POST GAME HOUSTON - AWAY

Rapid Reaction: Rockets 109, Celtics 85

By Brian Robb | ESPNBoston.com

Rapid reaction after the Houston Rockets defeated the Boston Celtics 109-85 on Tuesday night at the Toyota Center in Houston:

THE NITTY GRITTY
Houston’s explosive offense was too hot to handle for the overmatched Celtics. Terrence Jones led a balanced attack (six players in double figures) for the hosts with a career-high 24 points on 10-of-12 shooting. James Harden chipped in with 15 points and Patrick Beverley added 16 points as the Rockets shot a scorching 56.9 percent from the field, including 72.2 percent in the first half. For Boston, Jared Sullinger bounced back from a subpar outing in Minnesota to post 10 points and nine rebounds. Courtney Lee also was one of the few bright spots for Boston. After sitting out Saturday’s game with a sore right wrist, Lee scored a team-high 17 points off the bench.

TURNING POINT
Unfortunately for the Celtics, this one was over shortly after the opening tip. Houston stormed out to an 18-1 run out of the gate, as Boston missed its first 10 shots from the field in the game’s first five minutes. The Rockets used their speed and athleticism to punish the Celtics with easy transition buckets, posting 15 fast-break points in the first quarter alone. Boston showed a little fight early by cutting the lead to 10, but the Rockets put the game officially out of reach by closing out the first quarter with a 10-0 run. The Celtics got no closer than 18 the rest of the way.

MIA: JEFF GREEN
Coming off a two-point performance against Minnesota on Saturday night, Jeff Green again showed little aggression on the offensive end and finished with a mere four points. Boston’s leading scorer has hit just two of his past 13 shots.

LOOSE BALLS
The Celtics shot a season-low 32.3 percent. ... With virtually the entire second half consisting of garbage time, all 13 members of the active roster saw action, including Keith Bogans, who played a season-high 12 minutes. ... Houston made use of its size advantage in the interior to post 10 blocked shots. ... The Rockets led by as many as 35 points. ... Avery Bradley had a miserable shooting night, going 5-of-22 from the field. ... The Celtics outrebounded Houston on the offensive glass 18-5.


WHAT IT MEANS
The Celtics (4- have dropped four straight games, giving them their second four-game losing streak of the season. The road gets no easier for Brad Stevens and company, as Boston is about to face one of the toughest stretches of its season. They are back in action against San Antonio Wednesday night, before coming home to face the Pacers on Friday. With little time to regroup, putting an end to this losing streak will be a tall order against the NBA’s elite.
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CELTICS BLOWN OUT BY ROCKETS EN ROUTE TO FOURTH STRAIGHT LOSS

By WEEI  
 
The Celtics have been slapped with a big ol’ dose of NBA reality.

Brad Stevens’ team was blown out for a second straight road game, this time dropping a 109-85 decision to the Rockets in Houston. It was the Celtics’ fourth straight loss after having won four in a row.

The C’s continued to struggle offensively, having now scored under 90 points in six of their eight losses. This time the Celts’ woes came against a Houston team that came into the game having allowed the second-most points per game of any NBA team.

Not helping matters was the Celtics’ porous defense, with the Rockets shooting 57 percent. Houston managed the rout despite Dwight Howard totaling just 10 points. The hosts’ primary weapon was Terrence Jones, who scored a career-high 24 points on 10-of-12 shooting from the field in just 27 minutes.

The game was never close, with the Rockets holding a 40-18 lead after the first quarter (going 16-of-20 from the field), and 68-44 advantage at halftime.

Courtney Lee led all Celtics scorers with 17 points, while Avery Bradley chipped in with 11 (although he only made five of his 22 shots from the floor). The C’s shot just 32 percent from the field.

112288

OUCH!

I feel like Kevin Bacon in Animal House at the end of the picture where he is standing in his Army ROTC uniform ........everyone is going crazy.......and he is yelling.........  ALL IS WELL.................ALL IS WELL.........................

Well I am going to tell everyone here...........ALL IS WELL!

Expect this and sometimes often this year......we are not as bad as we looked....but neither are we as good either. But this is the rebuilding process....so grin and bear it..............this too shall pass!

Now until February trade deadline.......this is the EVAL PERIOD...where Danny evaluates and see's who is valuable to the Celtics to keep, who fits their style of basketball, and who is not.

Players will be weeded out at that time in Feb. or at the end of the year with expiring contracts.

It should be fun to watch the Celtics after the trade deadline if we get some young talent in trades a la...Humphries, Wallace, Brooks, Lee.

Just some quick observations of some players......

Vitor.....hit the weight room and get some upper body strength.........and start building your legs up so you can improve your leaping....and oh Kelly same thing!  These guys at this point have no NBA body...where are the trainers!

Kelly...........you got to be more aggressive and play with attitude or you are going to be a soft player!     Please watch some films of Larry Bird as a rookie!

QUESTION WOULD YOU TRADE KELLY FOR OMER ASIK NOW?

112288

112288,
I'm on the fence with Kelly v. Omer, and agree on all points. This is going to be a long, ultimately entertaining season if we look at the team as DA must, trying to decide who to keep and who to unload. It's like an 82-game audition and I hope our star doesn't join the cast a day sooner than his optimal return from injury because this play is not ready for Broadway.
My thanks to Sam, KJ and Rosalie for the game on thread, as I had to miss the game with work, but caught every groan you posted, but smiling with empathy! Ouch! Hawk

Good one Hawk...keep smiling....or is it gas pains I detect!

112288

helpless babes in the woods...we have no inside defensive presence, none.

Seems like someone put diesel fuel in the gas engine........what a terrible start.

Think I saw Jeff Greens photo on the side of a milk carton this morning, yikes.

Well games like this on the road against good teams is expected but dang 18-1 out of the starting gate sort of take the wind right out of the sails.

Well at least no one got hurt and no one logged big minutes so it goes.

I did see Sully take it to Howard inside and actually get his shot off and make it a couple times, so if he can have success against him inside should be able to have some against anyone. He is the only guy with enough beef to hold his own inside to any degree.

beat

beat

Final score was 109-85.

Houston was 57% from the field, vs 32.3% for Boston. Somehow, Boston managed 99 shots.

In the 1st qtr, Boston gave up 40 points. It's impossible to win this way.

Their defense was porous the entire night. And their offensive woes continued. The "motion" offense has zero motion to it. Too many guys were standing around, thus a lion's share of the shots were contested.

Lee was their best offensive player with 12 points, 7-16 FG. Bradley was 5-22, he took a lot of shots, many of which were open, but they weren't falling. And I think the shot distribution needs to be fixed.

Boston's deficiencies at the PG and C spot were on full display. Vitor, Olynyk, and Sully played most of the post minutes, but they weren't enough to match Houston.

Pressey and Crawford's PG play wasn't anything special. They barely broke down the defense.

Boston's not playing together as they were before. They are playing with energy in short spurts but a great deal of it is wasted. Bradley and Sully seemed like the only ones that were hustling out there.

Stevens really needs to reel his guys in and get them refocused. But to be fair, he doesn't have the pieces necessary at C and PG.

KJ

Last night, the Boston Celtics shot only 32%, compared with 57% for the Rockets. But rotten shooting alone doesn't necessarily guarantee a loss. The Celts have won games in which they shot that poorly (or worse). Moreover, the Celtics took a whopping 99 shots, compared with only 72 for Houston. The Celts outrebounded the Rockets on the offensive glass, 18-6. The Rockets had far more turnovers (19) than the Celtics (12). So what's the problem?

Guess which one of the stats I have posted pretty much answers that question. Why that would be the offensive rebounds. The reasons why the Celtics got so many offensive rebounds were (1) the incredible 67 missed field goal attempts they registered and (2) the several times they had multiple offensive rebounds in the same possession without being able to score. I couldn't see the game (I had to follow it on Yahoo game-tracker or whatever it's called). But a regular scenario tapdanced on my unseeing head early and often. One Celtic would miss a jumper; another Celtic would play personal ping pong on the offensive boards—fattening the offensive rebound stats without being able to put the ball in the hole; Houston would eventually grab the defensive board; and the Rockets would score within 10 seconds. Houston wound up with 23 fast break points to the Celtics' 7. Houston also registered 60 points in the paint to 30 for the Celtics, despite the fact that neither Howard nor Asik was really much of a factor in the game. A porous defense would have been a significant upgrade for the Celtics.

The offensively minded quartet of Bradley, Green, Crawford and Olynyk managed to capitalize on their 48 FGA by hitting a collective 12 shots (25%).

So, my personal key to the game was that THE OFFENSE SUCKED. My other personal key to the game was that THE DEFENSE SUCKED. OFFENSE SUCKED MORE. NO, DEFENSE SUCKED MORE. NO, OFFENSE SUCKED MORE. NO, DEFENSE SUCKED MORE. IS TOO. IS NOT. SO'S YOUR OLD LADY!

Rosalie and KJ definitely win the Martyrs of the Month Award for not only sticking around for the entirety of recent Game-on Threads but actually posting often and never giving up on the Green. You guys really deserved much better.

Sam

Sam,

I had a preconceived notion that last night's affair would be gruesome, so in that twisted regard I wasn't disappointed.

As for the trend I'm seeing, Boston has gotten away from what made them successful. They need more points in transition and on offense you can't have four guys standing still while the other tries to go one-v-one. That's a recipe for losing almost every night.

The defense needs to improve as well. I've never seen so many open shots in a long time.



KJ

KJ,

Although I couldn't witness it visually, I figured as much in terms of open shots for the Rockets.

It's hard to believe the four-game winning streak was an aberration. Some good things were happening. Were they just facing crummy teams during that streak? Could all those good things disappear simultaneously? Have other teams suddenly discovered vulnerabilities that hadn't been so apparent before? Is something awful going on in the locker room? Is the enthusiasm originally engendered by Brad gone south? One frustrating thing about being on vacation is not being able to see the games. Of course, one of the frustrating things about being home right now would be being able to see the games.

Sam

KI,

I did the merge you requested (see above).

Sam

Damn. When I am feeling really bad about things in life (this happens on occasion), my ladder out of despair is to start counting my blessings and to thank God for them.

So what do we have to be thankful for?
1. This is not the last season the Celtics will ever play.
2. We have draft picks out the wazoo and big salary cap relief coming.
3. Sully is healthy and playing reasonably well.
4. Rondo is recovering and NOT playing now.
5. Brad Stevens is getting his feet wet and lots of NBA experience when few expect him to win.
6. Avery is healthy, playing good D, and sometimes good O.
7. The Lakers won't be winning #17 this season.

Anything else to be thankful for?

8. Oh yes, we beat the Heat in Miami!

Rondo, reacting to a stat sheet that was handed to him during the Houston game:





bob


.

You can sense how bad he wants to play.


KJ