The Boston Celtics (40-19) bid farewell to the All-Star Break with a defeat against the Los Angeles Clippers (30-26). At 129:119 for the guests, DeAndre Jordan is unstoppable and delivers a career record.
After the recent fluctuating performances, the Celtics came back into the final game before the All-Star Break only very slowly. Only three of the first eleven litters found their target, so that the guests took the lead early on with 14:7. The substitution of Marcus Morris helped Celtics for a short time, but it remained the case that the Clippers were the better team – and already set themselves apart in the first quarter with a difference of 14 points. Daniel Theis’ free throws were 25:34 from Celtics’ point of view after a quarter.
However, this did not work as a wake-up call. Even after the quarter break, the Celtics appeared lethargic at first. In the meantime they managed to reach 4 points, but then quickly lost the urgency again and L. A.. moved back to 12. Boston had particular problems with the Clippers’ versatile frontcourt, with DeAndre Jordan, Danilo Gallinari and Tobias Harris scoring double-digit points in the first half. Shortly before the break, however, Kyrie Irving turned up and a wild buzzerbeater from Terry Rozier took care of the 57:61 from Celtics’ point of view, although apparently little had worked until then.
Shortly after the break, Celtics took the lead for the first time ever, but now it changed back and forth again. In a duel with Jordan, Aron Baynes then picked up his fifth foul in seven minutes in the third quarter and had to go down, which was bad for the Celtics defence – because Jordan could already dominate under the basket again. Again it was Irving who had to shoot Boston out of a small hole. He managed it with 15 points in the round, so that the Clippers only went into the last quarter with a 93:91 lead.
In the final section, too, the guests led for a long time in short supply. Brad Stevens then tried again with Hack-A-DeAndre, but it went back to the beginning – Jordan hit his free throws and the clippers took the swing with them. Two minutes before the end they led with 10 points, after which the mass was read. All in all, the 129 Clippers’ points were even the highest value that Boston allowed this season.
Top scorer was Jordan, whose 30 points (13 rebounds) meant a career high at the same time. Harris also scored 21 and Gallinari 20 points, Lou Williams scored 21 points, but also 19 (6/18 FG). In Celtics Irving was the best player by far with 33 points and 8 assists, Al Horford with 20 points. Theis hung up 2 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 block in 11 minutes coming from the bank.
Celtics vs. Clippers: Click here for the BOXSCORE!
DeAndre Jordan. An uncanny dominant idea of the center, whose athletics caused huge problems for Celtics. Brad Stevens tried several times with Hack-A-DeAndre, but that didn’t work either (8/9 FT). His frontcourt partners Harris and Gallinari also played a strong role.
Jayson Tatum. The rookie was the last to notice that he too is longing for the All-Star Break. Even in this match Tatum looked rather tired and was not able to hold his ground. Some good placements were included, but the Celtics could certainly have used a little more scoring of Tatum (10 points, 4/13 FG at the end).
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The fact that Milos Teodosic is defensively quite a weak point has obviously been spread. The Serbian was uncompromisingly attacked again and again as soon as he stood on the court. Interestingly, with Rozier and Irving, the two lead ball handlers often confronted each other with the blocks and whoever then had Teodosic against them went to work. Not that this would have been a particularly creative offense – but it worked well in the third quarter. For this reason, Teo was hardly seen in the last quarter.