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Hornets 96, Celtics 87: Big night for Big Al

ESPN

By Chris Forsberg | ESPNBoston.com

For the longest time Al Jefferson couldn't beat his former team. He went winless against the Boston Celtics in the first 11 meetings after being traded away in July 2007 and was 1-13 entering Wednesday's tilt in Charlotte.

Jefferson scored a game-high 23 points on 9-of-15 shooting with 14 rebounds over 36 minutes as the Charlotte Hornets bested the visiting Celtics 94-85 at Time Warner Cable Arena.

Jefferson dominated around the basket, including in the fourth quarter when he scored 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting. Boston simply has no answer for the 29-year-old big man.

Rajon Rondo produced his third triple-double of the season by posting 12 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists over 32 minutes. It's the 32nd triple-double of Rondo's career. But this was hardly Rondo's night and he was a team-worst minus-21 in plus/minus for the game.

Marcus Thornton tried to will the Celtics' stagnant offense in the fourth quarter and finished with 16 points.

• Zeller Bowl: In the latest head-to-head battle between Cody and Tyler Zeller, it was the younger brother's team prevailing. Charlotte's Cody finished with 9 points and 2 rebounds over 24 minutes, but was plus-17; Boston's Tyler had 13 points and 8 rebounds over 26:35, but was minus-19.

• Loose balls: The Celtics went 11 deep with their rotation. The only healthy DNP: Gerald Wallace, who had the best years of his career in Charlotte. .... The Celtics shot 43.7 percent overall, but only 21.7 percent beyond the 3-point arc. ... The Hornets shot only 41.7 percent, but benefited from shooting 29 free throws. ... Boston had only 10 attempts at the charity stripe. ... The Hornets outscored the Celtics 33-21 in the third quarter to take over the game.

• What it means: The Celtics fall to 7-13 after losing both games on a brief two-game road trip. Boston returns home to host the New York Knicks on Friday night before heading back out on the road for a stop in Philadelphia on Monday.

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5 THINGS WE LEARNED: AL JEFFERSON UPSTAGES RAJON RONDO’S TRIPLE-DOUBLE

WEEI

By Ben Rohrbach

Marcus Thornton scored 13 of his 16 points in the fourth quarter, but it wasn’t enough to claw the Celtics out of an early hole in a 96-87 loss to the Hornets .

Rondo finished with 12 points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds — his third triple-double of the season — and Jeff Green added 16 points, but the Celtics scored just two points in the final 4:32 against Charlotte (6-15).

Meanwhile, the C’s had no answer for Al Jefferson (23 points, 14 rebounds) in the middle, losing a third straight road game and falling to 7-13 on the season.

SLOW START: The Celtics entered Wednesday’s game with one of the NBA’s most efficient first-quarter offenses, averaging 26.7 points on 49.4 percent shooting, but struggled in the opening 12 minutes against one of the league’s worst defensive units. With the exception of Green (3-5 FG), the Celtics started just 4-of-16 from the field, missing all five of their 3-point attempts. The end result was a 22-16 deficit, so rather than protecting an early lead, the C’s found themselves in the unfamiliar position of digging themselves out of a first-quarter hole.

BENCH PRESS: The C’s bench picked up right where it left off in Monday’s second-half comeback against the Wizards, quickly erasing the early deficit and pulling even at 32 apiece midway through the second quarter. Kelly Olynyk anchored the effort, scoring eight points in a span of just more than three minutes. While the reserves battled their way back into the game, the C’s starters couldn’t maintain the momentum, falling behind again 45-40 by halftime.

RONDO’S JUMPER: Struggling all season to find the mid-range jumper he discovered just prior to his ACL surgery, Rondo made all four of his attempts between 10-20 feet on Wednesday. Those eight points helped Rondo achieve the 32nd triple-double of his career. The Celtics point guard still wasn’t attacking the basket, though, failing to attempt a free throw for the fifth time in his last six games.

CHARITY STRIPE: It’s a good thing Brian Scalabrine called the game alongside Mike Gorman and not Tommy Heinsohn, because Tommy would’ve blown a gasket over the free throw discrepancy between the two teams. The Hornets attempted 19 more freebies than the Celtics and scored 17 more points at the line, although much of that had to do with Boston’s lack of aggressiveness. The Celtics attempted 23 3-pointers and settled for jumpers all night.

TYLER ZELLER > CODY ZELLER: In the battle of the Zeller brothers, Tyler got the best of his younger sibling. Once again working well off the pick-and-roll with Rondo, Tyler collected 13 points and eight rebounds in 27 minutes out of his starting center role. Cody had nine points and two boards in 24 minutes, but improved to 6-0 against his older bro. It was old friend Al Jefferson, though, who Tyler couldn’t contain. Big Al had his double-double by the third quarter.

Nothing more then a team being very tired. We will see after a rest this weekend how they come out next week.


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Celtics simply were not ready to play last night, IMO.

call it the double overtime blues or the welcome to the NBA young fellas wake up call.

This game does not require a lot of analysis.  We could talk all day about how ineffective Bradley was on offense (he may have set a record for airballs and rim-grazing) or how Rondo had the quietest triple-double of all-time or how, after Jeff Green's torrid start the ball seldom went his way and he had a total of only 12 shots or how Sully shot 2 for 10.  But the sticky wicket that lost this game was clearly the Celtics' nearly completely ineffectual interior defense in the second half.  Big Al ate every Celtics center alive down low, and buys like Stephenson and Walker rather easily eluded the futile defensive attempts of various Celtics as they drove to the basket.

The only other noteworthy thing worth mentioning was that, once again, Marcus Thornton scored a bunch of points in the fourth quarter, being forced to create his own shot in virtually every case.

That's it.  End of story.  Hope for better things.

Sam

Sam

I would add that turnovers killed us in the 4th QTR (6) with 3 by Rondo

At 9:36 the game was 74-75 Hornets.

Post defense will continue to be an ongoing issue in absence of some very creative defensive tactics.

dboss

Nightly overall defense is always a product of lack of team effort.

Lots of other things were not the same as they were in the Washington game either.  And, Smart did not play much in the fourth quarter, and I am beginning to think that he may be the most important player on this team in the clutch.

Could be time to turn this guy loose every night to see if he is the spark/glue type guy that so many other guys on this team are probably not.  Monday night may not have been his only day to lead this team when the game is on the line, and he may not need to score 23 in every game to become the Cs leader.