Celtics Overcome Turnovers Problems, Top the Knicks 99-92
Boston- It's that time again for NBA Basketball. And what a better stage to open up the season on than a Celtics-Knicks matchup at the Garden. Well, really there could be better but that's what we got tonight. With some new faces on the two teams the fans were interested in what they would get tonight. Rather then seeing dominance by the new guys, what they got is a old-time matchup that boiled down to the success of Paul Pierce and Stephon Marbury. Pierce lead the Celtics with 35 points, 11 rebounds, and 2 steals on 13-20 shooting, including 4-7 from beyond the arc, as well as 5-5 from the FT line. On the other side, Stephon Marbury lead the way for the Knicks scoring 24 points, while dishing out 10 assists, and recording 5 steals.
The Knicks had some problems with their shot selection as the combination of Marbury-Crawford-Richardson had an off-night, shooting a combined 35%, including 4-18 from 3. Crawford scored 22, and Richardson scored 21, but no one outside of those 3 really contributed all that much in the offense. As for the Celtics, Ricky D came up strong off the bench scoring 16 points, on 5-12 shooting, while Nelson chipped in 15 of his own with 7 assists. Big Al tallied a double double off the bench scoring 10 points and grabbing 10 boards. Disappointing for the Celtics was Raef and Mark who combined for a 2-17 night.
Code:
Field Goal Rebounds
Player POS MIN FGM-A 3GM-A FTM-A O D T AST PF ST TO BS PTS
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Jameer Nelson G 27 6-10 1-3 2-2 0 0 0 7 4 1 4 1 15
Delonte West G 23 5-14 2-4 0-0 0 1 1 5 4 3 1 0 12
Paul Pierce F 32 13-20 4-7 5-5 0 11 11 1 1 2 3 0 35
Raef LaFrentz F 18 1-6 1-2 0-0 1 14 15 3 2 0 0 0 3
Mark Blount C 22 1-11 0-0 0-0 2 4 6 2 0 0 0 2 2
Al Jefferson 22 4-6 0-0 2-5 0 10 10 1 0 0 2 1 10
Ricky Davis 19 5-12 1-2 5-5 0 3 3 2 0 1 1 0 16
Ryan Gomes 14 1-4 0-0 2-2 0 3 3 1 0 0 0 0 4
Kendrick Perkins 12 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 5 5 1 4 0 2 1 0
Orien Greene 10 1-2 0-0 0-0 0 2 2 2 0 1 3 1 2
Gerald Green DNP--Coaches Decision
Justin Reed DNP--Coaches Decision
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Total 37-87 9-18 16-19 3 53 56 27 15 8 17 6 99
.425 .500 .842
Field Goal Rebounds
Player POS MIN FGM-A 3GM-A FTM-A O D T AST PF ST TO BS PTS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stephon Marbury G 34 9-24 0-1 6-6 2 1 3 10 2 5 3 0 24
Jamal Crawford G 33 8-25 2-7 4-4 0 3 3 3 4 2 1 0 22
Q Richardson F 33 8-22 2-9 2-3 0 4 4 2 4 2 1 0 21
Antonio Davis F 17 2-4 0-0 0-1 1 8 9 2 0 0 0 0 4
Eddy Curry C 24 2-5 0-0 0-0 2 7 9 1 3 0 0 2 4
Jerome James 15 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 8 8 0 1 1 1 1 2
Malik Rose 14 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 6 6 0 2 1 0 0 2
Trevor Ariza 9 0-2 0-1 1-2 0 3 3 3 1 1 0 0 1
Penny Hardaway 8 3-6 0-0 2-3 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 8
Channing Frye 8 0-3 0-0 0-0 1 3 4 0 0 0 1 0 0
Nate Robinson 7 0-0 0-0 2-2 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 2
Maurice Taylor 5 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 2
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Total 35-94 4-18 18-22 6 44 50 25 19 14 8 4 92
.372 .222 .818