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CELTICS SUNK BY COMING OUT PARTY OF ANTHONY DAVIS, DROP FOURTH STRAIGHT

WEEI

By Mike Petraglia 
 

Anthony Davis rises for a dunk Sunday against the Celtics. (AP)

Sunday night the Celtics proved they are nothing if not entertaining in this rebuilding season.

Former No. 1 pick Anthony Davis scored a career-high 40 points to lead the New Orleans Pelicans a heart-pounding 121-120 overtime win over the Celtics in the Bayou Sunday night. Davis added 21 rebounds, the first 40-20 game in the history of the New Orleans franchise. Jared Sullinger, who helped sparked a late fourth quarter rally with a 3-pointer, missed a trey with 11 seconds remaining that would have given the Celtics the lead.

The last two minutes of regulation featured a frantic Boston rally and several wild sequences.

Kris Humphries forced the overtime when he took an inbounds pass from Rajon Rondo and drained a 20-foot turnaround jumper at the regulation buzzer. Jeff Green matched his season high with 39 points while Humphries had another double-double, scoring 16 points and grabbing 12 rebounds.

Green was fouled in the act of taking a 3-pointer with 4.9 seconds remaining and made all three free throws to tie the game, 110-110 before Anthony Davis drilled a jumper that appeared to give New Orleans the win with 1.1 seconds left in regulation.

Down one, the Celtics had a chance to win the game after winning a key jump ball with under 20 seconds left but Avery Bradley dribbled the ball off his leg and out of bounds, setting the stage for the frantic final sequence.

The Celtics lost their fourth straight and fell to 22-45 on the season.

The Celtics scored 39 points in the second quarter to take a 64-57 halftime lead. Leading the way in the second quarter was Jeff Green, who hit two threes and led Boston with 12 points in the stanza.

The Celtics led 66-57 on a Brandon Bass dunk with 10:40 left in the third quarter. The Celtics were outscored 27-18 in the final 10 minutes of the quarter and went into the fourth quarter tied, 84-84.

As was the case Friday night in the loss to the Suns, the Celtics had a poor third quarter shooting the ball. They made just 9-of-23 shots and were outscored 11-0 at the free throw line.

The Celtics appeared to run out of gas completely early in the fourth quarter, getting outscored 18-5 by New Orleans in the first seven minutes. The Pelicans led by 13, 102-89, with 5:36 left. The Celtics did make a run as Jeff Green’s baseline three with just over three minutes left capped an 8-0 run and brought the Celtics within five, 102-97. Two Anthony Davis free throws with 3:04 left put New Orleans up, 104-97.

Jared Sullinger drained a three with 1:58 left to make it a one-possession game, 104-101. The Celtics could not get a stop as Brian Roberts answered with a runner in the lane to make it 106-101. Sullinger came back and a baseline jumper to make it 106-103. Humphries nailed a jumper with Just over a minute remaining make it a one-point game, 106-105. But Davis answered on the next possession for New Orleans, giving the Pelicans a 108-105 lead with 49.4 seconds left. Jeff Green came back with reverse layup with 38.4 seconds left to make it 108-107 New Orleans.

Green hit two free throws with 4:06 left in overtime to give Boston its first lead since the third quarter, 114-112. But the Pelicans answered with the next seven points of overtime to take a 119-114 lead, as Anthony Davis dominated the defensive glass on four straight misses in overtime. But like he did in the fourth quarter, Sullinger hit a huge three to bring the Celtics to within two, 119-117, with a minute remaining. Sullinger tried to give the Celtics the lead on the next possession but missed his next three.

The Celtics finish up their brief two-game southern swing on Monday night in Dallas with a date against the Mavericks. The Celtics return home to take on the Miami Heat at TD Garden.

Rondo finished with six points and 14 assists in 45 minutes and is not expected to play Monday in Dallas as he continues to rest his right knee in the second game of back-to-back contests.
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Rapid Reaction: Pelicans 121, C's 120 (OT)

By Chris Forsberg | ESPNBoston.com

Rapid Reaction after the New Orleans Pelicans defeated the Boston Celtics 121-120 in overtime on Sunday night at Smoothie King Arena:

THE NITTY GRITTY
Just-turned 21-year-old Anthony Davis scored a career-high 40 points to go along with 21 rebounds -- the first player to put up a 40/20 game against Boston since a 31-year-old Shaquille O'Neal (48 points, 20 rebounds) did it in 2003 -- while Tyreke Evans added 26 points as the Pelicans emerged despite fumbling away numerous leads. Jeff Green matched his season high with 39 points on 12-of-23 shooting with six rebounds, an assist, and a block over 39:21. Kris Humphries -- the buzzer-beating savior in regulation -- had a double-double (16 points, 12 rebounds), while Jared Sullinger filled up his stat line (14 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 blocks, steal) in 30 minutes off the bench.

TURNING POINT: HUMP FORCES OT
The teams were knotted at 87 with 10:47 remaining in regulation when the Pelicans embarked on a 15-2 run fueled by Davis and Evans. It was an Evans' finger roll that had New Orleans out front 102-89 with 5:36 to go and that should have been the game. Instead, the Celtics charged. Green hit a trio of free throws to tie the tilt with four seconds to play, only for Davis to answer with a 17-foot turnaround with 1.4 seconds to go. The Pelicans defended the inbounds well, but Rondo eventually found Humphries on the right side and he threw up a rainbow over Davis that fell to force the extra session.

TURNING POINT II: SULLY CAN'T WIN IT
The Celtics were down five with little more than a minute to play in overtime, but Sullinger hit a 3-pointer and had a shot to push Boston ahead with 12 seconds to go with a wide-open look from just above the break on the right side. The shot found iron and, despite New Orleans' best effort to let Boston hang around, they did enough to emerge with the win.

LOOSE BALLS
Rajon Rondo turned in 6 points, 14 assists, and 8 rebounds over 44:31. ... The Pelicans scored 70 (SEVENTY!) points in the paint compared to Boston's 46. ... The game featured 15 lead changes and 10 ties; New Orleans led by as much as 13, while Boston had a nine-point advantage early on. ... Despite the extra session, the Celtics stayed 10 deep on the first night of a back-to-back. Chris Babb and Joel Anthony logged DNPs.

WHAT IT MEANS
The Celtics (22-45) have lost four in a row and will still own the fourth-worst record in basketball. Boston remains winless on the road against the Western Conference this season (0-14) and its last chance to break up that shutout comes on Monday when the Celtics visit the Dallas Mavericks. Give the Celtics this: They've certainly been entertaining this season. They made the final 15 minutes of this game highly entertaining.

112288

Humphries was awesome. He was making hustle plays and sunk that basket at the buzzer. You could tell he really wanted that game. I'm sure they all did.

Jeff was 12-23 FG (a tick over 50%), 4-7 from 3 PT, 11-12 FT for 39 points and had 6 REB. Not to mention, he was the only Celtics' starter with a + for the game (+5). He also sunk 3 huge free throws at the end and recorded 12 points in the 4th. But nah, he's useless.



KJ

Hope they keep Humphries. He and Sully have a lock for PF, Bass could be odd man out if they can sign Hump.  Now for a center and fillers on the bench!

112288

112288,

The only bad part about not retaining Bass is that the Celtics would be losing a defender than can cover most 3s.

But I do like Humphries and he could be a very good piece on a contending team.


KJ

I missed the game, those damn early starts.  

I'm going to go read the Game On thread now.


Another 3-14 night for Rondo?

This game could have gone in the win column, but two puzzling decisions by Stevens or his players contributed to the loss. With 20 seconds left in regulation Sullinger was triple teamed with no possibility of passing out and no one called time out - no one, not one coach or player. This resulted in a jump ball and although Bradley came up with it he dribbled it off his knee for a turnover. With a timeout Rondo would have been bringing the ball up the court only down by one. They could have played for the last shot and the win.
If that wasn't bad enough with about 5 seconds left and down by one they neglected to foul any NO player and let the clock run out.

Like the posters above I admire the way we wouldn't give up, but sometimes i think either Stevens or his players are just too dumb to win.

Kudos again to Humphries. He's playing his heart out.

Hump's Buzzer beater to get us to OT.  The part I like the most?  His reaction.  He acted no differently than if he had hit a face-up 17'er to end a quarter. A modest fist pump, a smile and just walked to the bench to get ready for OT.

You can't have too many pros on your team.


http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:10620129



bob



.

My reaction over all was just this..........what would we be like if we had a center even close to as good as Davis?

They broke down our guards way to easy and put pressure on our back line to cut off the penetration leaving Davis inside for a lob or an easy rebound and putback if they missed. I think his arms are close to being illegal too. Isn't there a human limit on arm length?

I know they don't come along very often but with a rim protector like that and an even better offensive force to boot................ dreamin I know.

Another could have been win, Rondo with 44 minutes??? Seems a lot even in an OT game, well he'll look good this eve in civvies.

beat

beat wrote:My reaction over all was just this..........what would we be like if we had a center even close to as good as Davis?

They broke down our guards way to easy and put pressure on our back line to cut off the penetration leaving Davis inside for a lob or an easy rebound and putback if they missed. I think his arms are close to being illegal too. Isn't there a human limit on arm length?

I know they don't come along very often but with a rim protector like that and an even better offensive force to boot................ dreamin I know.

Another could have been win, Rondo with 44 minutes??? Seems a lot even in an OT game, well he'll look good this eve in civvies.

beat

For your first point, this team would be winning a hell of a lot more of these close games of they had a legit center, let alone Davis. Anthony Davis, though, is a freak of nature. He's an entirely different kind of beast unlike anything we've seen.

And I was surprised with the amount of minutes Rondo played, too. His conditioning must be improving. But I am still a bit concerned about it.


KJ

I'm afraid the game-on thread will be a tad one-sided, Bob.  My summary would be that it was one of the more exciting games of this generally drab season.  Yeah, they lost, but you'll see in that thread that I got genuinely excited.  I mean, Sally didn't have to take me to the Emergency Room or anything, but there was a touch of that old feeling, and it felt good.  At first, I thought Humph's turnaround corner jumper swish was a three (it wasn't), and I was preparing a sermon to all the tankmeisters when I realized it was only a game-tying two.  For those who think I'm an Avery Bradley basher (totally false), last night's dribble off his own knee when he took his eye off the ball on a breakaway didn't do anything to endear him to me.  But there were more than enough miscues to go around in this one.  It reinforced my feeling that a game doesn't have to be a thing of beauty to be exciting.

Go Celtics.

Sam