For a half, it looked like the dreaded “first game back off a long road trip” would bite the Celtics in the ass. They were letting Don.. Donta Monte… a big Lithuanian guy have his way with them. And even though James Harden was decidedly not Harden-esque, the Rockets were clearly dominating and running away with the game.
Then in the second half, the Rockets fell apart. Josh Smith, who’d spent a half surprisingly in control of his offensive game, reverted to his old ways. Donatas Motiejunas became anonymous again, and Marcus Smart built a nice home for himself inside Harden’s beard to make his night pretty miserable. But the Celtics just couldn’t overcome what was once a 19 point deficit, and fall to the Rockets, 93-87.
The Celtics withstood an early 9 point onslaught by Donatas Motiejunas by spreading the offense around and getting all 5 starters into the books by the first TV time out. Brandon Bass, though, would ultimately match Motiejunas’ 9 points, while adding 4 rebounds, by aggressively attacking the rim. Harden was mostly quiet, until a 4 point play (on a questionable call, at best) that was part of a 9-2 run to push the lead as high as 11. A Thornton 3-point play cut it to 8, which is how the 1st quarter ended.
Motiejunas picked up where he left off in the 1st by hitting a couple of layups, a 3, and taking a charge on Sullinger all in the first 4 minutes of the 2nd to push Houston’s lead to 14 (he had 16 in the half) It was part of an 11-3 run pushed the lead to 17. Josh Smith, amazingly, played not-crazy basketball, was selective with his shots, and he killed the Celtics off the bench. He had 9 in the quarter to help the Rockets outscore the Celtics by 10 and go into the half up 18. Mind you, this was a half in which James Harden had 11 points, but on 3-13 shooting.
The 3rd wasn’t pretty, but it was effective for the Celtics as they slowly chipped away at the Rockets lead thanks to a 14-5 run that spanned the first 7:30 of the quarter. In fact, the blase’ Rockets only scored 9 points in the 3rd, while allowing the Celtics to score 22. The Celtics scored nearly half those points (10) off 8 Rockets turnovers. The Rockets shot 4-20 in the 3rd (Motiejunas had none), Josh Smith went back to his sloppy self (1-5, 0-2 3pt), and the game was only 5 after 3.
Then the Rockets woke up a bit in the 4th, opening on an 11-6 run to get the lead back up to double digits. But the Celtics came roaring back to cut the lead down to 3. Much like a tennis match where the underdog has Roger Federer at set point over, and over, and over again only to watch him stave it off and somehow survive, the Celtics could never capitalize.
The Green:
Marcus Smart’s going to put this game on his cover letter for some All-Defense team recognition. He spent much of the second half on Harden, and held him to 1-8 fg and 3 points in the 2nd. This stat line alone was responsible for the Celtics having a chance.
Marcus Thornton’s 17 was tied with Bass for the team-high. 8 of those came in the 4th quarter, 11 in the second half.
Brandon Bass had a pretty nice night overall. He was aggressive early, he picked up Harden on a switch once and blocked his shot, he rebounded well… just the type of night he needs to keep having for GM’s to finally say “fine, Danny, I’ll give you a protected first rounder for him.
The 9 Houston points in the 3rd was their lowest point total in any quarter this year.
The Gross:
Jared Sullinger did NOT have a good night. 4-14 fg for 8 points is not good… 1-6, including 0-3 from 3 in the 4th (and they really weren’t close from deep) when the Celtics were knocking on the miracle comeback door is terrible.
Avery Bradley is either shooting lights out, or he’s pulling a 3-12 night like tonight. I think he can be a good scoring option on a team with better scoring options (I hope that makes sense), but he’s not a top 1 or 2 option and it’s killing me to have to watch him try to be.
Marcus Smart did this thing he does sometimes when trying way too hard to draw fouls and it just pisses me off. On an attempted 3 late in the game, he kicked his leg way out to the right to try to draw a foul on his defender. To me, that shows the focus isn’t on making the shot (which he did, by the way). Stop worrying about flopping all the damn time and just play the game. There are plenty of opportunities to flop when you actually get touched on plays.
The Greenlights
Bass goes baseline for the dunk
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psXZ_oHppTw]Bass gets the offensive rebound, finishes strong
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Crc58gOyVLQ]The Grid
- Points in the paint: 46-32 Houston
- Turnovers: Boston 12 (16 Houston points) – Houston 17 (18 Boston points)
- Prince: 13 points (6-10 fg, 1-1 3pt)
Look at those turnover numbers. That’s the difference between live-ball turnovers the Celtics are frequently committing, which lead to opposition fast breaks, and the pass-the-ball-out-of-bounds turnovers, which I’d say accounted for about half of Houston’s turnovers. Yes, the Celtics forced Houston to cough it up a lot, and 12 turnovers is pretty good at first blush… but to be almost even in the “points off turnovers” category tells you not all turnovers are created equal.
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