The Celtics had a strong first quarter tonight, but lost the last three quarters to eventually go down 102-96 to the Atlanta Hawks for the third time this year. The Celts now have 10 losses on the year and three of them are to Atlanta. At the end of the first it was 31-21 Boston, Rondo was getting layups at ease, and the Celts couldn't miss a three. Atlanta hung around though until the third quarter when the officials stepped in and had a big impact. Boston at one point had a 14 point lead but when a bogus flagrant one call (Tommy Heinsohn had some harsh criticism for the refs and I completely agree with him) on Big Baby caused Doc to lose his cool at the refs and get thrown out, Atlanta got 4 free throws and the ball and just took off from there. They went on a 18-8 run and Joe Johnson and Jamal Crawford combined to seemingly not miss a shot the rest of the way.
The Celtics were undermanned tonight as Rasheed Wallace was a late scratch with a foot injury. Scal filled in in the starting lineup and played very well. He played great defense on Josh Smith, hit his open shots from behind the line, but got into foul trouble late (again, bogus calls...) Garnett is still out with the hyperextended knee and is expected out 10 more days. You can't even verbalize just how much the team needs him right now to be a presence on defense and on the glass and to be a dependable contributor on the other end too. Overall, the combination of a poorly officiated game (causing Doc to get ejected and the Hawks having a 33-18 advantage in free throws attempted despite losing the battle in the paint 48-34) and a roster full of injured stars made tonight a rough tonight in Boston. The Celts take on the Nets in New Jersey on Wednesday.
Celtics needed to keep Pierce guarding Joe Johnson. Rayray and others tried but he was flatout unstoppable at points. (i.e the fade away in front of the celtics bench.
ReplyDeleteClearly Thibodeau didn't know what a substitution was either, I think he had the same lineup in the entire 4th quarter.