Kelly Olynyk came off the Celtics bench and went 11 of 21 shooting overall, 3 of 6 from the 3-point line and 3 of 4 on free throws to lead Boston wit 28 points. Avery Bradley scored 19 points before fouling out while Isaiah Thomas 18 points and a team high 10 assists and Jae Crowder 15 points where the Celtics starters who scored in double figures.Besides Olynyk Evan Turner (13 points) and David Lee (10 points) scored in double figures off the Boston bench. Jared Sullinger grabbed a game high 13 rebounds for Boston.

Golden State wraps up their road trip tonight as they’re in Milwaukee to play the Bucks. Milwaukee has lost it’s last 2 games including a 90-83 loss to the Toronto Raptors Friday night. Milwaukee is 9-15 on the season, but with Thompson’s injury and Golden State coming off a double overtime game could tonight be the night they suffer there first loss?

There was another close game on Thursday night as the Arizona Cardinals beat the Minnesota Vikings 23-20. With the victory the Cardinals improved to 11-2 and clinched a playoff berth in the NFC. Minnesota fell to 8-5 good for 2nd place in the NFC North right now 1/2 game behind the Green Bay Packers.

There was quite a bit of discussion about the end of this game and who to place the blame for the Minnesota loss on. The Vikings had the football last and with about 12 seconds or so on the clock they decided to run 1 more play instead of try a 48 yard field goal to tie the game. Minnesota quarterback Teddy Bridgewater dropped back to pass and was sacked by Arizona defensive lineman Dwight Freeney. Freeney was also able to strip the football from Bridgewater. The Cardinals recovered the fumble, but with the Vikings out of timeouts they wouldn’t of been able to get the field goal unit set up in time to even make an attempt to tie the game. This is where all the debate starts. Is it Teddy Bridgewater’s fault for not throwing the football away? Or is it Mike Zimmer and the Vikings coaching staffs fault for the play call? While all these experts where trying to assign blame to someone they where all assuming that Blair Walsh would’ve made the 48 yard field goal to tie the game in the closing seconds. maybe it’s just me, but I don’t remember 48 yard field goals being gimmes, but they sure acted like it was. Now on the ill fated play it’s been pointed out that Bridgewater took a 5-step drop. In most late game situation like that you’ll see the quarterback take a 3-step drop and try to get rid of the football quickly. As the play develops it looks like Bridgewater wants to throw the football down the field instead of an out to the sideline. A shot at the end zone would be an interesting play call in that situation, but I don’t know if that’s what the Vikings where going for. While Bridgewater is dropping back to throw the Arizona defense does a great job of keeping him in the pocket and only allowing him a little room to step up. Now let me remind you that while Freeney might be at the end of his career he does have 115 1/2 career sacks and leads the Cardinals in that category this season with 4. Arizona signed him for just this type of play and they monitor how many snaps he takes so he’s ready for this type of situation. Freeney used a spin move to beat Vikings left tackle Matt Kalil giving himself a clear path to Bridgewater. With the Arizona defense doing there job and containing Bridgewater in the pocket there was nowhere for him to go. Bridgewater tries to step up into what little room he has and throw the football, but Freeney was able to close the distance and strip the football while he was taking Bridgewater down. So if you still feel the need to find fault in the Minnesota loss maybe it was Dwight Freeney’s fault they lost.

Matt Kalil