Nba - the Defending Champs Celtics Win Their Eight Consecutive Game

The current champions of the NBA, the Boston Celtics, converted their 8-consecutive victory by beating the Charlotte Bobcats in a close game 89-84 last Saturday. With this win Boston has an actual record of 16-2 and is leading the Eastern Conference. At the present, Celtics has a 7-1 record on away games and 9-1 on home games, which is a great accomplishment for the team this season. This winning-streak is the longest since last season in which they had one of 10 consecutive victories during February and March 2008.

It has to be mentioned that the game was really close from the beginning through the end. The Bobcats started consistently by leading the first half with an advantage of eight points. However the Bobcats converted too many turnovers, from which the Celtics took advantage of and came back. At the end of the third quarter, the Celtics took the lead of 7 points. During the beginning of the fourth quarter the Celtics were up only 66-62 but Charlotte battled to comeback in two occasions. Nevertheless, Pierce and Perkins gave the Celtics the lead 81-77, but then again Charlotte’s Gerald Wallace put the score 81-80 with only 1:27 remaining. However even with Charlotte’s effort, the Celtics were very smart at the end of the game, as they played in the paint in the final seconds and obviously some of the Bobcats players couldn’t stop Garnett and company and that cost them the victory.

Coach Rivers is really pleased with his players and the way they are playing every game. The “Big Three” of the Celtics played amazingly, especially Paul Pierce, who scored 19 points. On the other hand, six Celtics players were in double figures, Ray Allen and Kendrick Perkins added 15 points respectively, Tony Allen scored 11 points and Eddie House and Garnett put in 10 points each. For the Bobcats, the best scorers were Gerald Wallace and Jason Richardson, with 23 and 22 points, respectively.

Moreover, we have to mention that the Celtics didn’t shot as consistently as they always do; they shot a 43.8% from the field goal and a 14.3% from the three point line, which is really low for a team that has such great shooters.  On the other hand, the Bobcats shot a 47.8% from the field and a 38.5% from the three point line. Even so, the differences between the two teams were the 21 turnovers of Charlotte compared to only 13 from the Celtics and also the Celtics conversion of 46 points in the paint contrasted to 30 points of Charlotte. 

For his part, the Bobcats Coach Larry Brown expressed that his team did everything they could in defense and they played very well, however little errors cost them the defeat. "We defended great until the end. (But) the first half we gave up 22 points on turnovers. ... Everybody played hard and they tried, but you've got to play perfect against a team of this caliber,” Coach Brown stated.

Now the Celtics are preparing to keep their winning streak, they will be playing against the Orlando Magic tonight at home. Coach Rivers is hoping for another victory and will like to maintain his player’s consistency. Orlando for its part is coming from a victory over the Pacers and will love to stretch their winning streak of 5 games.