LAS VEGAS – Jabari Bird gave the Celtics hope Saturday night, but he couldn’t give them a win all by himself.
Boston fell 82-69 to Denver despite Bird’s stellar offensive night that featured a game-high 24 points. Bird shot 9-for-17 from the field, good for 52.9 percent, but the rest of the team converted on only 37.0 percent of its shots.
“The harder playing team usually wins,” said Boston’s head coach, Jay Larranaga. “They played harder than us.”
The Nuggets pulled away over the final 14 minutes of the game after the two teams went back and forth throughout the first three-plus quarters.