It's a proven fact in sports that for whatever reason, some teams always seem to give you trouble, even when they have less talent. Such is the case with the Boston Celtics this season and the Charlotte Bobcats. The Celts (45-12) held off the pesky Bobcats (19-39), 108-100 at the Garden.
It was the third time the teams have met this season. Boston won the first on a Ray Allen buzzer-beating 3-pointer and lost the rematch in the Garden.
Charlotte only had nine players last night since Gerald Wallace and Sean May were out. The C's were up all game, by as much as 17 but they had a hard time putting the visitors away.
Rajon Rondo had one of the best games of his young career with nine points, a career-high 16 assists, six rebounds and two steals. Kendrick Perkins added 19 points, nine boards and five blocks. Ray Allen scored 23 points and pulled down five rebounds.
Boston led 33-28 after the first quarter and 61-46 at the half. Jason Richardson had a game-high 30 points and six rebounds for the Bobcats and Raymond Felton flirted with a triple-double: 22 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds.
Charlotte took the last two frames, 26-25 and 28-22. Former Big East standouts starred for Charlotte as Matt Carroll had 16 points and Emeka Okafor contributed 11 points and seven boards. Rookie Jared Dudley from BC even got into the action with nine points, seven rebounds and three steals.
For the C's, Kevin Garnett had 17 points and nine boards while Paul Pierce's cold-streak continued as he managed just 13 points. Leon Powe scored nine and Glen Davis tossed in seven.
The Celts shot 47.7% for the game to the Bobcats' 40.2%. Charlotte made a few more 3-pointers (11-9) and free-throws (23-17). Assists were the story thanks to Rondo's remarkable performance, the Celts had 11 (33-22) more dimes.
Up next, the Hawks come to the Garden tomorrow night. The Celts haven't seen Atlanta yet this season and there's a decent chance they could see each other in the first round of the playoffs (don't laugh).
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