In a bit of role reversal, it was the starters who came out hot and the bench that stunk in the first quarter. The Celtics stormed out to an 8-2 lead and both offenses were clicking through the first seven minutes of the game. But the Celtics offense stalled at the 5:21 mark… with the Celtics not hitting another field goal there were 30 seconds left. Luckily they were only down 4 at this point.
It got much worst when the Rockets stormed out to a 14-3 run to start the second quarter. The Celtics looked as bad as they have all season during this stretch, with some horrible turnovers and lazy defense. A few substitutions later to get Isaiah Thomas and Marcus Smart back into the game and the 15 point lead was cut to 6. Houston bumped it back up to 13 before the Celtics turned the defense up behind four steals in two minutes. Toss in some hot shooting and the Celtics took a brief lead before giving up a circus shot that left the teams tied at halftime.
The third quarter belonged to Boston. The Celtics wore Houston down with defense, and they turned that into points on the other end. They stole the ball 5 times in the quarter, but I’d swear it was 15. When they didn’t make steals, they had hands in passing lanes and generally caused chaos. Houston, meanwhile, embarrassed by losing every battle for every loose ball. Their lazy defense gave Boston great looks which they converted (13-24 for the quarter), leading to a 32-13 quarter for Boston and a 19 point lead going into the 4th.
The Celtics pushed their lead to 29 before extended garbage time and a Marcus Thornton-fueled run made this a LOT closer than the 111-95 final score. If Bill Belichick was in charge, this could have been a 40 point win.
The Green
Once the Celtics decided to play legit defense, they were suffocating. Houston was a willing participant in this, I must say, by playing with no passion or interest in properly playing the game of basketball.
Marcus Smart – I was going to break this up and put “Marcus Smart’s Shooting” in the gross but he doesn’t even deserve that after shooting 1-11 tonight. Smart dominated on the defensive end and finished the game with 5 steals, 6 assists, 9 rebounds, while chalking up a +/- of +30.
Isaiah Thomas was HOT tonight. HOT. 9-12 from the floor (4-7 fg) for 23 points and 6 assists. He met virtually no resistance tonight.
Avery Bradley off the bench was spectacular. 21 points in less than 21 minutes, including a couple of daggers at the end of the third that really made this feel like a foregone conclusion.
The Rockets once led this game by 15 points. The Celtics outscored Houston 84-53 after that.
The Gross
I really could do without any more David Lee. Just give Jerebko his minutes and be done with it.
Let’s talk about Houston here, because they were an embarrassment tonight. They barely got back on D, and they allowed 58 points in the paint. They played like they were looking for an excuse to quit, and they did exactly that in the 3rd quarter. There was a play where Isaiah Thomas set a screen on Howard, and Dwight Howard SWITCHED. He didn’t fight through it, past it, over it… nothing. He gave up on a screen by the smallest player in the league. AND THEN to make it worse (well, better for us) he stayed planted in the lane while Thomas went to the top of the key and calmly drained a very uncontested 3. That was bad… and yet still not the worst defensive play of the night. The Rockets should be an NBA Finals contender in the west… and they just quit and got blown out by the Celtics on the back-end of a back-to-back. That is gross.
But hey, thanks Houston. I’ll send you an edible arrangement or something.
The Greenlights
Bradley ripping the Beard for one of Boston million steals on the night
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.jsSully point guarding and finding Amir https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
Bradley nice look to find Crowder
The Grid
- Field goals: Boston: 44-93 (47.3%) Houston: 36-85 (42.4%)
- James Harden: 16 points (4-10 fg, 4-4 ft) 3 assists, 4 turnovers, -16
- Dwight Howard: 5 points (2-4 fg), 12 rebounds, 1 block
- Celtics average 11 steals per game (3rd best in the NBA). They had 16 tonight.
Let’s get a quick review of the preview points.
1: Let them shoot (mostly Harden, and limit his free throws):
The Rockets were 11-32 from 3, but they did most of their damage when the Celtics were playing their worst to start the game. They were 5-15 (33%) in the second half. Harden was 4-7 from 3… not great… but his 4 free throws is amazing. That’s such a huge part of his game, and the Celtics took it away.
2: Keep Howard in the game
He played the 2nd most minutes, stalled the offense on a few occasions, and we saw a few of those passes behind Howard for backdoor cutters. I would have liked to have seen more, but I’ll say this went well.
3: Exploit Harden
Crowder’s signature play (the reverse lay up and one) was a backdoor cut on Harden. The Celtics also mustered 16 offensive rebounds and a 16-11 second chance point advantage. I think Harden’s disinterest on this side was pretty evident throughout the night.
4: Use the depth
Every Celtic played, and most played meaningful minutes before the garbage time mess. Only Smart logged more than 30 minutes, and that’s because the Celtics needed him to stem the tide at the end of the game when Houston’s scrubs were making a big run… otherwise everyone would have been under 30 minutes. Huge plus here.
Another big win for Boston. It’s only November, but they’ve put the NBA on notice. This is a good team.
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