The Boston Celtics (46–25) secured their playoff berth against the slumping Denver Nuggets (47–25) on Wednesday night at the TD Garden 113–99.
Wednesday’s game was a good start for the Celtics’ six-game home stand, and another tough loss for the Nuggets, who lost to the Knicks Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.
Paul Pierce led the Celtics with 27 points followed by Kevin Garnett with 20 points and 10 rebounds. All-Star Rajon Rondo was amazing with yet another triple double in points, assists, and rebounds.
The Nuggets’ Carmelo Anthony put on yet another show with 32 points, and sixth man J.R. Smith chipped in with 21 points. But a weak Nuggets defense and often-uninspired play gave the Celtics the edge they were looking for.
The first quarter featured a highly entertaining matchup between Pierce and Anthony, who both had the hot hand.
The Celtics extended their 3-point lead to 10 points in the second quarter with the second team (Mike Finley, Nate Robinson, and Tony Allen) contributing. Allen notched 10 points in the second quarter alone.
“I thought Tony Allen was the star of the game with his energy. Guys are hungry. Guys wanna play. He didn’t pout. Worked every day,” Boston coach Doc Rivers said.
The big story in the first half that spilled over into the second half was the Nuggets’ defense—or lack thereof. The team just couldn’t stop the Celtics’ penetration of the paint—34 of Boston’s 61 points in the first half came from inside. The Nuggets also gave the Celtics too many second and third looks.
This lack of defensive tenacity was almost inexcusable for Denver, given that Boston is the worst offensive rebounding team in the league. Part of that could be attributed to Chris “The Bird Man” Anderson’s ongoing recovery from a leg injury.
“That’s where we wanted to go because we realized they were shorthanded with their big men. We wanted to get the ball inside and play inside out,” Pierce told ESPN.
The Celtics on the other hand played excellent defense in the first half, fronting the post, taking away the easy passes, and contesting shots.
“It’s time for us to start picking up our play and try to build something going into the playoffs,” Pierce said.
Boston’s aggressiveness invariably resulted in more fouls, giving Denver 21 foul shot attempts in the first half alone—but the team only drained 13 of them.
The Celtics came out hot from the locker room, surging to a 21-point lead midway through the third quarter led in scoring by Allen, Pierce, and Garnett.
But the Nuggets brought the lead down to seven points against Boston’s second team by the end of the third quarter. Anthony finally started to get the ball to bounce after a tough second quarter and doubled his first half scoring in the third quarter alone with 14 points.
“They went small, we tried to stay big, and it hurt us. That’s more on me,” Boston coach Doc Rivers said.
It was ironic then, that the Celtics opened the fourth quarter with a deep 3-pointer from the 5-foot-9-inch Robinson, who finished the night with 13 points. Robinson has proven an indispensable asset to Boston since being acquired earlier in the season.
Denver threatened a comeback midway through the fourth quarter but Boston kept it loose with good ball movement and smart plays and always found an answer. Boston has now won four out of their last five games.
Atlanta Over Orlando
The Atlanta Hawks came away with a buzzer beating 86–84 win against their Southeast Division rivals the Orlando Magic to finally secure their playoff berth.
Josh Smith was the hero of the game. With the score tied at 84, Smith astounded the crowd with a flying one-hand dunk off a missed shot with less than a second to go.
Relatively low but well balanced scoring among the Hawks nullified the spells of Jameer Nelson with 20 points and Dwight Howard with 19 points.
Howard owned the paint with an astounding 24 rebounds but Superman couldn’t save this one.
