<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Paul Pierce heard a statistic the other day that plunged the Celtics captain into deep thought. The stat left Pierce wondering how different the team?s fortunes would have been last season with a few rolls of the ball. ?I was overwhelmed to hear that we had 33 games that were decided by five points or less,? said Pierce of an NBA category that the Celtics led, though didn?t necessarily dominate, as evidenced by their 12-21 record in those games. ?This year we?re going to turn a lot of those games around.? Unfortunately for the Celtics, that pattern held up in last night?s 106-102 loss to the Toronto Raptors at the Garden in the final game of exhibition season. Pierce missed his second straight game with an infected finger. He was joined in street clothes by Brian Scalabrine (shoulder) and Theo Ratliff (back). Toronto countered with street fashions by Chris Bosh (heel), T.J. Ford (sore hamstring) and Pape Sow (back), and a late push to hold off a C?s charge led by Wally Szczerbiak (27 points) and Sebastian Telfair (21 points). Telfair, who continues to impress with his 3-point shooting (8-13 in eight preseason games), hit a big trey with 2:12 left for a 99-97 Celtics lead. But the Raptors uncorked a 7-1 run over the last 1:15, including four points from Jose Calderone, for the familiar result. </div> Source
Well, I just hope that those close games from last year that turned into upsetting loses or so called "moral victories", with transform into some exciting wins this season.
You just never know, games often come down to one posession, and we need some step up play from youngsters to change our fortunes. Rondo, I'm looking in your direction. Green, you're up next.
