall, 11-10. And Rondo had made 4 of 6 shots, while the Wizard pair was a chilly 2-13 from the floor.

Nice to see the C's hold off the Wizards after building up a big lead.

dboss

Jeff Green had a really good game, he stayed aggressive, in the past if he missed a few he would disappear the rest of the game, he seems to be used better, and playing much better overall. Rondo was the leader of the pack, great triple double, alot of great feeds. Z even missed some shots off Rondo were used to seeing him make.

Wizards were ice cold in the first half, don't know if it was our defense or they were very off. Seemed like were not alot of breakdowns of defense in first half so we must have done more right. Wizards made it too close in 2nd half, but we should be given credit for holding on. At least we held on, good win for young team finding itself.

It seems as though the Celts are going through the season in stages.  Not long ago, they were building large leads, giving up the leads, and failing to put the game away at the end.  Now, they’re still building large leads, still giving up the leads, but closing out games at the end.  That represents progress of sorts, but I hope they’ll soon graduate to a level where they build big leads and hold onto enough of those leads so there won’t be such tooth gnashing, hand wringing and nail biting down the stretch.  In short, the current Celtics method of operation makes me feel deformed.


Defense won the first half, and lack of defense in the second half nearly lost the game.  It was largely about defensive rotations in the first half and lack of same in the second half.  Brad said before the game that they had worked on rotational problems on Saturday and thought they had worked out the trouble spots.  But, like so many of the lessons learned by the Celtics, it seems as though the effect is short-lived, and the lessons have to be relearned again and again. But it's harder to gripe after a win than after a loss, so......



As often happens, I awarded more than one game ball in this one.  Jeff Green and Marcus Thornton were the recipients.  Between them, they scored 26 of the Celtics’ 48 points in the second half and were arguably the biggest factors in keeping the Celtics from imploding from a 25 point lead in the second quarter to a loss at the end.  Jeff wound up soring 25, and I think claims about his inconsistency are entering the myth stage.  A couple more games like this one will earn Jeff a glimmer as a legitimate go to guy in my book.  And I still think of Thornton as the prototypical 6^th man who scores in bunches.  In this one, he had 21 points in 17 minutes.
 
Rondo had another obligatory triple double, and I liked the balance in his game: 13 points, 13 rebounds, and 11 assists.  During the game, when he hit a three on which he didn’t hesitate at all, I developed this theory that shooting threes forces him to arc the ball more than shooting free throws does, perhaps explaining why a guy who has such great difficulty hitting open 15 foot shots from a set position can shoot threes at all.
 
I thought Avery Bradley was strictly a minor member of the supporting cast in this one, but he was +24 according to Mr. Hollinger’s stupid formula.  But he was on the floor when the Celtics played very good defense to start the game, and he hit a huge three in the clutch.  Zeller blocks few shots, but he uses his body well on defense and contests everything.  The Celtics were also beneficiaries of some missed wide open shots by the Wiz at the outset of the game.  At some point, it was something like Celtics 16 and Paul Pierce 4.
 
Sully continues to be a double double machine—not much on the spectacular side in this one, but very steady.  However, at the end, Brad went small, with Zeller, Rondo, Green, Turner and Bradley playing a lot together down the stretch.  I’m not sure why Brad kept Turner in there so long, but perhaps it was because he wanted his height at the “3” when they went small with Green at the “4.”
 
There was point in the fourth quarter when the Celtics’ lead had shrunken to 8.  A minute later, after a three by Sully, a layup by Thornton and a three by Thornton, the lead was back up to 12.  It would wane again, as this was the perfect example of a game of runs by both teams.
 
The three clutch heroes were Green (a layup and two freebies at the end), Bradley (a big three), and Zeller (with four for four free shooting when the Celtics lead had shrunken to three and two at a couple of late junctures).
 
Two of the best players for the Celtics were Bradley Beal (4-18) and Marcin Gortat (3-12).  On the other hand, John Wall just missed a triple double himself (17-8-14) and was a total pain in the fourth quarter, scoring or assisting on a large proportion of the Wizards’ successful possessions.  Paul Pierce (16 points) hit a couple of big threes in the fourth quarter but wasn’t a major factor otherwise.  Old friend Kris Humphries did what he does, with 14 rebounds.  But it was Rasual Butler who came closest to sinking Boston’s ship personally, shooting 6-10 from behind the arc—four threes in the fourth quarter alone.
 
Although Bass played hard (nothing new there), he falls into the “nonentity” category (5 points in 16 minutes) along with Olynyk (0 in 16 minutes) and Smart (2 in 8 minutes).  Pressey was a DNP in this one, joining Wallace and young on the bench.
 
More and more, this is looking like a six man core (all six being the only Celtics who played more than 17 minutes today): the five starters (Sully, Jeff, Tyler, Rondo and Bradley) and Turner.  Floating on the periphery and receiving minutes on a game-by-game basis are Bass and Thornton.
 
Unfortunately, despite his recent breakout, Kelly Olynyk pretty much continues to look lost.  Many players who are slumping in one aspect of the game can contribute in other aspects.  This doesn’t seem to be the case with Kelly (unless we count his 1 rebound along with his 0-1 shooting as meaningful “contributions.”
 
Anyway, the Celts won.  Not in what I’d call glimmer fashion, but nonetheless mortaring another brick in the wall of development.

And congratulations to Cowens for winning the Game-on contest.

 
Sam

good win at home.

nice team win and god to see them hold on for the win after the comeback by Washington.

Obviously Brad has told Rondo to look for his shot more and it's working.

brace yourselves for tonight....the Wizards will be chomping at the bit for some revenge.

It is interesting that when Rondo gets a triple double we no longer see it as anything special.  He had several wow plays.  One was what I would call a double pick and role with Zeller where they pick and rolled and then picked and rolled again resulting in  Zeller getting a layup.  Tony Parker does that a lot with tim Duncan.  The full court bounce pass to Thornton was another great play.

KO scored no points.  He took 1 shot He had 1 rebound, 1 assist , 1 steal and 1 turnover to go along with 4 fouls.  He was physically overmatched and did not even look for hs offense.  

Jeff Green is playing his best basketball since joining the Celtics.  I still cannot call him a go to guy but he is clearly more comfortable as the #1 offensive option.

Was that the first time that a Bradley shot was the decisive basket to close out a game?

It was great to see Thornton get extended minutes.  He is a shooter and needs looks.  

I have revised my wish list for what this teams needs.

I would gladly take a long physical PF if no center was available.  I would like to see another player will dribble penetration skills and of course I would love to see a center that can defend, rebound and keep the defense honest by making shots.

dboss