Celtics have no answer for DeAndre Jordan and Lou Williams, fall to Clippers 119-129


The Los Angeles Clippers visited the Boston Celtics at TD Garden on Wednesday night and left with a victory thanks to strong performances from DeAndre Jordan and Lou Williams. Boston's recent defensive struggles doomed them once again as LA managed to shoot 50% from the field and score 129 points against the league's best defense.

Boston's defensive slump reared it's ugly head right off the bat, and the Clippers amounted 34 points in the opening period while the Celtics struggled from the field. Los Angeles center and former trade-deadline-bait DeAndre Jordan seemed close to unstoppable, with 11 points and 7 rebounds on 5-6 shooting in the quarter.

The second quarter proved to be far more fruitful on the offensive end, as the Celtics managed 32 points and closed the gap to four.



Terry Rozier, who has been a buzzer-beating machine this year, once again finished a quarter in spectacular fashion.


Boston was able to ride that momentum into the second half, and managed to tie the game just 45 seconds into the third quarter before taking their first lead of the game a minute later. Kyrie Irving caught fire and the rest of the period was nothing less than a shootout, with the Celtics narrowly outscoring the Clippers 34-32 and trailing Los Angeles by two heading into the fourth.


The Celtics' poor defensive play continued in the final period, and their offense was unable to match the Clippers' rapid scoring. Lou Williams, who had struggled from the floor for most of the night, came alive late and scored 16 of his 19 points in the fourth. Boston attempted to compensate by hacking DeAndre Jordan, who hit all but one of his nine free-throw attempts en route to a career-high 30 points.


129 is the largest point total Boston has allowed all year, edging out the 121 they gave up to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday.

Kyrie Irving led all scorers with 33 points (11-21 FG, 5-7 3PT) along with 8 assists.

Marcus Morris managed a 13 point, 11 rebound double-double in 35 minutes off the bench.

Wednesday marked Avery Bradley's first return to Boston since reuniting with former Celtics coach Doc Rivers in Los Angeles.

Boston will head into a much-needed All-Star break at 40-19, two games behind the Toronto Raptors for the top spot in the Eastern Conference. They will return on Friday, February 23rd in Detroit to face the Pistons.


Photo credit: @Celtics (Twitter)
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