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Recap: Celtics, Rondo gag up a loss to the Cavs

Chuck - Red's Army November 14, 2014 Gametime, Recaps 21 Comments

That sucked.

Following a marvelous 42 point 3rd quarter, the Celtics had the Cavaliers on the ropes in front of a raucous Garden crowd. The Cs led by 18 points with 10 minutes remaining. Then… Kyrie Irving got hot, the refs started blowing whistles, LeBron James (41 pts, 7 assists) took over in crunch time and the Celtics turtled. The result? A heartbreaking 122-121 loss to the Cavs.

The Green:

The Celtics shot 72% in the 3rd quarter. It was a fantastic display of ball movement. 8 Celtics scored in the quarter.

Kelly Olynyk led the Celtics with 21 points on 8-13 FG. Jared Sullinger had a quiet 19 points, 10 rebounds.

The Gross

Rajon Rondo had 16 assists through 3 quarters. He had ZERO in the 4th. The final possession was a giant pile of suck. Rondo fumbled the ball and was unable to get off a potential game-winning jumper. To think, I used to get annoyed with the Paul Pierce dribble/step-back jumper.

LeBron went on a 7-0 run with 2 minutes remaining in the game and there was nothing the Celtics could do about it. They had to sit back and take it. On the one play Jeff Green tried to man up and play aggressive defense, James dropped a sneaky elbow into Green’s groin which freed him up for a drive to the basket.

LeBron has mastered the Kobe face-of-disgust. You know it, the look he gives teammates when they screw up.

Greenlights

Spectacular steal, dribble and lob by Rondo

More from Rajon

The Grid:

Boston got 44 points from the bench
Celtics outscored Cleveland 60-56 in the paint
Kevin Love shot 2-10

KGino

Damn it. Any team but Lebrons team. Refs sucked tn too, as always
romeo0119

1. What the hell was that last play about? Did they even have a plan for the last possession?
2. Celtics will lose if they don’t keep up the pace, for the past few games they start out with good pace and slow down, stop moving on offense.
3. Turner is for sale, somebody need to take him
- zippittyay
  
  I would MUCH rather have the ball in Evan Turner’s hands with the clock running down than Rondo. I have been impressed with Rondo’s play overall, but he has just always sucked in that situation and I’m sure the stats would back me up on that.
  - romeo0119
    
    I don’t know, I don’t really follow him so I’m not sure what he can do but so far this season, he has not impress me, and his awkward looking shots that he takes in the corner for 3 always off the mark. I wish PP was here, u can always count on Truth
Brad P

Rondo’s play was embarrassing. And the 12 points handed to Kyrie really hurt us at the start of the 4th
CoolRapQuote

That was fun. Because the only wins I really care about during lost seasons are these ones. I thought the crowd could have done a little better on the LeBron boo’s. And by my count, the “remember what happened last time LeBron was on this court in a Cavs uniform” pokes were at a whopping zero. I guess it only took 2 1/2 years for Celtics fans to shrug of their LeBron hate. Smh…….
- KWAPT
  
  Not entirely true. I was there, and the boos were very loud during his intro, and I personally was on him all game (but I’m a maniac so..). However I will admit it was not consistent through the whole game & mostly because the refs and Kyrie’s take over late sucked the momentum right out of the arena. What is sad though is that a lot of the folks that were there booing Lebron during his Cavs & Heat days stopped coming to games after Doc, Pierce & KG left. The f*ckers jumped ship. But screw em-we don’t want those kind of fans anyway.
  - CoolRapQuote
    
    You’re probably right about the boo’s. I was watching on tv, so I didn’t see/hear everything like you would have. But I can tell you that no one covering the game even mentioned what happened last time LeBron wore a Cavs uni in Boston. And yeah, those fans suck. They’ll be back in 5 years when Rondo, Smart, Anthony Davis, and Drummond are headlining the Celtics.
Hex Effect

It’s embarrassing plays like Rondo’s at the end of the game that makes me wonder if he’s really worth a max contract or near max contract. Superstar players get max contracts and superstar players WIN games for you! Was it so hard for Rondo to just try and blow by geriatric Marion? Has there ever been a time a PG’s been contained by Rondo or outscored by Rondo? I don’t care about the damn stats and overrated ass triple doubles, I care about WINNING!! I want to represent a player and root for a player that I can see getting hyped by the media and not one that casually has good games and stinkers as well. So pissed!!!
NE_Celt

I can admit that LeBron is crazy good… But doesn’t mean I have to like him…or the way the refs seem to lack calling fouls on him. I do loathe him.

In the end, with a game like this, the last possession hurt… A lot… But it was the plays before it that should be looked at for the blame. We had this one… But fell apart.

AND PLEASE…. PLEASE…. stop putting AB in a position to dribble a lot or pass into the paint… I cringe each time it happens.
KWAPT

Rondo’s indecisiveness in that final 7 seconds cost us. Granted, he should’ve dished or driven, but he’s not a closer-that’s just not his role. We’ve not had a legit closer since Uncle Paulie left. And to be fair, game wouldn’t have been that close if not for: A)7 turnovers in the 4th B) Cavs took 17 FT’s in the quarter-SEVENTEEN. The Celts were already over the limit 3 damn minutes into it. Anyways, refs were awful, but can’t blame them fully-this young team needs to (and this will be a theme all year) find a way to play 48 mins of decent bball. (and get/designate a closer)
Tommy_Heinsohn

I can’t help but think that Marcus Smart would have changed the outcome of this game. I think his defense would have been the difference maker in the 4th quarter; he could have helped slow down Kyrie Irving. This team is really struggling defensively. As much as I love Klynyk’s offensive game, and him as a person, his defense is terrible. Verajao dropped 16, 7/10 shooting, on mostly uncontested shots. Tommy even mentioned how nobody had even put a hand in his face all night. Lastly, we need to feed the ball into the paint more and specifically Sully in the low post. There were way too many times last night when the paint was completely empty and we were throwing up jump shots. Rant over.
swissflix

As for the Cavs’ free throws in the 4th….Avery’s defense has been nothing but plain and ineffective aggressiveness…very annoying. Just leads to many early team fouls.
swissflix

And to be fair: Green had yet another very solid game. Not spectacular but good. He has been very consistent which means a lot for uncle Jeff.
KGino

Lots of casual fans on Facebook calling for Brad To be fired after this one… Don’t you wish you could just reach thru the computer and slap some of these ignorant f***s.
Alex Costa

Here’s what frustrated me the most:

– Rondo losing this game for us in the last possessions in the 4th quarter. Rondo drives into the paint, gets the ball hit away by Lebron, hits Rondo’s sneaker, and goes out of bounds. I annoyingly snorted when I saw that. Then… for some unknown reason… RONDO was the one covering Lebron defensively in the Cavs final possession. WHY RONDO?! Jeff Green is the one who covers Lebron, NOT YOU! Obviously, Lebron just blows by Rondo easily and Rondo had to foul him. Then the Celtics final possession happened and I’m not going to say anything on this one. You all know how much that sucked.

– Avery Bradley has become a stupid defender and I’m sure it has to do with him putting more effort into his offense than his defense. It’s sad to watch but him allowing Kyrie nail those three pointers consecutively and then he makes a really stupid foul on Kyrie from the 3 point line… Wow, kid. This is not his only bone-headed move that he has done. His defense isn’t as great anymore. I love his amazing passing abilities, as well (/sarcasm)

– I just don’t understand why the Celtics seem to slow down on pace in the 4th quarter. Don’t they realize that they were playing great in the 3rd quarter because they made the other team work hard on defense? Wouldn’t this be common sense? Oh wait… I guess we just have to admit that this team isn’t seasoned and they just choked in the end. I can’t blame too much of this loss on Brad Stevens. The players themselves choked and you can clearly see their nervousness on the court.
zippittyay

Seriously, how are you supposed to guard someone who is 6’8″, 275# of muscle who dribbles with one hand and pushes you away with the other? I will be so glad when the LeBron era is over.
Paul Yee

did anyone else notice Lebron and Kyrie arguing about who gets to take the ball up at the end of the 4th? That’s a real playground fight.
Rod Shaftwell

The Refs called a great game for nearly 3 1/2 quarters. I’d really like to see what happens when they call a full game legitimately. Might be fun for a change.

Obviously we need to be able to overcome the refs no matter what the situation. I don’t know what happens to us in the 4th quarters, I think we get nervous when the calls start going the other way.

We just stopped moving the ball and running the floor like madmen, and it cost us. Maybe they got tired, the pace was pretty fast.
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