I've got mixed emotions about this one. We did lose, after all. We missed 11 friggin' free throws. And we played absolutely terribly defensively in the first quarter, and not that much better in the fourth.
But this game came at the end of a stretch of three road games in four days against some very tough teams. Maybe I'm still basking in the afterglow of beating LA (it lasts a bit longer out here), but I'm feeling okay about yesterday.
Most importantly, we showed fight, something we hadn't done much leading up to the All-Star break. This has been mentioned a lot in recent broadcasts, but just in case you haven't heard, the Celtics have lost ten games this year in which they held a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter. In most of those, Boston has just rolled over when the opposition got it going late.
That hasn't been the case in four post-break games, and it wasn't the case on Sunday. Trailing 37-19 after one period, Boston rallied to tie the score at 66 a little more than midway through the third. Unfortunately, as so often happens when you have to come back from a big deficit, it looked like we ran out of gas -- understandable, especially given our recent schedule. That, coupled with J.R. Smith's red-hot fourth quarter, resulted in a fairly comfortable win for the Nuggets.
It's hard to explain if you didn't watch or hadn't seen the Cs much before the All-Star break, but the team just has a better personality on the court right now. Fresher, more focused, more intense, more confident. Kevin Garnett looked great; Ray Allen spent a lot of time with the second unit and got us back in the game in the second quarter; and Marquis Daniels and Rasheed Wallace had effective games off the bench. Once Paul Pierce gets healthy and as long as Nate Robinson isn't a disaster, we'll start looking a lot like the team that started the season so hot.
A note on Pierce: The sprained thumb he suffered against Los Angeles on Thursday is apparently causing significant problems with his shooting. In some ways, it's encouraging news; it offers at least a partial explanation for the captain's 9-for-28 performance in the last three games. But the thumb can't take all of the blame. Pierce was barely any better (14-for-38) in the three games prior to the injury (before which he sat two games with a foot injury). Hopefully, he gets it all worked out soon.
Lightish week for Boston, with the important exception of the game against Cleveland on Thursday (TNT, 8 p.m. Eastern). Boston won in Cleveland on opening night, but the teams were different then: the Celtics' key guys were healthier, the Cavs were finding their feet (recall that they lost three of their first six games), and the Cavs didn't have Antawn Jamison, the power forward who arrived from Washington in a deadline deal. Jamison bombed in his Cleveland debut, going 0-for-12 in a loss to Charlotte -- and the team hasn't won since he arrived -- but it's safe to say he improves their team.
The Cs will warm up for that showdown with a game on Tuesday against the Knicks, which would be fairly un-exciting except that it's likely to be Nate Robinson's first game with the Celtics -- against his old team, no less. It also will mark Eddie House's return to Boston, which will be emotional, for sure. House, by the way, had 24 points off the bench in his first game with New York (an overtime loss to Oklahoma City).
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