Recap: Celtics Fall to Blazers, Referees Have Meltdown at TD Garden
Courtesy of NBC Sports Boston
The Celtics couldn’t hold off the red hot Portland Trailblazers on Sunday night. Portland took the 129-119 win at the Garden.
Jayson Tatum led the way for Boston with 33 points. Evan Fournier poured in 21, Jaylen Brown and Aaron Nesmith each had 16.
It was CJ McCollum who really hurt the home squad. He matched Tatum’s 33 and got some good help from his teammates. Damian Lillard added 26 and Norman Powell scored 23.
The officials were questionable to say the least. Had Tommy Heinsohn been on the call, it would have been quite the spectacle.
They blew an obvious no call, calling an offensive goaltend on Tristan Thompson in the third quarter.
Then in the fourth quarter, they took six minutes to review a collision between Marcus Smart and Jusuf Nurkic, only to eject Smart after he was the one who was fouled.
It didn’t help that Portland played a near mistake free game. The visitors shot 51% from the field and 50% from deep.
The Celtics were able to keep up for the majority of the game, but things got tough in the fourth quarter.
The fourth quarter is where a shootout turned into a slugfest. A game that was all about making big shots became all about the hustle plays. Early on it was Aaron Nesmith who was flying all over like a ragdoll. He was everywhere. Portland took control in the middle of the quarter behind CJ McCollum’s offensive explosion. They managed to build their lead up to as many as seven before the Celtics began chipping away.
Boston cut it to just three before a strange collision between Marcus Smart and Jusuf Nurkic resulted in a six minute referee meeting. The officials decided Smart should be ejected for some reason and Portland got a technical free throw.
The C’s were never able to recover from the antics from the officials, falling to the Blazers 129-119.
Oh, and both Tatum and Brown went out of the game with injuries after a collision in the final minute.
The Celtics will be back in action Wednesday night when they visit the Orlando Magic. That game will tip at 7 p.m.
