First things first.
For those of you who have not heard, Rajon Rondo has torn his right ACL and miss the rest of the season. According to ESPN.com, his surgery will take place on Friday.
Rondo made an appearance at the TD Garden to watch the second overtime.
Oh, and by the way, the Celtics (21-23) won, 100-98 over Ray Allen and the Miami Heat.
The Celtics played back to back double-overtime games for the first time since 1951, and they came out victorious.
This game was filled with emotions, from Allen's return to the news of Rondo's injury. This team showed, as Kevin Garnett said last season, "grit and balls." In my opinion, considering the circumstances, this was the best win of the season for the Boston Celtics.
As for what's in store for this team in the future, who knows. We'll see. But for right now, I'm going to focus on today, and the significance of today's win. It was a big win, and the Celtics stepped up to the level of competition to snap their six-game losing streak. No one knows what Danny Ainge is going to do, but for right now, let's enjoy this win over their arch-rivals, the Miami Heat.
Here's a recap:
The good:
* Paul Pierce is slowly snapping out of his funk. The captain tallied his seventh-career triple-double, and his first since 2010. Pierce finished with 17 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 assists. Pierce hit some clutch shots, such as the go-ahead jumper to put Boston up 99-98.
* After logging 32 and 38 minutes in back-to-back nights, one would think that Kevin Garnett would have nothing left in the tank. Not so much. KG turned in his second-consecutive double-double, finishing with 24 points and 11 rebounds. His defense was superb, and he grabbed rebounds with force.
* With Rondo now lost for the season, it's time for someone to step up. Tonight, Leandro Barbosa did the honors. Barbosa was arguably the best player off the bench today, providing a much-needed scoring spark. He had 9 points on 4-of-8 shooting, 3 rebounds, and 4 assists.
* Jeff Green is starting to turn his season around. He scored 11 points in 42 minutes, but that doesn't explain the impact he had on this game. He played marvelous defense on LeBron James, and added to his collection of posterizing dunks in the fourth quarter. Green has had his hands full in the past four days, having to guard two of the top
* Boston played sensational defense today. They held the fifth-highest scoring team in the league to 87 points in regulation. The Celtics held the Big Three to 42.9% from the floor.
* If you would have told me before the game that Boston would double up Miami in the fastbreak department, I would've told you to go (bleep) yourself. But, that was indeed the case tonight,
* After exploding for 10 points in the first quarter, the Celtics held Chris Bosh to only 6 points in the final 59 minutes of action.
* I focused on Dwayne Wade in my pregame post, and the Celtics must have listened. Avery Bradley and the rest of the guards did their part to hold Wade to 6-of-20 from the field.
The bad:
* Come on, wasn't Ray Allen on your team for the past five seasons? How can you leave him wide open!
* Miami controlled the offensive glass today, edging Boston 17-8. Miami is the worst rebounding team in the league. That's bad.
Boston gets a bit of a break, and they return to action at the TD Garden on Wednesday night against the Sacramento Kings.
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