POST GAME - L A CLIPPERS - HOME & PAUL PIERCE LAST HURRAH!

C's rally to beat Clippers 139-134 in OT thriller

CSNNE

A. SHERROD BLAKLEY


BOSTON – Wow!

There would be no last second – make that less than a second – gaffe on the Boston Celtics part against the Los Angeles Clippers who for most of the fourth quarter on Wednesday had the Celtics where they wanted them.

Boston found themselves facing an early deficit in overtime, only to rally behind a slew of big plays from Evan Turner to close out their pre-All-Star portion of their schedule with a 139-134 win.

Turner had seven of his 14 points in overtime which included a go-ahead 3-point play and a fade-away jumper that put Boston ahead by three with less than a minute to play in overtime.

Former Celtic legend Paul Pierce had a chance to tie the game with a 3-pointer but it was off the mark.

Boston could not make the most of its opportunity to seal the victory, with officials ruling the ball went off of Turner out of bounds with 21.9 seconds to play.

The Celtics pulling this game out did not seem in the cards tonight, not after a horrendous start to overtime.

J.J. Redick was fouled by Avery Bradley while making a 3-pointer. And on Los Angeles’ ensuing possession, Redick was fouled once again by Bradley on a 3-point attempt which didn’t go in that time.

He missed one of the free throws, but the Clippers had a six-point lead less than a minute into the overtime period.

Boston, scrappy as ever, began chipping away at the lead but had to do it without two of their better two-way players.

Marcus Smart fouled out near the end of regulation and Jae Crowder picked up his sixth early in the overtime period.

Boston (32-23) hits the all-star break with the third-best record in the Eastern Conference while the Clippers (35-18) continue to fight to win without arguably their best player, Blake Griffin.

The Celtics avenged a one-point loss from Tuesday night at Milwaukee, a game that ended with a Bucks free throw with 0.6 seconds to play.

The C's were in an uphill battle for a large part of the fourth quarter, but came up with some huge plays in the final seconds.

Trailing 120-115, Isaiah Thomas drove into the lane and scored while being fouled by DeAndre Jordan.

He missed the free throw but Marcus Smart got the rebound and was fouled on an attempted put-back.

Smart missed the second of his two attempts and the Celtics had a chance to once again get the offensive rebound.

Jae Crowder tracked it down, but official Scott Twardoski called a foul on Smart – his sixth of the game which sent him to the bench for the night with 17 points, four rebounds and four assists.

Redick made both free throws that made it a four-point game, only for Thomas to nearly loose the ball before floating a 11-footer over the outstretched hand of Jordan.

Following a Clippers time-out with 45.6 seconds to play, the Celtics had a near steal before Chris Paul launched a last-second shot that ultimately led to another set of free throws for Jordan with 23.3 seconds to play.

After clanging the first one off the back of the rim, he missed the second one off the front of the rim.

That’s all the Celtics needed.

Boston immediately pushed the ball up court and with time winding down, Thomas attacked the paint, and pulled up for a step-back jumper a la Paul Pierce (Celtics great now with the Clippers) to tie the game at 122 with 5.8 seconds to play.

Chris Paul tried to win it for the Clippers, but his jumper over Evan Turner was off the mark as the loose ball wound up in Thomas’ hands as time expired which sent the game into overtime.
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PAUL PIERCE: ‘IT MIGHT BE THE LAST TIME I’M BACK’

WEEI

By Josue Pavon

Paul Pierce

As Paul Pierce returned to TD Garden as a member of the Clippers, the 18-year veteran said Wednesday’s game against the Celtics might be the last time he plays in Boston.

“It could be, Pierce said before the game. “I’m not 100 percent sure, but, you know, like I’ve been saying the last two years, I’m taking it year by year, and this could possibly be.”

For 15 seasons, Pierce called Boston his home, and he climbed to second on the team’s career scoring list. Although it’s been nearly three years since he last played a game in a Celtics uniform, coming back to TD Garden as a member of the visiting team is still odd for the veteran.

“I think the weird thing is just being on this side of the bench and this side of the locker room,” Pierce explained. “The locker room is a little weird. I used to walk up the stairs and take a right instead of a left. It’s fun I get to enjoy it because it might be the last time I’m back.”

Pierce also discussed former teammate Kevin Garnett, who he’s kept in contact with despite going their separate ways.

“Usually all we talk about is family,” Pierce said with a laugh. “Kevin is doing good. I always ask if this is it for him; he’s still undecided. Kevin said he was going to retire the last five years in a row and always came back, so I don’t know what he’s planning. We stay in good contact, as do a lot of us — Rondo, the guys who we’ve played with — so I don’t know what his plans are like, and I don’t know what I’m going to do, but it could be the last time.” Pierce entered Wednesday’s game with career lows in every statistical category, averaging 5.7 points and 2.8 rebounds per game, but has earned a spot in Doc Rivers‘ starting lineup. The former Celtics coach and Pierce reunited this past summer, when Pierce signed a three-year deal with the Clippers.

“He gives us leadership, he gives us truth,” said Rivers. “Instead of me using my voice, I can use Paul’s voice, and that’s been really nice for me. This is a different team than the one here; this is a younger team, a team that is trying to get over the hump, and Paul has been really good.”

Despite playing without All-Star forward Blake Griffin (broken right hand), the Clippers (35-17) have won eight of their last 10 games and are fourth in the Western Conference.
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Celtics rally late, overtake Clippers in overtime 139-134

1 2 3 4 OT T
LAC 37 27 27 31 12 134
BOS 33 38 27 24 17 139

BOSTON -- Isaiah Thomas had 36 points and 11 assists, including a fade away jumper that sent the game to an extra period, to help the Boston Celtics overtake the Los Angeles Clippers 139-134 in overtime on Wednesday night.

Jared Sullinger added 21 points and 11 rebounds. Jae Crowder finished with 19 points, and Avery Bradley added 18 points as the Celtics won their eighth straight at home.

Boston played the second half without big man Kelly Olynyk. He left late in the first half with a bruised right shoulder.

The Clippers led by five late in regulation, but went without a field goal for more than three minutes.

Chris Paul led the Clippers with 35 points and 13 assists. J.J. Redick added 27 points and DeAndre Jordan finished with 21 points and 16 rebounds.

The loss spoiled what may be Clippers' forward Paul Pierce's final game in the Boston Garden. The 38-year-old played 15 seasons with the Celtics and was facing his former team for the eighth time.

The Clippers opened overtime with a four-point play by Redick.

After a Celtics miss, he was fouled again on a 3-point attempt, and connected on two of his three free throws to give Los Angeles a six-point lead.

Boston didn't go away, and eventually tied it on a jumper by Evan Turner. Turner then put the Celtics in front 135-132 via a three-point play -- his seventh straight point -- with 1:33 left.

Both teams traded baskets, before Pierce came up short on a 27-footer that was rebounded by the Celtics.

Los Angeles had a chance to tie it up, and Jamal Crawford's long 3-point attempted nearly banked in before rimming out.

Los Angeles led 120-117 with 56 seconds to play in regulation after Thomas was fouled on a driving layup. He missed his ensuing free throw, but it was rebounded by Sullinger. He connected on the first of his two free throws to trim it to 120-118.

Following a pair of free throws by Redick, Thomas gave the Celtics life again with a teardrop jumper.

Paul missed a long jumper with the shot clock winding down on the Clippers next possession, but Jae Crowder was called for a loose ball foul with 23.3 remaining

Jordan misfired on both ensuing free throws, and Thomas tied it with fade away jumper.

Paul had a good look at a jumper that would have won it regulation, but it bounced off the side of the rim at the buzzer.

TIP-INS

Clippers: The Clippers did not have a field goal for the final 3:29 of regulation. ... Paul had 10 points and five assists in the first quarter. It was the 37th time in his career he's had at least 10 points and five assists in a quarter. That's the most in NBA since 2005-06.

Celtics: Improved to 10-3 in the second game of back-to-backs.

UP NEXT

Boston travels to Utah on Feb. 19.

112288

This team continues to exceed expectation. Bumps in the road have not stopped forward progress.

Dboss

Wow. What a great game (we won).

A couple of observations:

NBA refs suck. I'm saying this after a Celtic victory, so it's not sour grapes. I've been watching the NBA for probably close to 50 years now and the state of whistle blowing today is the worst I've ever seen. I understand inconsistency, one ref blows whistles for these and his two compadres don't, so it looks like one side is getting certain calls but it's just the same ref blowing fouls on top only when he's on top. Or they blow them loose in the first half and tight in the 2nd. What I have a problem with is phantom calls. IF YOU DON'T SEE IT, DON'T CALL IT.

This team loves pressure. When they are way up, the take their foot off the pedal. When they are down and time is becoming an issue, they turn ferocious and focused. Down 5 points with 3 1/2 left in the 4th and we started to execute. Thomas made 8 of our 11 points in that final stretch. He gets a little out of control at times, he forgets he's in a big man's game, but Mighty Mite has enough ganas to power a small city. Chris Paul is, and has been, one of the top point guards in the league for years and Thomas gave up nothing to him. I thought we might be cooked when Redick started off the OT with 6 straight points. A 6 point lead when the entire OT is only 5 minutes is pretty decent sized lead. Well, if 5 points wasn't enough with 3 1/2 left it sure wasn't with 4 minutes left. In the OT it was Evan Turner's time with 7 of our 17. 17 points in a 5 minute period extrapolates out to over 40 points in a normal 12 minute period. Not only did we erase Redick's 6 point lead, we won by 5 going away.

A lot of big on small matchups. Brad had Jerebko on Paul and Doc had Jordan on Isaiah. Neither idea worked. Paul threw in some highly improbable shots from outside and Isaiah just blew past Jordan like he was standing still, which he pretty much was. The key to today's NBA is mobility. Paul didn't try to get past Jonas, he just created a little space between them and hit his outside shots. Jordan out there with Thomas had no chance. He was just too slow-footed. Giraffes can run, wooly mammoths can't.

Lance Stephenson is still a fool.

Despite having Jordan and us not having any comparable inside force, we still outscored them in the paint 42-36.

52% vs 50%. Hardly a defensive struggle. Being able to score wins too.


We eliminated a 19 point deficit in 12 minutes in Milwaukee 2 nights ago and we beat a team with a better record than us, in a tougher conference than ours on the 2nd night of a back-to-back last night. As Mark Twain might write "the reports of our death are premature".

Atlanta won, so we're still only 1 game ahead of them, but Miami lost and we're 2 games up on them.

Have fun in Toronto, Isaiah. Rest your leg, Jae. The final kick to the finish is coming up.


bob


.

Bob

The intentional foul did help us a little last evening. Even when Jonas running at Jordan accidently ran over Paul in trying to get to him................and it still worked as Paul missed one of 2 and we scored on the ensuing possession.

We did send Jordan to the line intentionally a few times and he shot much better than his season average. We were not overly abusive at it either but it's a part of the game.....if he had made one more FS during regulation.....they win.

Need to think long and hard about changing this.

And how many players of any size work at getting an offensive rebound on a potential missed free throw like this? And this is when the shooter is a 90% shooter.

http://gfycat.com/SlimSpeedyCanvasback

Smart might never be an all star ................but man he's got game.

beat

beat wrote:Bob

The intentional foul did help us a little last evening. Even when Jonas running at Jordan accidently ran over Paul in trying to get to him................and it still worked as Paul missed one of 2 and we scored on the ensuing possession.

We did send Jordan to the line intentionally a few times and he shot much better than his season average.  We were not overly abusive at it either but it's a part of the game.....if he had made one more FS during regulation.....they win.

Need to think long and hard about changing this.

And how many players of any size work at getting an offensive rebound on a potential missed free throw like this?  And this is when the shooter is a 90% shooter.  

http://gfycat.com/SlimSpeedyCanvasback

Smart might never be an all star ................but man he's got game.

beat

beat,

He definitely has ganas. He has the fire in the belly. You cannot teach that.


bob



.

Here's Thomas' shot chart from last night.  Almost all fgm at the rim.  How the hell can he score inside like that when players a whole foot taller than him can't?





https://vine.co/v/inZJMuQ2hbi



bob


.

Last night was a great example of the depth that the Celtics have. Kelly goes out with an injury and two others foul out yet we still make the big comeback after being down quickly in OT.

Great game, IT had a game for the ages, I didn't know he could play that good, didn't know he could score over a player like DeAndre Jordan and he did it many times in OT. Nice to see Sully getting his stroke back and Crowder and AB steady, playing their game and Evan Turner doing alot of good things. Marcus Smart is a beast and his stroke and offense is getting better and better. Great team win, if Sully can pick it up and keep playing this way, and Smart, ET, AB, Crowder have all improved and are still improving.....2nd half of season is gonna be very entertaining.

I didn't understand why Stevens had AB on Reddick, not Chris Paul, IT played him as well as he could, but Paul was shooting over him too easily. Paul has every trick in the book, great vision and shot, you have Avery hounding Steph Curry and doing a very good job, why wouldn't you put him on Paul? AB is probably the best point guard defender in the league.

When are they going to give the players an extra foul for OT? You get extra time outs, extra time (5 minutes).

No team plans for OT. But you shouldn't be expected to carefully plan each game like OT is a given and carry your fouls over into it.

I'm surprised the league hasn't to my knowledge ever brought this up and changed it. If you fouled out in OT after being give and extra, have a seat!

db

dbrown4 wrote:When are they going to give the players an extra foul for OT?  You get extra time outs, extra time (5 minutes).

No team plans for OT.  But you shouldn't be expected to carefully plan each game like OT is a given and carry your fouls over into it.  

I'm surprised the league hasn't to my knowledge ever brought this up and changed it.  If you fouled out in OT after being give and extra, have a seat!

db

Interesting idea. Call Silver !!

beat

cowens/oldschool wrote:Great game, IT had a game for the ages, I didn't know he could play that good, didn't know he could score over a player like DeAndre Jordan and he did it many times in OT. Nice to see Sully getting his stroke back and Crowder and AB steady, playing their game and Evan Turner doing alot of good things. Marcus Smart is a beast and his stroke and offense is getting better and better. Great team win, if Sully can pick it up and keep playing this way, and Smart, ET, AB, Crowder have all improved and are still improving.....2nd half of season is gonna be very entertaining.

I didn't understand why Stevens had AB on Reddick, not Chris Paul, IT played him as well as he could, but Paul was shooting over him too easily. Paul has every trick in the book, great vision and shot, you have Avery hounding Steph Curry and doing a very good job, why wouldn't you put him on Paul? AB is probably the best point guard defender in the league.

Cow,

Brad had Jerebko on Paul too.  Didn't matter.  Paul went into a zone.  Great players are like that, we saw that with Pierce many times over the years.

Think of the Thomas-Jordan dynamic you mentioned in a 1980s context.  The same Clipper team but surround IT with Bird etal.  The reason why IT was able to score is not just because he was able to blow past Jordan, Tiny Archibald and other small players used to take bigs off the dribble all the way back to Cousy, what made it possible with such surety the other night is that Jordan had no supporting defenders.  He was all alone out there with IT and there was NOBODY anywhere near them.  Why?  Because the players of today, up and down the roster, are all good shooters from outside.  In the 80s there was Bird, Ainge, maybe Wedman and Sichting and that's it as far as players who could draw the Clipper's defense out away from the paint for IT.  That's small-ball, with Bird playing center.  Could you see McHale out there at the 3pt line?  Walton?  Parish?  How about Cornbread?  I'm talking about on offense.  Not one of those players could command the respect from the Clippers defenders enough so that the defenders could not fall off them enough to pick up IT after he got past Jordan.  The days of just yelling "Russ!" are gone because Russ would be out at the perimeter guarding a stretch 5 and not patrolling the baseline.  With the roster we have today we could have Jae and Avery in the corners.  Defenders cannot leave shooters in the corners anymore, that's an easy shot.  Kelly was out with the injury, but so was Blake Griffin.  If they were both healthy Kelly could be out at 3 and Griffin would have to be out there with him and not halfway to the paint.  Instead we could have Sully at 19' and Jonas out at 3.  The weak link is Sully  but Jonas is shooting 43% from 3.  My point is that because today's NBA game has moved to the perimeter dinosaurs like Jordan (and Howard and Pekovic) are becoming extinct.  You have to be able to shoot from distance in this NBA to survive, regardless of your size and weight.  Pace and Space means you have to be able to create space on offense and close the distance quickly on defense.  Unless you are talking about a circus freak like Gobert you're need smaller, faster players to stop someone like IT and if you put a small player on him that makes it easier on him.  He'll either put a move on him or blow past him too and Jordan still wouldn't be able to get there in time because he'd have to be out with Jonas or whomever.




bob


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beat,

You basically have 8 minutes per foul. College it's the same. Granted, that's cutting it a little short/close but if the game goes into double OT, you wouldn't get an additional foul for the 2nd OT, just one per 2OT's would work.

It really is not fair to the players the way it is set up.

I may send Silver an email! It really should be changed.

db

okay bob good interesting analysis, I do remember Walt Frazier driving and scoring over Wilt the Stilt when I was a kid. and todays game sure is different, so why wasn't AB covering Paul?

cowens/oldschool wrote:okay bob good interesting analysis, I do remember Walt Frazier driving and scoring over Wilt the Stilt when I was a kid. and todays game sure is different, so why wasn't AB covering Paul?

Who was on Redick? If you put Bradley on Paul, who guards JJ Redick, one of the best shooters in the league? Brad decided to put Jerebko on him. It didn't work anymore than Doc's putting Jordan on Thomas did, but SOMEBODY had to stay right on Redick's shooting hand. If you remember, Redick got that 4 point play to start the OT. The foul was on Bradley, who was guarding him.


bob


.

bobheckler wrote:

cowens/oldschool wrote:okay bob good interesting analysis, I do remember Walt Frazier driving and scoring over Wilt the Stilt when I was a kid. and todays game sure is different, so why wasn't AB covering Paul?

Who was on Redick?  If you put Bradley on Paul, who guards JJ Redick, one of the best shooters in the league?  Brad decided to put Jerebko on him.  It didn't work anymore than Doc's putting Jordan on Thomas did, but SOMEBODY had to stay right on Redick's shooting hand.  If you remember, Redick got that 4 point play to start the OT.  The foul was on Bradley, who was guarding him.


bob


.

if you put Bradley on Paul, you put IT on Redick, and Redick isn't a protypical 6'6" SG that will abuse the little guy and I know how crafty and good Chris Paul is, with IT on him, he didn't have to worry about a thing. AB has a habbit of making things difficult for opposing guards.