BOSTON - The word "ugly" may need to be redefined after the performance from the Boston Celtics on Friday night, as the C's had their four-game winning streak snapped in a horrific 87-74 loss to the Indiana Pacers at TD Garden.
Boston shot 39.4 percent from the floor (26-for-66) and were 5-of-14 from three-point range. The Celtics scored just 25 points in the first half tied a franchise low for points in a single half. Boston also scored 25 points against the Cleveland Cavaliers back on February 8, 1995 before rallying in the second half to win.
"Both teams set offense back about fifty years today," said Celtics head coach Doc Rivers. "It was awful to watch. I thought defensively we were pretty good until the third quarter."
Ray Allen, who missed the Celtics' last game with the flu, did everything he could to keep his team in the game, scoring a game-high 23 points on 7-of-11 shooting in 38 minutes. Kevin Garnett finished with 12 points and six rebounds, Rajon Rondo had 11 points and nine assists and Paul Pierce added 10 points on 3-of-17 shooting in the embarrassing loss for Boston.
"He was human. You know?" Rivers said about Pierce. "I thought he tried to so too much off the bounce, especially early. And then I thought he get frustrated a little bit. That's going to happen. But that's where somebody else we needed to pick up, and nobody could. Without Ray [Allen] shooting today, we would have shot 20 percent."
Danny Granger scored a team-high 15 points for Indiana, which shot 40.5 percent from the field (32-for-79). Darren Collison scored 14 points, three of which came on a wide-open three with 1:32 left in the fourth quarter to put his team up 82-70, and George Hill added 13 points off the bench for the Pacers.
"We have confidence that we can beat any team in any building and this was a game that we knew to win here, we'd have to make it like an Eastern Conference playoff-type battle," said Pacers head coach Frank Vogel. "Just grind it out, have defensive effort. And both teams defended at an extremely high level. All of our guys contributed."
Boston is off until Wednesday when it hosts the defending champion Dallas Mavericks.
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