| November 2, 2009 Celtics tough out 97-87 win; no Rondo update
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(NECN: Jess Moran, Boston, Mass.) - The Boston Celtics have been successful thus far this season by putting away teams early in the game, but the New Orleans Hornets refused to go away on Sunday night in Boston's 97-87 win.
Boston had what looked to be a comfortable nine-point lead at halftime, which was increased to 12 points at on point early in the third quarter. Though New Orleans never took the lead, they did manage to tie the game 69-69 near the end of the third.
"So far this year we've done a great job each game building and improving. This was not one of those nights. We won the game, and so we'll take the win," Rivers said. "We would not win a lot of games with the way we played tonight."
It would be unfair to expect the Celtics to be perfect every night, blowing teams out before the start of the fourth quarter. With that admission, Rivers still was unpleased with the way his team played.
"We're better than this. I thought we were sloppy, I thought we broke our execution on defense and offense at times," Rivers said, noting that the team would get to work on correcting any flaws found on the game tape.
Boston is now (4-0) on the season. The team next plays Tuesday night at Philadelphia.
Celtics guard Rajon Rondo, who faces a Monday deadline of reaching a contract extension with the team before being cast as a restricted free agent, said after the game that he had no update on negotiations. He said he planned on calling
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