After scoring a season-low 71 points in a 78-71 loss to Phoenix Friday night, the Celtics offense may have officially bottomed out. They scored just 15 points in the first quarter and 16 in the fourth, while shooting 40 percent and recording 18 turnovers.
The Celtics were without Rajon Rondo who missed the game with a sprained right wrist, which obviously contributed to their problems, but coach Doc Rivers put the blame on him and his staff.
"We’ve got to figure something out with our offense because our offense is awful," Rivers said. "Even at halftime we had a ton of open shots, but they’re still all jump shots. Nothing in the paint, no drives and that part you can say is Rondo. But we’ve got to do a better job moving the ball, getting it low. The times we did I thought we were effective. But not enough."
The Celtics used Avery Bradley in place of Rondo and he scored 10 points and had only one turnover in 33 minutes of action, while playing strong defense on Steve Nash. But Bradley only had one assist and Rivers tried various players to initiate the offense with little success.
"We tried to make Paul [Pierce] the guy who delivered the pass," Rivers said. "We tried Kevin [Garnett]. We tried Marquis [Daniels]. We were just searching. We should be better than that in my opinion. I always say that’s on me if one guy doesn’t play. We should be able to play through that."
For more Celtics news, visit the team page at weei.com/celtics [1].
Links:
[1] http://www.weei.com/teams/celtics/home
[2] http://www.weei.com/category/boston/celtics