Jarret Jack and Carl Landry help New Orleans Hornets drop Boston Celtics 0-3: NBA Update
Jarrett Jack came back from a suspension layoff and erupted with 21 points while Carl Landry followed up with 20 points and 11 rebounds as the New Orleans Hornets thumped the Boston Celtics 97-78 at home.
With this loss, the Celtics have gone down 0-3, the first time this has happened since the 2006-2007 season. Their coach Doc Rivers was worried, but accepted that there was nothing he could have done to change that;
"We've just got to work our way through it, and we will. Thank God it's early. ... It's so early it's three games into the season. We've played two pretty good teams, and this team (Hornets) is not bad. Home opener, rested, waiting for us. I'm not going to overdo this. Three in a row? You should never lose three in a row. We should never lose three in a row. But we have and there's nothing we can do about it."
The Celtics, playing without their captain, Paul Pierce for the third straight game, look tired and after Jason Smith knocked down a jumper deep inside the first half to give Hornets a 17-16 lead, the C’s never managed to go ahead. After trailing by 48-39 at the break, the Celtics managed to hold the Hornets in the third and entered the last quarter, behind by 9 at 63-72. However an early 13-4 run knocked the steam out of Boston’s tanks and the result was never in doubt after that.
C’s were led by Ray Allen with 15 points including four of eight from distance.
"Our defense was terrible. Offensively we didn't execute. We looked scattered out there on the floor," Allen said after the game. "That's just us and how we didn't execute on both ends of the floor and we know better.”
Point guard Rajon Rondo netted 13 points and handed out six assists; Brandon Bass made 4 of 13 from the floor for his 11 while Keyon Dooling came off the bench with 10 points.
Hornets, playing without shooting guard Eric Gordon, who is day to day with a bruised knee, blocked 12 Boston shots on the night, the most they have done since 2005. The Hornets also out rebounded the C’s 48-37. 9 of those boards came from Chris Kaman, who also scored 12 on the night and was backed up by Marco Belinelli and Emeka Okafor, both of whom scored 13 points and 6 rebounds.
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