Los Angeles: The Boston Celtics refused to panic, even as the Eastern Conference leaders were staring at a four-game losing streak.
One night after falling to the lowly Los Angeles Lakers, they returned to Staples Center to remind everyone why they’re among the NBA’s best at 35-14. The Celtics’ defence hounded the Clippers all night, forcing 19 turnovers and holding them to 44.3 per cent shooting in a 113-102 victory on Wednesday night.
“This is a hard league,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens said. “You’re going to have your ups and downs. We were really fortunate to win 16 games in a row earlier this year. We could have lost about 11 of them. Sometimes things go your way, sometimes they don’t.”
They were back to going the Celtics’ way Wednesday night.
“They do a good job defending, but we got some good shots, some wide-open shots, and just missed,” Clippers forward Blake Griffin said.
Griffin led all scorers with 23 points, but after the first quarter, the Celtics forced him to settle for the outside shot. Griffin was just 1 of 7 from 3-point range.
The Celtics countered with five players scoring in double-figures, led by Kyrie Irving’s 20 points and Jayson Tatum’s 18.
“Our guys, for the first time in a while, got a little disbanded by their ball movement and attack,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. “They have so many athletes, they really like targeting some of our guys with footspeed.”
Terry Rozier added 15 points off the bench for Boston, and Marcus Morris also had 15.
“It felt like we were getting a lot from a lot of people,” Stevens said. “Offensively, this was one of our better games. The way we moved the ball and shared. That was encouraging.”
The Celtics made 14 3-pointers, though it took them 40 attempts. Irving also led the team in assists (seven) and tied for the lead in rebounds (eight).
