In a tale of two halves, tired Celtics outlast Nuggets: 104-100

HIGHLIGHT ALERT: The happiest Gerald Wallace has ever been in a Celtics uniform as he's cheering for the Pats.
Let me just get this out of my system: CROWDER STOLE THE BALL! CROWDER STOLE THE BALL!

Alright, back to the recap: It would be really unfair to be harsh on a team that is playing a back-to-back game, and the Celtics tonight definitely hustled, played hard and fought to the end. That being said, they poured in 61 points in the first half, only to follow that up with 43 in the second. It would have been a bitter loss if the Celtics had not turned their defense up in the last two Denver possessions, but boy, that was some effort.

This was yet another night the Celtics (had to) keep experimenting with the starting lineups, and the lucky 5 were Zeller-Bass-Turner-Bradley and Smart. The playmaking duo of Evan Turner and Marcus Smart had 16 assists (8 apiece) and 18 rebounds combined (10 for Smart), yet they also shot 5-17 so it wasn't all great news. On the other hand, the bench had a great night in terms of scoring: Jae Crowder had 14 points, Marcus Thornton had 17 (4-5 3PT shooting), Jared Sullinger added 14 more. Oh, and on a side note: Sully came off the bench because he was late again so we decided to help him out, sorta:



Tyler Zeller's 14 points and Avery Bradley's 17 points with a side of clutch shooting also deserve to be mentioned.

The Celtics continue to be a team with Playoff hopes, and hey, they beat two teams of their tier in back-to-back games, so yeah, they are really, really fun to watch.
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