The Clover Report: Week Eleven
With the temperature dropping like crazy in Boston this week, the Celtics play has gone down with it as well. To start off the week, the Celtics traveled to New York to take on the Knicks. Despite Kristaps Porzingis only scoring 1 single point, the Knicks won 102—93. Michael Beasley (not a typo) scored 32 points and grabbed 12 rebounds off of the bench to lead the Knicks to the win. Next up, the Celtics traveled back home to take on the lowly Chicago Bulls. The Celtics were able to bounce back and avenge their previous loss to the Bulls as they won 117—92. 7 players scored double digits for Boston as it was an overall team effort. Jaylen Brown was the standout as he scored 20 points by shooting 7-10 from the floor.
After taking a few days off, the biggest day on the NBA season finally came. That is Christmas Day. The Celtics were one of those select teams to play on Christmas and they faced off against the Washington Wizards at home. Marcus Morris returned to the Celtics where he faced off against his twin brother Markieff Morris. As for the game itself, it was an up and down, back and forth affair but Washington pulled it out 111—103. Bradley Beal led the way with 25 points as the Wizards had 6 players scored double figures. Offensive rebounding was the key to the game as the Wizards killed a lot of clock at the end of the game. It was a disappointing way to end Christmas day.
After that, the Celtics traveled down to Charlotte to take on the Hornets. The Celtics were able to bounce back in this game as they were in control from the tip and won 102—91. Al Horford had the standout game as he scored 20 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. The Celtics as a whole shot 15-34 from the 3 point line which was a big plus for the team. For the final game of week, the Celtics traveled back home to take on the Houston Rockets where we had one of the weirdest games of the year. The Rockets were beating the crap out of Boston and led for the entire game. Despite being down by 26, Boston fought their way back into the game. Al Horford then got the ball in the post and put the Celtics up for the first time in the game with 3 seconds left and the Celtics won the game 99—98. Absolutely bananas.
So while the win over Houston was completely awesome in very single way, the Celtics are still struggling. They are just 6-6 over their last twelve games. Now I might be overacting because the Celtics are dealing with injuries and they’ve played more games than any other team in the league. But it is worth mentioning that they aren’t the same team they were at the beginning.
Written By: Steven Santoro (SVS_1993)
