Boston Celtics survive Denver Nuggets in crazy triple-overtime thriller, 118-114
After losing a lead they held for three and a half quarters the Boston Celtics ultimately hung on to win in triple-overtime, which is good because I’m not into moral victories. This was easily the most important game since Rondo’s injury, and the Celtics delivered an absolute thriller with a ton of big shots and a hefty helping of free basketball. Let’s get to the recap:
- Paul Pierce finished with 27 points (7-20 shooting, 8-9 from the line), 14 rebounds, and 14 assists–and has quickly assumed Rondo’s mantle as king of the ugly triple-double. Pierce started out really well, bumbled his way through the second half, and then hit a huge three over Andre Miller to send the game to a third overtime. It was an uneven and messy performance but whatever works, I guess. Pierce played an absolutely insane 54 minutes tonight, which make me more forgiving of a few late-game hiccups.
- Jason Terry (26 points, 10-22 shooting), like Pierce, started off hot and then fell apart missing shot after shot before hitting a crucial three in the third overtime. Despite the big shot, I would have preferred Courtney Lee be given an opportunity down the stretch because at least he could have contributed on defense. Then again, Courtney Lee dribbled the ball off his foot (A Celtics shooting guard dribbling off his foot? Never seen that before) so I’m not really sure if I want him on the floor with the game on the line.
- Kevin Garnett struggled offensively for most of the night, but the game went on so long KG eventually shot himself out of his slump and took over in the third overtime to lead the Celtics to victory. Garnett ended up with 20 points on 9-24 shooting and 18 rebounds.
- Jeff Green started off slow but hit multiple clutch shots at the end of regulation and overtime. He also made a great defensive stop before completely losing his handle in transition while staring at the ball wondering what happened. Green scored 17 points on 6-10 shooting and will probably end up being the unsung hero of this game, his key plays forgotten because of Paul Pierce’s huge (ridiculously ill-advised) shot and Garnett’s takeover in the third overtime.
- Chris Wilcox played 11 minutes to Jason Collins half a second which didn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things (and may have been a matchup decision) but it made me happy.
- Ty Lawson might actually be too fast for Avery Bradley.
- I’m sitting here trying to figure out why Barbosa only played 17 minutes.
Now I’m not trying to be a huge bummer, but this bears mentioning: The Celtics shot less than 40% for the game (after shooting 48% in the first half) because their offense continues to grind to a halt late in games. Tonight the Celtics shot 25% in the fourth quarter and 34% in the three overtime periods. The C’s haven’t made a drastic change in pace since Rondo’s injury, but they have been advancing the ball quickly and getting into their sets earlier (resulting in great ball-movement). This doesn’t happen in the fourth quarter and the offense stagnates, which allows opposing teams to get back into the game (and not just tonight, it happened against the Raptors and the Clippers too). Eventually the Celtics will have to correct this or it’s going to bite them in the you-know-what. We’ll worry about that another time though, tonight the Celtics made play after play to beat a quality Nuggets squad and cemented themselves as a team nobody wants to play in the playoffs. Tomorrow, they’ll face Charlotte and try and stretch their NBA-leading win streak to eight.
Follow Jordan on Twitter: @HiggsOnHoops
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- Shelden Williams inspiring confidence in George Karl, Denver Nuggets
- Celtics win OT Thriller in KG’s return
Celtics Blog | Jordan Higgs | February 10, 2013
What up CT. Damn, what did I miss 7 game win streak…awesome. Back soon.
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What a great win that what you calls balls.PP KG and AB you knew were gonna hold it down but Lee,Terry,Barbosa and Green are the biggest reasons for this win streak those 4 have been huge and must continue to be huge
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Short break, been on hols to Iceland. Now back. My beloved Celtics are looking to make the move to the top of the Atlantic. That win was a cliff hanger. Only two other games were bigger this year. The two point win against the Heat and stompin LAL into the dirt where they belong.
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That possession reversal at the end of regulation had to have been one of the worst calls ever, and they had all the itme in the world to look at it. Yeah, they reversed in favor of the C’s ealrier but really, uncontroverted evidence that Bradley touched the ball and not the 2 Nuggets whose hands were all over it?
That’s going to cost us against the Bobcats tonight.
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I Agree my friend they were like “It’s clearly Boston’s ball… but it’s snowing outside, send the game to overtime”
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Cheer up Jordan, it was only the most exciting win of the season! The fact that we shot 40% and still won is a positive – it means we’re finding ways to win when we’re not at our best.
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PP,KG and Terry should either be rested tonight or in limited action.Bass,green,barbosa and LEE SHOULD CARRY THE LOAD TONIGHT
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what a game. everybody played great, besides Bass and the officials. I disagree with the statement that the Cs struggled on offense in the second half: Pierce, KG, Jet, all took great shots, that eventually didn’t fall. The only hero-shot was taken by Pierce, when it was absolutely necessary (and he hit it!).
So go Cs, great win, let’s play the bench guys for extensive minutes today against the Bobcats
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a quick tribute to a great team, too:
Gallinari struggled on offense all game long, but came out beautifully in the OTs (that fading 3 againstJ KG…) Miller played incredibly until the final possession, and McGee was a force inside. Denver is surely a great team, that’s why this win tastes so good..
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Mos def…Denver is one of the teams in the West to beat. Wonder if Ainge could get Faried for the C’s. He’d be a good get and would compliment KG down low perfectly. Don’t think DA should look to make moves the way this team is playin doe. JG, JT, PP and KG all stepped up when it counted and I feel good for JT especially. Just goes to show you can’t write your guys off when they in a slump. I always thought that the big time games JT would be there. I would say next to the Heat game, the most hard fought game of the year. Just great to see this team has figured out how to win. LETS GO C’s…
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If you rather have Lee over Terry in overtime then why bother bringing Terry to Boston? Plus he hasn’t been that bad on dee, see last possession.
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If PP and JT don’t shoot 8-15 on 3s through the first 3 qtrs or something ridiculous like that (compared to all season for both) then we lose this game handily, as Denver out-rebounded us by 12 and had 14 offensive rebs at the end of regulation. It was a gutsy win and I’ll take it, but be honest and ask yourselves how many nights are PP & JT going to be lighting it up from 3 land? And JT had 26 pts, surely his season high. JG needs more than 4 rebs in 42 mins and BB more than 4 in 33 mins if this team is going to compete in 7-gm playoff series vs top teams. And to here the chatter today that a loss to Charlotte is OK is beyond belief. When is losing OK??? so what if they’re tired? they’re paid millions to not be. Go Cs…get it done or last night’s win means nothing!
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James we get the rebounding issue but there is no way this team is gonna be good at rebounding it aint happening with this squad period.JG will not rebound consistently neither will Bass.Jet and PP migh not do it every night but in a close game both are capable.Tonight whether dudes get millions or not gotta keep an eye on bigger games coming up like Chicago a team that gives us problems.KG,PP AND TERRY should not play,with AB,JG and lee,Barbosa and Wilcox pretty fresh we should still win but last night we just found a way and in this strecth beating Denver,Miami and now Denver gotta respect the effort GO CELTICSSSSSSS if we want rebounding hopefully a big gets a buyout
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I meant Clippers,Denver and Miami dont care if Paul was not there still a solid team and a solid win
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James, this time I have to disagree with you. We have rebounding issues, true. But there’s no substitute for size: KG landed 18 boards and PP 14. What else can you ask from them? and the Nuggets didn’t have to play Mozgov! we lack a big (I mean BIG!) man, that’s it. I had the exact opposite feeling than you: if PP and Jet didn’t brick so many open 3s (and 2s..), we would have won this game in regulations.
the only point I agree is Bass sucks, but he’s the Cs original sin: brought in as a 6th man, got promoted on the field by the events. I knew he was useless during last year’s final, too bad the whole league (with the exception of DA) got the same impression, so he’s nearly untradeable.
but you’re right: a loss is a loss, so GO Cs!!!
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I forgot to mention how many open Js KG turned into bricks before the 3rd OT.
Seriously, we deserved this win more than ever.
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As I always say, you keep focusing on the bad stuff. Too bad you’re not able to watch your “team” rising after summer rebuild, and 2 key players going down. And now JET finally starts warming up and you complain he had too much 3 pointers? I mean he’s like the 4th with most 3 pointers in the league right now, that’s why he came to Boston, that’s what I’ve been expecting him to do, 3 pointers!!! BTW yeah, BB sucks, but you can’t complain about Jeff green not getting enough rebounds when he had 3 blocks, and a 3 pointer to save the game. Leave the rebounding to KG and PP 32 rebounds combined.
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So I guess I’m full of sh*t considering my post. By our stellar effort tonight proves what I am saying and have been. JG needs to rebound and if you don’t understand that then you don’t understand the value of rebounding to winning. There’s no big man savior walking through the door so this team has to focus on hitting the boards. Yes KG and especially PP are stepping up their rebounding but JG, Bass, and our guards need to also. The “bad stuff” tonight is we lost to a team that we should have easily handled, back-to-back or not. Bird’s teams played back-to-backs and never coasted in and always gave 100%. This loss just pissed all over the good win vs Denver. Go Cs…play hard EVERY game!
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actually Bird’s teams coasted A LOT, e.g. the famous “left handed game”.
the problem is, these are not the league-dominant 1986 Celtics. this is an old, prideful, battered team that has 2 HOF at the twiliht of their career. Bird, Parish, Mchale were at their peak, PP and KG are not. We could ask more from JG on the boards, but don’t forget he’s a far cry from the ghost that wandered on the court a the beginning of the season. No need to state again what I think about Bass, JS injury hurt us way more than many may think.
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