Final: Grizzlies 90, Celtics 87. Paul Pierce gets one shot for the tie, and it rims out. The Celtics have lost a heartbreaker at the Garden.
Pierce finishes with 22 points on 6-of-10 shooting, 2-for-4 from 3 and 8-for-8 from the line. A heck of an efficient performance. But it's not enough, as the C's fall just short. They'll settle for a season series split with the Grizzlies this year.
Six Grizzlies finish in double figures, including former Celtic Leon Powe, with 13. Marc Gasol adds a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds.
The Celtics have now lost five of their last nine. They return to action at the Garden on Friday night against the Charlotte Bobcats.
Fourth quarter, 4.2 seconds, Grizzlies 90-87: Wow.
Glen Davis, of all people, takes the 3 for the tie. He misses, but the Celtics foul Marc Gasol, and Gasol misses both shots.
Rajon Rondo gets the rebound, his 11th of the night. He calls timeout with 4.2 left.
The C's have new life.
Who you got now? Pierce, Allen, or — God forbid — Big Baby again?
Fourth quarter, 13.2 seconds, Grizzlies 90-87: Conley makes both free throws. Three-point ballgame.
The C's need a big shot right now.
Who you got? Paul Pierce or Ray Allen?
Fourth quarter, 13.2 seconds, Grizzlies 88-87: Rajon Rondo rushes a floater in the lane, and it clangs out. Not even close, really. Mike Conley comes away with the rebound, and the Celtics are forced to foul.
The C's are in bad shape now.
Fourth quarter, 1:29, Grizzlies 86-85: Kevin Garnett comes up with a huge steal, and after a Ray Allen miss, Glen Davis comes up with a huge offensive rebound.
Doc Rivers calls a timeout with only 11 seconds left on the shot clock. He needs to come up with a big play out of the timeout to put the C's back in front. Luckily, that's his specialty.
Fourth quarter, 2:51, Grizzlies 86-85: Tony Allen chucks a 3 on one end — airball. Paul Pierce takes a 3 on the other — swish.
The Celtics have gone on an 8-2 run to put themselves back in this game. Pierce has been huge — he's now got 22 points on only nine shot attempts.
The captain is 8-for-8 from the line tonight. Good teams hit free throws when it matters.
Fourth quarter, 3:54, Grizzlies 84-79: Kevin Garnett just humiliated Mike Conley, standing in his way until he cornered himself and lost the ball out of bounds. That's just absurdly good defense.
If KG and the Celtics can string together a few more stops like that, they'll be back in business.
Fourth quarter, 5:52, Grizzlies 80-77: What a play by Leon Powe, who makes a running floater in the lane as he's being knocked to the floor on his backside by former teammate Glen Davis. Basket and the foul.
Powe has brought his A game against the C's. He's got 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting.
Fourth quarter, 8:30, Celtics 75-74: Now Krstic has his fifth. I'm guessing he's done for a while.
It's time for Kevin Garnett to jump back in there and restore order on both ends of the floor.
Fourth quarter, 9:23, Celtics 75-74: Nenad Krstic picks up his fourth foul, a loose-ball infraction for colliding with Leon Powe. He's clearly not happy about that call.
The Celtics are getting a little bit frustrated out there. Their offense is sputtering, and their D isn't a lot better.
End of third quarter, Celtics 70-67: Despite a scoreless final 2:39 of the third quarter, the Celtics remain out in front. Ever so slightly.
The C's carry a three-point advantage with 12 minutes to play. Paul Pierce leads the way with 16 points; Rajon Rondo adds six, eight assists and eight rebounds.
The Grizzlies have two scorers in double figures, both off the bench — O.J. Mayo has 11 points, and Shane Battier 10.
Third quarter, 2:00, Celtics 70-65: The Celtics are trying hard to keep this lead, but it's not easy when they give the Grizzlies chances at second- and even third-chance points.
Darrell Arthur just put back his own miss for a quick score, on the Grizzlies' second offensive rebound of the possession. Nenad Krstic just short of stands there watching.
The C's are down 32-27 in the rebounding battle. It feels like a lot more than that, truth be told.
Third quarter, 4:25, Celtics 65-60: This Celtics offense can just break your back in a second if you don't pay attention. Again the C's drain back-to-back 3s, getting one from Ray Allen and one from Paul Pierce.
The Celtics are 5-for-7 from long range in this one. They've got a five point lead, equaling their biggest of the night.
Third quarter, 5:35, Celtics 59-58: The lead swings back and forth like a pendulum. Paul Pierce puts the Celtics back in front, getting inside for a layup off a Rondo assist.
Pierce now has 10 points, but Rondo's outdoing him — he's got six points, eight rebounds, seven assists and three steals. There's a slump-busting performance.
Third quarter, 6:28, Grizzlies 58-57: Glen Davis isn't afraid to get down and dirty. Big Baby gets into the paint and draws contact inside from Marc Gasol.
If all the Celtics were playing with as much toughness as Baby, they'd have a 10-point lead right now.
Third quarter, 10:01, Grizzlies 51-49: The Grizzlies have gone on a super-fast 7-0 run to regain control. Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph are beginning to look really scary inside.
The Celtics need to play some tough interior D. This is where they need Kevin Garnett to dial it up.
Halftime, Celtics 45-44: With a late 7-0 run, the Celtics seize control. They've got a one-point lead over the Grizzlies at the break.
Rajon Rondo has been dazzling so far on both ends of the floor. He's got six points, six rebounds, five assists and three steals. There's nothing wrong with his pinkie, his feet or anything else. He's killing it.
Ray Allen leads the Celtics at the break with nine points; Leon Powe leads the Grizzlies with nine.
Second quarter, 2:02, Celtics 41-40: Rajon Rondo just made a fantastic pass to a backdoor-cutting Ray Allen, finding him for a layup. The Celtics have overtaken the Grizzlies for the lead.
Allen now leads the Celtics with nine points. Rondo may well be on his way to a triple-double — he's got six points, five assists and five rebounds.
Second quarter, 4:26, Grizzlies 36-34: The Celtics have risen from the dead, thanks to Ray Allen. The C's shooting guard comes back to the game and immediately knocks down back-to-back 3s.
The Grizzlies' lead is cut from eight down to two in the blink of an eye. The Garden crowd finally breaks its silence.
Lionel Hollins calls a timeout for Memphis. The C's are beginning to take the Grizzlies' momentum away.
Second quarter, 5:21, Grizzlies 36-28: Leon Powe has come out firing for the Grizzlies off the bench. In eight minutes so far, he's got nine points, a game high.
Doc Rivers talked at length pregame about how happy he was for Powe to be in a positive situation with the Grizzlies. He's probably got mixed emotions now. Powe is eating the Celtics for lunch.
Second quarter, 7:39, Grizzlies 31-24: The Celtics' bench may be lacking a little firepower, but there's one exception. Jeff Green is lighting it up.
Green has eight points on 3-of-4 shooting. He's the only Celtic reserve showing any kind of aggression whatsoever. The rest of the bench is a combined 0-for-1 from the field.
What's going on with Glen Davis and Delonte West? Neither one of them has done a thing offensively.
Second quarter, 9:48, Grizzlies 26-19: The Grizzlies' bench is proving to be deep and dangerous. Darrell Arthur, O.J. Mayo, Leon Powe and Greivis Vasquez have already combined for 12 points, shooting 6-of-8.
Doc Rivers likes to tighten his bench rotation as the playoffs draw closer. Apparently Lionel Hollins enjoys the opposite approach.
End of first quarter, Grizzlies 20-15: It was already a pretty weak first quarter for the Celtics, but O.J. Mayo has to add insult to injury by draining a buzzer-beater to close the quarter. It's 20-15 at the break.
The C's are shooting just 5-of-15 so far. They're settling for a lot of jump shots, and it's not working for them.
One bright spot is Rajon Rondo, who has three points, three rebounds and an assist in his first nine minutes.
Six players are tied for the game high with four points. One is named Allen. Hint: Not Ray Allen.
First quarter, 2:35, Grizzlies 14-13: Glen Davis and Jeff Green continues to look really, really good together. Big Baby gets a decent look in the paint, but he passes up the shot and finds a cutting Green for a dunk. That's an even better look.
We can all stop waiting to see Green gel with his new teammates. It's already happening, and it's pretty cool to witness.
First quarter, 4:57, Grizzlies 12-9: The Grizzlies are on a 5-0 run. The Celtics are scoreless in their last 2:06.
This is starting to look like a defensive struggle of a ballgame. Both teams are shooting under 40 percent — the Celtics are 4-for-11, and the Grizzlies are 5-for-13.
Glen Davis is the first man off the bench for Doc Rivers, replacing Nenad Krstic.
First quarter, 6:48, Celtics 9-8: Nenad Krstic gets into the paint and sets his feet to take a charge from Marc Gasol, but he can't get the call. Gasol gets two shots and hits one of two.
Krstic isn't really flexing his muscle defensively. Zach Randolph is taking advantage — he's already got four points on 2-of-3 shooting.
First quarter, 8:24, Celtics 6-5: Tony Allen has more points than Ray Allen and Paul Pierce combined! That's scary.
T.A. gets inside and scores on a 4-foot floater in the lane. The Celtics cling to a 6-5 lead early.
The C's could still use a little extra toughness inside. The Grizzlies love to attack the rim, and Boston's bigs have to be ready.
First quarter, 11:21, Celtics 2-1: The C's score on their first possession, as Rajon Rondo works the ball inside to Nenad Krstic for a bucket.
Rondo looks poised and confident early on. He's still trying to prove his slump is over, so the pressure is on.
6:45 p.m.: No big surprise here. Doc Rivers says that Shaq isn't playing.
The coach did respond with a confident "yes" when asked if both O'Neals, Shaq and Jermaine, would be back before the end of the regular season. But he had no specifics and no timetables, so don't expect either one soon.
This is a tough matchup to be without strength down low. Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol aren't easy to stop.
5:45 p.m.: The big question on everyone's minds heading into C's-Grizzlies — will Shaquille O'Neal play?
It's looking unlikely, since the Diesel missed shootaround Wednesday morning. But he did travel with the team all last week, and he's been shooting a bit lately, which indicates he's near a return.
We'll get official word from Doc Rivers within the hour.
8 a.m.: The Celtics are still striving to get healthy, and they're still striving to integrate all their new players defensively. But in the interim, they're still treading water.
The C's improved to 5-4 in March with a pair of huge comeback victories on their latest road trip, beating the Hornets 89-85 on Saturday night and the Knicks 96-86 on Monday, both games they once trailed by 15 points. The C's are still right in the thick of the race for No. 1 in the East, trailing the Bulls by just half a game.
They return home to play a pair of contests this week at the TD Garden, starting with the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday night. After that, it's back on the road for four games next week.
The C's are already 1-0 this season against the Grizzlies. They earned a hard-fought overtime victory in Memphis on Nov. 13, winning 116-110 behind 28 points from Paul Pierce, 17 assists from Rajon Rondo and nine rebounds from Kevin Garnett. They'll go for the season sweep on Wednesday.
On the injury front, the Grizzlies will be without Rudy Gay, who has a dislocated left shoulder and will require season-ending surgery. They'll also be missing Xavier Henry, who's out with a sprained right knee.
There's a slight possibility that the Celtics will get back Shaquille O'Neal, who's been out for nearly two months with an inflamed Achilles. If not, they can fall back on a healthy big man corps of Kevin Garnett, Nenad Krstic, Glen Davis and Troy Murphy.
