Embarrassed Again

It seems we are watching two different Celtics teams playing each game of late. One that shows up for the first half, another for the second. The C's are having a lot of trouble with third quarter play in the last ten or so games, and they are struggling to keep up an energetic pace after half time. They are now 4 – 8 in the last twelve games, losing four of their last five games.

Watching the team that played the first half, one would come away believing that the Celtics were back in their game, ready for a good win, and to turn things around in time to come home to play Friday with KG back. Paul Pierce scored 17 points in the first quarter – how could you not feel pretty positive about that? With a score at the end of the first quarter with Boston up 30 – 21, half of those points coming from 7 steals, it was looking like a nice win was in store. Detroit had players in early foul trouble, missed a lot of shots, not too much seemed to be going their way – it didn't even appear there were people in attendance at the Palace until the second half of the game.

The second quarter continued with a strong start for the C's – Eddie House sunk one of his signature three's early, Rondo playing his usual well-rounded game and the Celtics had the lead for the entire first half... things started to turn around as Detroit began to find a game and brought the score close at the half, with Austin Daye sinking a three-point shot at the buzzer to bring the score at the half to 56 – 48, the Celts up by eight.

Then the other team showed up for the second half. It seemed that Ray Allen, who had scored only 2 points at the end of the first half (free-throws) just wasn't there, although he sunk two three-shots, one at the end of the second quarter after stepping out of bounds and one at the start of the third quarter after being forced out of bounds. It seemed Paul Pierce had left the building after his incredible first quarter, finishing the game with just four more points, and the energy of the game and the Palace turned totally in favor of Detroit.

By the end of the third quarter the game was tied at 69, and the fourth quarter belonged to Detroit. Even when things got a little hopeful at the end, with Rasheed sinking a three from WAY out in downtown and Ray Allen showed up with three minutes left, Rick Hamilton fell out of bounds and called a time out when he didn't even have control of the ball. Though that would have given them a shot, the Celtics cannot use that as any kind of excuse, and they need to show up for the entire game when they come to work.