The Boston Celtics Squeeze past the Chicago Bulls 71-69
Feb 13, 2013; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Celtics forward/center Kevin Garnett (5) and Chicago Bulls forward/center Joakim Noah (13) battle under the basket for a rebound during the fourth quarter at TD Banknorth Garden. The Boston Celtics won 71-69. Mandatory Credit: Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports
The Boston Celtics just barely got by the Chicago Bulls 71-69. This game ties for the seventh lowest scoring outing in Boston Celtics history since the shot clock era started. 71 points doesn’t usually get you by, but it did in tonights game. In the preview of the game, we stated that the Celtics wouldn’t be able to win the game offensively, but we had no clue that it would come down to this.
Neither team shot over 38% on the night in this eye gouging slugfest, but there had to be a winner in the end. It took a defensive stand in the last seconds for the C’s to come away with this one. While there aren’t really any good grades to give out, there were some tremendous efforts.
Starters
Courtney Lee: C-
Lee wasn’t very effective tonight–but then again no one really was. He guarded the two guard position for a majority of the night and did pretty well with that. He added seven points and two steals to his total in 28 minutes.
Avery Bradley: D+
Avery Bradley had a decent game as well relative to this one. He was on Nate Robinson for a majority of the game and only allowed him to score six points. Robinson had six assists and only one turnover, though. Avery has to prevent that. He ended up fouling out in the game and only scored 10 points on 12 shots.
Paul Pierce: F x2
This was the worst game I’ve seen Paul Pierce play in quite some time. He had six assists and three turnovers on the night, but only scored eight points on 12 shots. He only made two shots and they were both three point attempts. He had six rebounds and contributed to that total, but for his standards this game was awful.
Brandon Bass: B
Brandon Bass played a good game tonight. He was guarding Joakim Noah tonight along with Kevin Garnett and Noah had only two assists. Noah killed him on the rebounds, but Bass still had nine himself. That went along with a game high 14 points for the Celtics.
Kevin Garnett: C
Kevin Garnett really started to show life late in the game on the defensive end. He finished the game with a double double scoring 12 points on 12 shots and also snatched 11 rebounds.
Sixth Man & Bench
Jeff Green: C-
Jeff Green was very aggressive tonight which is always a good sign. The problem was that he wasn’t effective. He missed all four of his shots from beyond the arch and finished the game 2-8 for eight points. He contributed five rebounds and only turned the ball over twice. He did minimal damage to the Celtics’ cause tonight and that’s all you can ask in a game like this.
Jason Terry: B
Terry had one of the better games from tonight. He scored 12 points on 11 shots and shot 50% from three. he had three assists and one block as well. He stepped up defensively late and helped the Celtics win the game.
Jason Collins: F
Jason Collins didn’t offer anything but three rebounds and two fouls, really. He missed his only shot from the field and wasn’t really a threat.
Chris Wilcox: F
Chris Wilcox was ineffective as well. He didn’t get a shot up in his 11 minutes and dind’t really play well defensively either. The two bigs off of the bench didn’t really give anything in the big picture tonight.