CELTICS GREEN ...a boston celtics blog.: Young Celtics Drop One in Philly 88-82

March 30, 2007

Celtics took the floor tonight with only 9 players and Ryan Gomes was the oldest player at the ripe old age of 24. Pierce sat out with his sore elbow and will be day to day for the next game and in his absence, the young Celtics played hard but came up short. They were behind by as many as 15 and came back to tie the game with 5 minutes left in the game. They just didn't have enough to finish though without any veteran leadership on the floor.

Rondo once again filled up the stat sheet and finished with 6 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals and 1 block. I can't wait to see what he can do with a summer to work on his game and coming back with a year under his belt. Telfair played 18 minutes and didn't score but had 5 assists. Allan Ray played 26 minutes and struggled on both ends of the court. He finished with 7 points on 1-6 shooting and was 4-4 from the FT line. He struggled on the defensive end and was constantly burned by Korver as he went for 26 points.

Delonte West is becoming the iron man of the Celtics playing 45 minutes and finishing with 16 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals, and 1 block. Gomes finished with 9 points, 6 rebounds and 2 steals and looks as if he is getting his legs back under his jumper after coming back from the injury. Gerald Green started in place of Pierce and played 20 minutes. He finished with 12 points and 3 rebounds.

Al had another strong game finishing with 20 points, 8 rebounds and 1 assists. Perk played only 28 minutes. He did a good job defensively when he was in and wasn't in foul trouble so I am not sure why he wasn't on the floor more. He finished with 6 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal and 1 block. His assists were great bullet passes from the top of the key inside to Al. Both resulted in a 3 point play for Al. Powe played 12 minutes and as always made the most of his minutes finishing with 6 points, 4 rebounds and took a couple of charges. He also had 2 fouls which should make Doc happy.

It seems as though this team depends on Pierce for so much when he is playing, they have trouble executing the plays when he goes out. They play hard and are in the game right up until the end but just can't seem to finish out games. I really hope they can pull it together and win a couple more without Pierce even though Milwaukee is sneaking up on us for the second worst record. They are only 3 1/2 games behind us now and breathing down our necks. But right now, the confidence that these kids would get from pulling out a few wins on their own would be worth it.

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