Arena Stats
The game took place at the TD Garden, Boston, MA. The game lasted for a duration of 2:21 and the number of audience recorded was 18,624 at Wednesday night’s game.
Scoring
The game was tied six times and the lead changed seven times.
Game stats
The Blazers grabbed 28 rebounds and the Celtics had 30. The Blazers took seven offensive rebounds and the Celtics had three. The Blazers gave away 11 turnovers and the Celtics gave away 17. The Blazers had 10 fast break points
and the Celtics had four. The Blazers took the biggest lead at 11 points and the Boston Celtics took by 16. The Portland Blazers had 42 points in the paint and the Celtics had 38.
Box Score
Portland Trail Blazers (8-10)
Wesley Mathews scored team high 23 points, Andre Miller scored 20 and LaMarcus Aldridge and Brandon Roy contributed 18 points apiece for the Blazers. The Blazers scored eight team rebounds.
Boston Celtics (14-4)
Paul Pierce scored 28 points, Kevin Garnett scored 17 and Glen Davis scored 16 points for the Boston Celtics. The team had nine rebounds.
Both the teams are even in their stats, the Celtics having earned their fifth straight victory while the Blazers are on their fifth straight loss.
Game Story
The Trail Blazers were in the lead in the first half with 11 points and in the third quarter they had a 68-62 lead. Boston Celtics scored 17 of 21 points in that quarter. The Celtics were content only when they made it a 16 point
game.
Pierce headed past and outscored Ray Allen 28-6 in the first 47 minutes of the game. However later he trusted Allen well enough to let him play the ball in the final minute and he sure made the right decision. Allen finally made
the perfect shot that they needed.
"It's just trust. We talk about it all the time," coach Doc Rivers later said, "and it works sometimes." Perhaps every team should learn a lesson from Pierce.
Allen played heroically, although he missed his first five three point attempts but later with just 10.7 seconds left he succeeded in hitting one. Although they blew off a 16 point lead in the fourth quarter but they held the Blazers
to a 99-95 victory against them.
Quotable
"I was looking at the rim and the ball wouldn't fall for me. I was ready to take each next shot," Allen exclaimed energetically. "There were a lot of last shots that would have been the last shot if they went down for us. It was
an unfortunate predicament."
Garnett had a cut on his chin and he missed most of the third quarter but he still managed to score 17 points and grab eight rebounds. He had five stitches on his chin for that cut. Rajon Rondo made 10 points and gave 10 assists
to help build a 96-80 lead for the Celtics. The Blazers would not give up and played till the end of the game. They drove the game to a one point game with just 40 seconds left as they scored 15 points in a row.
It was at that very crucial point that Pierce tucked the ball to Allen entrusting him with his team’s fate.
"He's one of the greatest shooters of all times," Pierce praised Allen. "When you need him most, he's going to be there."
Wesley Matthews had 23 points that includes a 5 of 7 shooting that he did from a 3 point range. Andre Miller scored 20 points for the Blazers.
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