Kevin Garnett paces Boston Celtics to a 94-82 win over Utah Jazz – NBA Recap
Boston Celtics made a huge recovery in the 4th quarter after draining an 18 points second half lead to trounce the visiting Utah Jazz 94-82, here at TD Garden on Wednesday night.
Kevin Garnett was on song as he tallied a game high 23 points to go with team high 10 boards for C’s. More importantly, Garnett netted 10 points and dished out 3 assists in the 4th quarter.
Paul Pierce poured in 20 and had 6 boards. The forward praised Garnett for his cardinal role in the victory.
"He's been playing like that a lot since the second half of the season and we've been going to him a lot more. He really is inspiring to his teammates when he's got it going like that on both ends of the court and we kind of feed
off his energy."
Brandon Bass chipped in with 19 points and Rajon Rondo handed 14 assists, helping the Greens to climb back into a tie for the 1st position in Atlantic Division.
Jazz stepped inside the arena, oozing with confidence as they have won 7 of their last 8 matches.
Gordon Hayward netted a team high 19 points and had 7 boards while the former Boston player Al Jefferson contributed with a double-double scoring 18 points and had 12 rebounds, he netted 10 points in the 3rd helping
Jazz to overcome a 18 points deficit.
Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin lavished praise on him.
“He's just so experienced and such a competitor, he's going to do whatever he can do to help his team win. He did it on both ends of the floor tonight. He made the big shots; defensively, he fought and clawed."
Forward Paul Millsap collected 16 points and had 7 boards and reserve Alec Burks had 9 in Utah’s 24th defeat of this season.
The opening frame remained neck to neck and with 06:29 in hand C’s took a slender 12-8 advantage. Jazz clawed that off with a 9-2 run and changed hands 17-14 late into the frame. They maintained the lead, 21-18, till the end of
segment.
Derrick Favors opened the 2nd stanza with a dunk, widening the gap to 23-18. The Greens however came back furiously as they pulled off an extended 26-6 run to claim a mammoth 44-29 advantage. They capped off the 1st
half at 46-35.
Boston opened the 3rd with a 15-8 spurt and ballooned their advantage to 61-43 but Utah fought back valiantly and cut down the huge lead with an 18-5 run. As the game entered into its last 12 minutes, Jazz succeeded
in reducing the gap to just 5 points 66-61.
With a 5-nothing burst, Utah tied the scores at 66 each early in the 4th. Celtics however responded with a 16-6 run claiming a double digit 82-72 lead with 5:35 in hand. The win extended Boston's winning streak to 3.
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