James Young plays well, but Celtics lose to Hornets, 104-95

The Celtics lost to the Al Jefferson-less Hornets 104-95 on Monday night at the Garden. The Celtics were led by Jared Sullinger (22 points), Jae Crowder (13) and JAMES YOUNG!!! (13 points on 7 shots). Charlotte was led by Kemba Walker's 33-point performance, and Cody Zeller's 8-8 shooting (20 points).

A few notes about this game:

- The Cavs acquired J.R. Smith during the 1st quarter, and that was more entertaining than the early part of this game. Much more entertaining.

- Twitter broke. I blame J.R. Smith

- JAMES YOUNG PLAYED! AND SCORED POINTS!

- Sullinger scored more points (22) than the rest of the starting five combined (18).

- The first 36 minutes were horrible. Just embarrassing. No energy, no passion, no results.

Speaking of which..let's talk about the game.

The Celtics came out of the gates like a team playing out the string, which is a problem considering there are still 50 games left in the season. It was 15-4 Charlotte, and then it was 22-11, and finally 36-22 Hornets just about halfway through the second quarter.

In the first 16 minutes of the game, the Celtics took 28 shots, and hit only nine. It was ugly, and borderline offensive. If there's anything a young team should have -- it's energy. And in the first half, they had none.

The third quarter was an extension of the first half -- with the Cs trailing by as many as 22 before cutting it to 17 to start the final period.

And then a magical thing happened, the Celtics started playing with energy. And with it, they cut the lead to 15. And 12. And 10. And 8. And 6. James Young got hot, Phil Pressey and Marcus Smart created some turnovers, and Jae Crowder made a big impact.

However, as is expected in the NBA, 12 minutes of energy isn't enough. It will never be enough, and sure enough, the Hornets closed it out with a few timely jumpers down the stretch.

The Cs are now 11-21, and a mere 1.5 games up on the Pistons for the 4th worst record in basketball. However, they're also somehow only 2.5 games back of the lowly Miami Heat for the 8-seed in the East (side-note: lowly Miami Heat was fun to write). Chances are the Celts won't be that close for long, but it's amazing they still are with how bad they've been lately.

Nest game: Wednesday night against the Nets in Brooklyn.