West’s Free Throws Lift Celtics Over Cavs 98-96

LeBron James sat out this game with “general body soreness.” The Cavs must have felt they could easily handle us without him, because this was an important game for them with Detroit and Chicago both winning tonight and a loss would cost them in playoff positioning. They didn’t count on Perk and Al combining for 36 points, 16 rebounds, and 9 assists or Green going for 25 points or our PG pulling down 9 rebounds. It was a total team effort tonight.

Perk was the player of the game. I love this kid and we are starting to see what he can do when healthy. He still isn’t 100% but is getting closer and it is showing in his play. He finished with 12 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 blocks. His passes inside to the cutters are really impressive. I love the chemistry between Al and Perk. They play very well off each other. Al finished with 24 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal and 5 blocks.

Gomes seems to be getting back to normal after the injury. He moved back into the starting lineup and finished with 17 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals. Green started at SG and scored 25 points to go with 2 rebound and 4 assists. Rondo had another strong game and the team just plays so much better when he is at the point. he finished with 4 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals. West came off the bench and scored 11 points to go with 4 rebounds and 1 assist.

He was fouled on a drive with 1.9 seconds to go and hit 2 clutch free throws that proved to be the game winners. Powe had 5 points and 1 rebound and played good defense while he was in. Doc makes a mistake of putting Powe in as the only big on the floor and he needs to put him in with either Perk or Al and that gives us a much stronger lineup.

Allan Ray had 1 assist and 2 steals in 9 minutes off the bench. He came into the season known as a scorer, but he has struggled with his shot all season. Telfair had 1 rebound and 1 assist in 9 minutes of play.

With Milwaukee and Memphis both losing tonight, we lost ground in the race for the ping pong balls. We will never catch Memphis for the worst record and it seemed as though we had the 2nd worst record all sewed up. But with the Bucks in serious tank mode, they have moved to within 2 1/2 games of us for the second worst record. We play the Bucks twice between now and the end of the season. If we lose those, they will easily overtake us for the second most ping pong balls. But even so, the win tonight was great for the confidence of our young players.

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