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Wednesday, Jan. 12 7:00pm ET
Pierce spoils Odom's return to Northeast | |||||
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BOX SCORE
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 GAME FLOW
BOSTON (AP) -- It was homecoming night of sorts for Lamar Odom, and Paul Pierce spoiled it for him. The former University of Rhode Island star had a dazzling first half, but it was Pierce who took over down the stretch, scoring 22 points -- including seven straight during a key run in the fourth quarter -- as the Boston Celtics snapped a two-game losing streak with a 95-88 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night. "I think our attitude won it for us tonight," Celtics coach Rick Pitino said. "When you lose and your confidence is shaken a little bit, things can go bad for you. But we've had a tremendous attitude all year, a tremendous desire to win. We are proud of our attitude." Pierce's seven straight points came during a 20-6 run that turned a 74-70 deficit into a 90-80 lead with 2:57 left. Odom, who attended URI before being selected by the Clippers with the fourth overall pick in the NBA draft last June, scored 26 points and pulled down nine rebounds. After shooting 7-of-10 in the first half and hitting all four of his 3-pointers, Odom was held to 3-of-11 shooting in the second half and missed the three 3-pointers he attempted. "The name of the game in the NBA is consistency, right? Today I wasn't consistent enough," Odom said. Antoine Walker chipped in 19 points and Kenny Anderson had 15 for the Celtics, who avenged an earlier loss to the Clippers and avoided being swept by Los Angeles for the first time since the 1996-97 season. Vitaly Potapenko contributed 10 points and 11 rebounds. Maurice Taylor added 22 points and 12 rebounds and Derek Anderson scored 18 points. Michael Olowokandi pulled down 15 rebounds for the Clippers, losers of five straight road games. "We played very good defense, and unfortunately, we didn't take care of the ball. We're a young team and young teams make mistakes. When you get down to the three minute mark, you can't make mistakes and we did," coach Chris Ford said. After allowing Odom and Taylor to shoot a combined 13-of-20 in the first half, the Celtics held the frontcourt duo to 7-of-20 in the second half. "Guys took one-on-one defense more personally in the second half. That's what kept us in the game and won it for us. Guys forced bad shots and we rebounded well," Potapenko said. A 10-2 run at the start of the second half gave the Celtics a 51-46 lead. Pierce, who was limited to nine minutes in the first half because of foul trouble, scored eight points in the run. The Clippers used a 13-8 run to take a 61-59 lead, but Celtics ran off seven straight points, highlighted by a 3-pointer by Calbert Cheaney, to take a 66-63 lead at the end of three quarters. The Clippers led by as many as nine points in the opening quarter before taking a 42-41 lead into halftime. Odom paced the Clippers with 18 first-half points and Taylor, who scored 10 points in the opening quarter, added 14. "He's a very talented player," Cheaney said of Odom. "He was hitting 3s from everywhere. There's not much you can do when someone is filling it like that." Walker shot 3-of-14 in the first half but still led the Celtics with nine points. The game marked the second trip back to the FleetCenter as coach of the Clippers for Ford, a former Celtic player and head coach. Game notesA moment of silence was observed prior to the game in memory of Bobby Phills of the Charlotte Hornets, who was killed in a car accident Wednesday morning. ... Clippers forward Tyrone Nesby, who is averaging 13.5 ppg, was not with the team due to a family illness. ... Celtics forward Eric Williams left the game with a bruised left knee midway through the first quarter and did not return. ... ... The Clippers have scored 100 points in seven of their last 10 games after breaking the century mark only three times in their previous 24 games. | ALSO SEE NBA Scoreboard LA Clippers Clubhouse Boston Clubhouse RECAPS Boston 95 LA Clippers 88
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