Charlotte Bobcats thrash Boston Celtics; Shaquille O’Neal shines
When and where
TD Garden, Boston. Friday, Jan 14, 2011
Shaquille O’Neal helped Boston Celtics trounce the Charlotte Bobcats at home ground. The 38-year-old centre scored 23 points, grabbed five rebounds, gave five blocks and shot 10-12 from the field. The player played for 35 minutes, which is his season high,
and had the ball rolling under Celtics influence. The Celtics starters showed great offence as they grabbed 90 of the 99 points that the leading team scored. The Celtics starters could only contribute nine to the leading contenders of the game.
Gerald Wallace added 20 to the Bobcats score board, D.J. Augustine added 19 and Stephen Jackson contributed 13 to the box score. Bobcats grabbed 12 team rebounds.
Highlights
Big guy Shaq and Rajon Rondo were quite a combo. They teamed up against the hapless Bobcats. Augustine was injured but he made a way back into the game and scored 19 points while giving six assists to his team-mates.
Rondo gave 13 assists and scored 18 points for the Celtics.
Missing players
Kevin Garnett missed the game due to a right leg muscle strain and Jermaine O’Neal couldn’t make it to the game because of a sore left knee.
Stats
The Boston Celtics regulated on a slow and steady offensive start. First half saw 57 points coming from the leading team as they shot 62.7 per cent from the field.
The Boston Celtics clinched their season high 96 field goal attempts as they got hold of 90 out of the 96.
Game stats
Now lets take a look at how the teams coped with the field goals. Boston went 52.2 per cent in field goals while limiting the Bobcats to 42.1. The Bobcats got under the surge that the Celtics took with three pointers, going 42.1 over 33.3 set by Bobcats.
The Bobcats overcome Celtics as they took 79.4 from the free throw line against 76 per cent by the Celtics.
Bobcats outrebounded the Celtics 42-29. The Bobcats even shook the box with 13-3 offensive rebounds. The Celtics were 11-9 in turnovers. The Bobcats limited the Celtics even in fast break points, 8-4. The Celtics took the biggest lead with 12 and let the
Bobcats through with just five. Celtics grabbed 44 points from the painted area and Bobcats went for 38 in the same.
Turning point
The Celtics spearheaded the Bobcats as they leashed on an 11-0 run entering the fourth quarter. The Celtics truncated the opposition initially when they took a two-point lead over them with just eight minutes left in final quarter of the game. Rondo and
Ray Allen both pounced three 3-pointers in a row that gave them their first double digit surge of the night.
Hottest player
Definitely O’Neal! The player was purely awesome. He played terrifically from the field and hit most of the shots that came his way.
Quote it!
"I knew to be ready. There's no excuse for me to be tired. I just came out and got a few more touches tonight, did what I could." O’Neal bloomed about his game later on.
Weakest player
One of the leading scorers of the Bobcats was not in his perfect shape. Jackson was not a strong opponent to the Celtics in his 40 minutes of playtime. The player missed 12 out of his 17 shots as he scored just 13 points as a whole, this makes out five lower
than the average points he made this season.
Coach Paul Silas later shed light on his team’s loss when he said, “We hung in there. Through all of that, we were still there, but mentally we've got to come with it a little bit more. It's a mental game. Ninety percent of it is mental and we are just not
there yet.” Now we know why it happened.
More to watch
For the Bobcats, Saturday vs. New Orleans, Monday @ Philadelphia, Tuesday @ Chicago.
For the Celtics, Monday vs. Orlando, Wednesday vs. Detroit, Friday vs. Utah.
Tags: