Boston Celtics: Second Half Comeback Falls Short in 100-94 loss to Blazers

The Boston Celtics lost to the Portland Trail Blazers, 100-94, Sunday night at the Moda Center, falling to 1-4 on the road swing.

Al-Farouq Aminu hit two clutch three-pointers late to stave of the Boston Celtics second-half surge, escaping with a 100-94 victory after the Portland Trail Blazers led by 19 at the half Sunday night at the Moda Center.

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In the first half, Boston looked like a team on its last leg of a five-game road swing and Portland took a 56-37 lead into the break. The Trail Blazers were quicker with their cuts, faster to the ball, and more engaged as it seemed the Celtics would fade in the road finale.

Irving’s energy to open the second half, on both ends of the floor, brought Boston back into the game mentally. He forced turnovers, got out into the open court, and made great passes to his teammates for wide open three-pointers, and made a pull up three of his own.

Kyrie Irving led a 10-0 run three minutes into the second half to get the Celtics deficit back to single digits forcing a Trail Blazers timeout.

After missing the last game to attend his grandfather’s memorial service, Irving had 21 points, 6 assists, and 5 steals. He made just 3-of-10 from deep on the game, though.

After the Blazers timeout, Jayson Tatum hit four three-pointers–the third one an insane sidestepping mugging–to pull Boston within six with two minutes left in the third quarter. In the final two minutes, however, Portland finished on a 7-0 run to enter the fourth ahead, 83-70.

In the first five minutes of the fourth quarter, the Celtics bench unit led by Marcus Morris and Terry Rozier outplayed the Blazers backups and evened the game at 86 when Morris knocked down his second three-pointer of the quarter.

However, Boston spent its energy in the comeback and all the shots that dropped as they evened the score, slid out as their legs betrayed them in the end. On the other end, Damian Lillard (19 points & 12 assists) made the plays when Portland need him to, or Jusuk Nurkic (7 offensive rebounds) created a second-chance.

Here are the three keys to the the Boston Celtics loss Sunday, dropping to 7-6 on the season and finishing 1-4 on the soul-searching nine-day trip.