Paul Pierce misses the game winning shot as San Antonio Spurs defeat Boston Celtics 87-86: NBA Recap
Eastern Conference player of the month for March, Paul Pierce choked on a late game winning jumper as the San Antonio Spurs escaped with the narrowest of margins, 87-86, snapping a five game winning streak of the Boston Celtics.
On Wednesday night, at the TD Garden, Boston, MA, a capacity crowd was entertained as two power houses of their respective conferences collided. With both sides known for their veteran style of play it turned out to be a spectacular
game.
Danny Green had a team high 14 points for the Spurs, with Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Matt Bonner all getting 10 points each on the night. Gary Neal also posted 13 off the bench.
Avery Bradley had a game-high of 19 points for Boston, Rondo scored 17, Garnett 16 and Pierce had 15 points for the Celtics, who will take on the Chicago Bulls next.
As close as the game should have been, it did not look that way in the first half. Boston did start the game off well as they held an early 5 point advantage with 9:05 remaining in the opening period. From that moment onwards,
Spurs took over the game in splendid fashion. They came from behind, overcame the deficit and then closed the first period with a 7 point advantage, 27-20, all that courtesy a 16-4 burst.
The second quarter saw Boston making a comeback to tie the scores up at 36 each with 8:57 minutes remaining to the half. With the scores all tied up, Spurs turned the intensity up and within the time span of just around two minutes
from 8:48 to 6:45, they went on a 12-0 run to open the game up in their favour. Spurs closed the half with the score line of 59-48.
Basketball is a game of two halves and no game can be written off by only watching the first. Same was the case in this one. Boston with the capacity crowd of the Garden behind them, rallied back into the game, making a 13 point
deficit early in the third, look like a small difference.
Rondo who scored 15 points in three quarters got success on the last shot of the quarter to help the Celtics pull to within 4, 64-68. Boston squeezed the Spurs to just nine points in the third and had all the momentum going into
the final quarter.
Spurs again tried to get an upper hand early in the 4th, but the Celtics were just not going to give up. They rallied their way back into the contest by tying the scores up at 79 each with 4:19 remaining in the game.
This set up the game to have an interesting end. Both teams went back and forth, blow after blow at each other in the final minutes. Spurs who had grabbed 12 offensive rebounds on the night, grabbed two of them with less than two
minutes remaining in the game. San Antonio made the most of these second chance opportunities as they took the lead 87-83 with 46.5 second remaining to the final buzzer.
Two of the last three shots were taken from behind the three point line, one being successful from Ray Allen, who was making a comeback from an ankle injury, the other being unsuccessful attempted by Danny Green.
With 7.9 seconds remaining in the game, Boston came on to the court from a time out taken by the Celtics head coach Doc Rivers. The play was set up for Paul Pierce, who had the opportunity in his hands to win the game for the Celtics.
He created some space around the free throw line and took the shot but it was not to be as he was unsuccessful on his attempt and the Celtics lost this one only by a difference of 1 point.
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