CELTICS GREEN BLOG by and for boston celtics fans: Celtics Falter Down the Stretch, Lose to Wizards Again

The Celtics played very well for 3 quarters and took a 12 point lead at one point, but faltered down the stretch to lose their second game in a row to the Wizards. The Celtics were outscored 25-6 down the stretch to lose 88-83 at home.

But, it wasn't all negative. One bright spot was the play of Tony Allen. He seemed more like the pre-injury Tony as he drove baseline for a tomahawk dunk. After the dunk he was very fired up. He played great defense and was aggressive going for rebounds and loose balls. He finished with 4 points, 4 rebounds and 1 steal and brought a lot of energy to the team. Perk had a great game. He played great defense and set good picks and finished with 9 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist and 2 blocks. He may have had the play of the game when he got a steal and dribbled behind the back before passing to Pierce who set up KG for an alley oop dunk.

Rondo started the game and played 21 minutes but at times looked a bit stiff. He finished with 4 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 block. House played most of the minutes behind Rondo at the point and finished with 5 points on 2-9 shooting to go with 6 rebounds and 3 assists. Ray Allen is still struggling with his shot as he shot only 5-14 from the field. He finished with 16 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal and 1 block.

Paul Pierce had a good game as he scored 18 points and pulled down 5 rebounds to go with 2 assists and 1 block. He took several hard charges and played great defense on Butler. In the press conference, KG made it very clear, repeating it twice, that it wasn't Paul Pierce who allowed Butler to get to the hoop for the layup to put them ahead, but it was the team who allowed it. Posey played well, hustling for loose balls, taking charges and playing defense. On one point, he went into the second row of seats trying to poke the ball away. Davis played 10 minutes and finished with 1 point and 1 block.

The Celtics played much better in this game than they did in their last matchup. The matched the Wizards with 37 rebounds. They shot 42% and held the Wizards to 39%. They outscored the Wizards in the paint 34-22. But on the negative side, the Celtics didn't execute down the stretch and allowed the Wizards to outscore them 29-20 in the fourth quarter and to go on a 25-6 run to end the game. The Celtics have lost 2 in a row and 3 out of the last 4 games. I guess you could say they are slumping. They have struggled to get stops down the stretch in their last 4 games. Teams are now playing defense against them and they have always struggled against teams that press and play tough defense. They have to figure out how to score against teams who play defense or this season could go downhill very quickly.

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