Celtics Lose to Heat 91-79 for 16th Defeat in a Row

Although they played well and stayed with the Heat early, once again the Celtics faded in the second half and lost their 16th in a row. The frustration is starting to show on the court as Delonte got a Technical for complaining about a call and almost got another later on. The Celtics out rebounded the Heat 48-42 and they had only 11 turnovers to 16 for the Heat, but the shooting was the problem tonight as the Celtics shot 32% for the game.

Rondo played a solid 36 minutes and drew a lot of praise from Bob Cousy who was calling the game with Mike and Tommy. He finished with 8 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists and 2 steals. West played 30 minutes and shot 4-17 for 10 points to go with 2 rebounds, 8 assists and 1 steal. But the frustration was showing in the normally even tempered Delonte as he was called for a technical. He isn’t playing his best and may still be coming back from that flu that knocked him down a few games ago. Telfair played 15 minutes and finished with 4 points and 1 assist. Ray played 9 minutes but had a terrible shooting night going 1-5 for 3 points with 4 rebounds and 1 assist.

Perk started at center and did a very good job of defending Shaq although he was limited to 17 minutes because of foul trouble. He finished with 5 rebounds, 1 assist and 2 blocks. Al had another double double and won the Tommy Award finishing with 13 points on 6-17 shooting to go with 16 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal and 1 block.

Gomes had had 15 points on 6-19 shooting with 6 rebounds and 1 block. He was hitting his shots early but then cooled off and couldn’t seem to hit anything. Green had an off night all the way around. He shot 1-6 for 3 points with 5 fouls and 1 turnover. Wally played 14 minutes and shot 5-11 with 1 rebound and 1 assist and then he left in the 3rd quarter with another sprained ankle as he stepped on Powe’s foot as he went out of bounds by the Celtics bench to get a rebound. He didn’t return and in his post game press conference, Doc said it was a bad sprain.

Kandi played 10 minutes and pulled down 3 rebounds. Scal played 13 minutes and had 6 points but no rebounds. Contrast that with Powe’s 3 minutes playing time in which he pulled down 3 rebounds and scored 3 points. Mike and Tommy were saying that he does’t do much wrong when he gets on the court and they are right. He produces when he gets to play. I still don’t understand why he doesn’t get more playing time.

Another tough loss. Wally is back out again before he even got back to playing shape after the last 2. The losing has to be getting to the team. Hopefully they are pulling together and not turning on each other. If they can get through this season with all the injuries, they will hopefully be a much stronger team. Rondo is coming along and looking better every game. I hope Doc continues to start him. I would really like to see Powe get more minutes but it looks doubtful that he will since Doc was talking about shortening the rotation to 7 players in his post game press conference. Hopefully we can come out strong against New Jersey and finally get past this losing streak.

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