Celtics Show Heart but Lose 7th in a Row

The Celtics were down 21 and it seemed as though the Wizards would win going away but the Celtics showed a lot of heart and just chipped away until they erased the deficit and actually went up by 5 at one point. The game was tied at the end of regulation as Gilbert Arenas missed the final shot. But the Celtics just couldn’t hang on for the win. But you have to admire their fight and their heart to stay in the game after going down by 21.

As a team we shot 47% and out rebounded the Wizards 42-37. Once again, we turned the ball over way too much, finishing with 21 give aways. As with most of our games recently, there were some encouraging signs and individual performances.

Ryan Gomes had his best game as a Celtic. He played 46 minutes and scored a career high 31 points on 12-18 shooting to go with 9 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 block. He also finished with no turnovers. Gomes is a solid player and finally seems to be past the calf injury and is playing the best basketball of his career. Al once again had a double double and after a slow start in the first half came alive in the second half. He finished with 23 points on 9-24 shooting with 10 rebounds, 1 steal, 2 and 2 blocks but turned the ball over 4 times.

West played 48 minutes and started at the point but moved to the 2 with Rondo getting the bulk of the back up minutes at the 1. West finished with 13 points, 4 rebounds, 11 assists, 1 block and 5 turnovers. Rondo played 33 minutes and finished with 10 points, 10 rebounds, 7 assists and 1 steal along with 3 turnovers. Telfair played only 6 minutes and finished with only 1 point, 1 rebound and 2 assists. Doc seems to be going with West as the starting PG and then moving West to the 2 to have them both on the floor at the same time.

Green played only 17 minutes shooting 4-10 and finishing with 9 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 block. Green seems to get down on himself when he makes a mistake and he has to get over that. Ray played 32 minutes andgot many of the minutes that Green usually gets. Ray finished with 20 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist and 1 steal. I really hope that Doc doesn’t cut Green’s minutes to give more to Ray. Green needs to be getting more minutes now. Let him play through his mistakes and learn from them.

Perk played 18 minutes and finished with 2 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 block. At one point he had a beautiful bounce pass inside for an easy basket. I understand that Perk has limited minutes because of his foot but I still don’t understand why Powe is getting som few minutes. Powe played 8 minutes and finished with 1 point, 2 rebounds and 1 assist. He plays good defense and seems to do good things every time he is on the floor but yet still gets limited minutes. Kandi played 6 minutes and had 0 points and 1 block.

One thing that caught my attention was that the Wizards’ announcers mentioned that there is talk from the insiders that Pierce may be out the rest of the year. Just who the insiders are they didn’t say. It was surprising to hear though because everything in the papers and from the Celtics has been that Pierce is expecting to come back after the All Star Break. The longer he stays out though, the more experience the young players get and the stronger we will be once he does come back.

We may have Scal and Wally back for Monday’s game. A healthy Wally could make a big difference. Having Scal back will just mean that Powe’s meager 8 minutes of playing time will probably go to Scal now. This team is learning how to play together and how to stay in games. Now they just have to learn how to win.

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