Comments From The Other Side - Rockets, Away

http://celticsgreen.blogspot.com/2015/11/comments-from-other-side-rockets-111615.html



Interesting fact so far, All the west teams that faced GSW last year in the playoffs have been playing like garbage this season, NOP, MEM, HOU Coincidence?

They steal the souls of the innocent

We have to play defense first Swarming, angry defense. Knock down that micro guard Thomas if he penetrates.

Mchale needs to sit Harden in the first half if Harden comes out uninspired!

The Celtics bigs are very bad defensively so Dwight and Jones should score a lot.  (MY NOTE:  Defense is a team thing)

Celtics are playing well, they are much than the team the Mavericks put on the floor Saturday. Rockets lose another one, 94-109  (MY NOTE:  Actually, quite close to nailing it)

The Celts rolled over OKC and people are starting to say they are for real. This is going to be a tough game.

On the other hand, we're still ranked ahead of the Lakers, so we got that going for us . . . Which is nice.

We win. Ain't worried bout no Celtics.

They're a very unusual team in that they have no stars and no duds. They go 14 deep with legitimate NBA players, but none (probably) will play in this year's all star game.

I am cautiously pessimistic on this one.

Time to tank the season and get a top 3 draft pick.

Eff the rockets, they have no hearts.

I like this young Celtics team. And I think they're up and coming in the east. (but what do I know. I expected ad's new Orleans team to make a splash this yr., but so far they've been miserable.)

Celtics #4 defense in league ???

Celts play the team defense strategy similar to spurs and gsw. Apparently Marcus smart is leading the way

Defense, rebounding, & depth. Their strengths that happen to be the rockets weaknesses right now.

I hope we lose, so we can lose Mchale

I don't hope we lose. But maybe mchale can get 2 techs and an ejection early, and then we win

The only exciting is making annoying overhyping Celtics fans shut up once in a while when their dreams are burned to ashes. (the most annoying fans are lakers fans, bulls fans and Celtics fans. They are a pest).

Another crappy team at home....we should win right?

You don't keep up with the NBA very much do you?

They have players with heart, they have Amir "Does it all" Johnson, something that we lack when Dwight sits and DMo doesn't play. They have amazing coach. They have a legit system on both ends.

Celtics play hard, Rockets hardly play. Hopefully that changes, but given the last 3 games it's hard to be optimistic.

I'm struggling to think of situations where we'll score efficiently on Boston...

Boston are a good well balanced team that is well coached and we can't take them lightly

Smarts going to shut down Harden

McHale looks horrible. Hasn't shaved or slept.

Lets go Celtics! McHale needs to be fired.

Marcus Smart going to have a field day against Harden.

Always amazed when I see standard NBA numbers like 4 and 7 on a Celtics jersey. Just figured they'd be taken already.

Crowder ALWAYS takes charges. They should know it by now.

Brewer has the BB IQ of a freaking DODO Bird...

David Lee is someone I would look at near the deadline. He was a good rebounder, pretty good shot, would bring championship experience and would be a good back up.  (MY NOTE:  Who would you be willing to give up for him?)

Still can't get over the fact that Brad Stevens is allowed to stay up this late. And on a school night?!

Does Brewer not realize that a fastbreak is a team thing?

Boston is playing well this year

Don't give a damn about those uncontested olynyk threes. Hes not that good shooter and we rebound and score in transition.

Rockets saved by the fact that Boston is a horrible 3pt shooting team

Time to blow them out. Overhyped Celtics.

Isaiah Thomas >>>>; Lawson

Give Harden the night off.

Damn Thomas is fast

The Celtics are pretty feisty and well coached

Harden comes in. We start losing. Harden needs to get his D together.

Harden in and we suck again. What's his vertical? 10 inch?

Our defense was bad. They have tons of open looks we were just lucky.

The Celtics are a bricking team. Its not so luck if only IT can shoot well in the first place. ( and rj hunter).

Harden has no heart.

Best thing could happen for Houston is a 2 weeks Harden injury.

Harden annoys me greatly right now

McHale a lot quicker with the TOs tonight Where has this coaching been all year?

It is required to have At least one total BS call on Howard every game. It is in the NBA referee handbook.

Thank god the Celtics have awful bigs.

Harden walking on offense, walking on defense. Hard to run when you're fat and lazy.

I've been watching Harden the entire 2nd quarter and gotta ask: How is this guy in NBA?

Lol we can never put teams away Even these scrub teams

Scrub teams on a back to back playing an away game, lol.

2 takeaways from the first half...
1.NBA officials are an embarrassment
2. So is this team

Please get rid of McHale

yeah, McHale is making his players give the ball to the other team  (MY NOTE:  players ball.  Blaming McHale because the players don't give a shit isn't fair)

Maybe McHale’s trying to get fired because he wants to go back to Minnesota and the Wolves…… I know I am reaching.

Why grab a board? So James can launch another brick? Why play hard d? James' man gets an open shot... Becoming cancerous...

For a guy that only plays one side of the ball, Harden isn't even doing a very good job on offense either, this guy gives the ball away like it's a clearance sale smh...

Idk whats good with beard man I really think its the kardashian chick

Harden looks like a freaking dumpster fire. I want to say McHale should give him a few games off to gather himself and see if he comes back with the eye of the tiger, but I'm afraid he'll go into a strip club and we'll never hear from him again.

80 million well spent, lol

He was ROBBED of mvp and he has not gotten over it

Adam silver and the media felt Stephen curry and his golden skin would be more marketable for the league, harden incredible performances were almost ignored everynight.. When he outdueled westbrook and lebron on ABC Sunday showcase... Dude was robbed, and came into this season not caring

Harden would have won the MVP if David stern was still commishner

No one on the Celtics is bigger than 6'9" yet they are getting offensive rebounds.

All the celitics are floppers.

The Celtics ball movement is impressive

What was amir Johnson doing? I cant understand because the Celtics commentators make Boston always look like innocent saints and rockets the criminals.

He was sitting on the ball by accident, but then he got pissed at Terrence trying to get it and acted like a baby about it.

Least tj fought the urge to kick him...

This team is way too stupid for the fans to show any emotion, which is why the Toyota center is a ghost town.

If James gets a second tech... We got a shot!

Anyone know if league pass gives refunds?

This team just sucks And Mchale is a high school level coach

Man what a bunch of overpaid, underachieving, entitled,lazy, stupid asshats.

Let's go Celtics. Smh. This team is so lost.

Lets hope harden fouls out. Mchale doesn't have the balls to bench him.

Man, their ball movement puts ours to shame.

One team has energy The other team is Houston.

Harden playing with 4 fouls Please get a fifth.

Can we have Brad Stevens?

Nobody on this team likes each other. That much is very clear

I have never seen a bigger collaboration of retards come together to try and play a simple game. Wow this is just beyond infuriating

Boy the Celtics hustle hard

Chrowder has created at least 15 points from his hustle alone.

Lol these scrubs up by 11

Brad Stevens toying with the Rox...

We're getting outcoached so badly.

We getting blown out by team on a back 2 back

This is all effort. You can see the Celtics just out-working them.

Boston hitting every shot but they are mighty impressive

Brad Stevens >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Mchale

McHale is a really nice guy who needs to get far the f**k away from all things basketball.

Brad Stevens is a great coach. Boston has talent.

Boston Actually looks like a good team

Did our starting PG get ripped BY A POWER FORWARD?

Boston could launch them from the other side of the court and they would go in

This is Great! Amir Johnson is even talking ****. Having the celtics make fun of you is like Charlie Sheen shaking his head at you.

Celtics defense is excellent

If I were a superstar in this league, I would definitely play for Stevens.

Rockets could tackle a Celtic and refs wouldn't call a foul on them right now.

Boston is the better coach team. It`s a shame since they are the less talented team.

Are biggest lead was somewhere around 15 points and the Celtics biggest lead was somewhere around 29 points which is a 44 point turn around. This tells me not to get comfortable with being up by 44 points. By the looks of this game when ever we go 2 minute scoreless that's an automatic loss whether we are up by 10 or 40.

Marcus Smart is 1-11 but you would have never noticed.

Cuz he does everything else well...lol

Celtics are legit

Any team is legit against us

Beat ATL, OKC, HOU by double digits. Legit.



bob



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The Rockets are a dumpster fire. There is some serious dysfunction going on there. Letting McHale go may be a mercy firing.

It amazes me how quickly Rockets fans have turned on James Harden. I've appreciated his talent, but certain aspects of his game annoy me no end, those negative aspects have become the dominant features of his play this year, and he is sucking the life out of his team.

So is Ty Lawson. What a horrible acquisition. I have no idea what they were thinking, since there's only one ball and both Harden and Lawson want the ball in their hands all the time. They are the ultimate no-D backcourt, and both of them are doing poorly on O, so... yeah.

One thing the Celtics have been acquiring during their recent stretch of games is appreciation from other teams' fans. There's the usual complaining about the refs and overly physical play, but there's ultimately respect in the end.

Outside wrote:The Rockets are a dumpster fire. There is some serious dysfunction going on there. Letting McHale go may be a mercy firing.

It amazes me how quickly Rockets fans have turned on James Harden. I've appreciated his talent, but certain aspects of his game annoy me no end, those negative aspects have become the dominant features of his play this year, and he is sucking the life out of his team.

So is Ty Lawson. What a horrible acquisition. I have no idea what they were thinking, since there's only one ball and both Harden and Lawson want the ball in their hands all the time. They are the ultimate no-D backcourt, and both of them are doing poorly on O, so... yeah.

One thing the Celtics have been acquiring during their recent stretch of games is appreciation from other teams' fans. There's the usual complaining about the refs and overly physical play, but there's ultimately respect in the end.

outside,

The same could be said for Evan Turner and Isaiah Turner, there's only one ball and they both want it in their hands, and yet they are figuring it out. It requires them to buy in, and clearly the players are not buying into McHale. Mercy firing, indeed.


bob


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Best comment in the whole list...

"Still can't get over the fact that Brad Stevens is allowed to stay up this late. And on a school night?!"

Followed closely by...

"This is all effort. You can see the Celtics just out-working them."

That second one is the key to what we've been seeing on defense, and on the floor overall so far this season.

Watched this game with the local Houston crew announcing (including Clyde Drexler, Matt Bullard, and I forget the name of the professional broadcaster). It was interesting because they seemed to think the Rockets simply beat themselves. In other words, there is no way Boston has enough talent to compete with the Rockets if the Rockets are really trying. The posts above from their fans are kind of similar, in that no one ever credits the Celtics with being a good team; its always their own team is not trying or their own team was outcoached. When are people going to realize that just maybe, being a good player means understanding how to operate in the larger context of a team...

And I agree with Outside - amazing how quickly Houston has turned on Harden. Seems to be a disconnect between the league/rest of fans who still see Harden as a premier talent and the Houston fans who seem to want to get rid of him. All I can say is that Dwight Howard should be thankful Harden is there to take the heat, because otherwise he would be getting it, and we all know is not built to handle people disliking him.

I thought Harden was very good but overhyped last season. He's such a ball-dominating, me-baller, as bad or even worse than Kobe could be, and similar to what LeBron has become in Cleveland. Harden was supposedly improved on defense last season (meaning he actually tried), but when I watch him, he's horrific. He'll actually back away from what should be his help defense assignment, I don't see him bend his knees and get into a defensive stance, and he seems allergic to hustling on D.

Part of my disdain for Harden is philosophical. I abhor isolation basketball and the cheap drawing of fouls, and I love the beauty of selfless team offense like the Spurs, Warriors, Hawks, and emerging Celtics can play.

I wouldn't want Harden on my team. He wouldn't be willing to play team offense, and there should be some outer circle of Hell for players who give such a pathetic effort on defense.

Other than that, he's great.

Outside,

So we won't expect to hear you've joined Harden's fan club?

Regards

NYCelt,

That would be a no.

I learned to love the game watching team ball played by the Russell-era Celtics and UCLA teams, and another favorite team of mine was the Walton gang in Portland. The cohesiveness on defense, selflessness on offense, and willingness to play up-tempo all came together into my perfect vision of what basketball should be.

As the NBA devolved into star-based individual play, I'd given in to the notion that hero ball was how the game had to be played. It sort of crushed my basketball soul, but I felt I had to accept the reality of what I was seeing. Of course it wasn't all isolation basketball, and teams had to play good defense to win a title, but it just wasn't the same.

But the Spurs demolition of the Heat in 2014 playing that beautiful game has re-awoken my love for true team play and the belief that that style of play can win championships. The Warriors winning the title after a 40-year drought was great, but the fact that they did it playing so selflessly was gratifying beyond measure. As I said at some point after the finals, it was more than just a series; it was almost a battle between good and evil, to prove what I'd always believed was true about the game -- that individual basketball, no matter how great the individual, is no match for well-executed, selfless team basketball.

Now that I've seen that approach validated with the last two NBA championships, I have lost my tolerance for me-ballers. The times I've watched Cleveland this season, they are all too willing to give LeBron the ball and clear out so he can hero-ball, just like he did in the finals. Harden does the same thing, just from the top of the key instead of the left side of the court like LeBron does.

Both LeBron and Harden truly believe the path to ultimate achievement is through their individual play. I believe otherwise.

Outside wrote:NYCelt,

That would be a no.

I learned to love the game watching team ball played by the Russell-era Celtics and UCLA teams, and another favorite team of mine was the Walton gang in Portland. The cohesiveness on defense, selflessness on offense, and willingness to play up-tempo all came together into my perfect vision of what basketball should be.

As the NBA devolved into star-based individual play, I'd given in to the notion that hero ball was how the game had to be played. It sort of crushed my basketball soul, but I felt I had to accept the reality of what I was seeing. Of course it wasn't all isolation basketball, and teams had to play good defense to win a title, but it just wasn't the same.

But the Spurs demolition of the Heat in 2014 playing that beautiful game has re-awoken my love for true team play and the belief that that style of play can win championships. The Warriors winning the title after a 40-year drought was great, but the fact that they did it playing so selflessly was gratifying beyond measure. As I said at some point after the finals, it was more than just a series; it was almost a battle between good and evil, to prove what I'd always believed was true about the game -- that individual basketball, no matter how great the individual, is no match for well-executed, selfless team basketball.

Now that I've seen that approach validated with the last two NBA championships, I have lost my tolerance for me-ballers. The times I've watched Cleveland this season, they are all too willing to give LeBron the ball and clear out so he can hero-ball, just like he did in the finals. Harden does the same thing, just from the top of the key instead of the left side of the court like LeBron does.

Both LeBron and Harden truly believe the path to ultimate achievement is through their individual play. I believe otherwise.

Nice analysis. In addition to being interesting in its own right, it also brings up a really interesting question that the Celtics may be facing soon. Namely, how well can "stars" and team-ball co-exist, and do we really need a "star". Note that I put "stars" in parantheses, since I am referring to the idea of a star in the 90s, 00s, and even into the present, i.e. the guy who excels at a particular stat, usually scoring. Obviously things are beginning to change (see Draymond Green, Warriors), but most still see "stars" as scorers. Regardless of the stat a particular "star" excels at, the fact that he excels at all usually means he has the ball in his hands an awful lot. Seems like Danny and Brad are all for ball movement-based offense, so I wonder whom Brad and Danny really covet? Would they want a Russell Westbrook?? Even Durant needs alot of shots (though I'd still LOVE to get KD!!!). Will be interesting to see how it all plays out, but I suspect our definition of "star" may need to be revised...

outside great post

Shamrock1000 wrote:In addition to being interesting in its own right, it also brings up a really interesting question that the Celtics may be facing soon. Namely, how well can "stars" and team-ball co-exist, and do we really need a "star". Note that I put "stars" in parantheses, since I am referring to the idea of a star in the 90s, 00s, and even into the present, i.e. the guy who excels at a particular stat, usually scoring. Obviously things are beginning to change (see Draymond Green, Warriors), but most still see "stars" as scorers. Regardless of the stat a particular "star" excels at, the fact that he excels at all usually means he has the ball in his hands an awful lot. Seems like Danny and Brad are all for ball movement-based offense, so I wonder whom Brad and Danny really covet? Would they want a Russell Westbrook?? Even Durant needs alot of shots (though I'd still LOVE to get KD!!!). Will be interesting to see how it all plays out, but I suspect our definition of "star" may need to be revised...

The right kind of star would definitely work in Stevens' offense and would in fact greatly enhance it. The Celtic-UCLA-Portland teams from the past I mentioned obviously had that type of star willing to play within a team concept, but for the current game, Steph Curry is the best example.

There are two aspects that show what I mean: how he plays, and his attitude or demeanor.

Curry is as good a shooter as we've seen, and his range, ballhandling, and quick release make him an unbelievable scorer. This obviously helps the team by putting points on the board, but he leverages it within the team concept to make the rest of the team more effective.

A term that's become fashionable to use is "gravity," and it applies well to Curry. His demonstrated ability to shoot from 30 feet in means that the defense always, always has to concentrate on him first, often with multiple players. That leaves other players open, so once the defense overcommits to him, Curry passes out of it, they swing the ball, and they usually get an open shot. A frequent recipient of the initial pass is Draymond Green, who is actually leading the team in assists (7.1 to Curry's 5.6). So Curry is not only leading the league in scoring and assisting at a decent rate, but I read recently that he was leading the league in "hockey assists" -- a pass that leads to an assist. When they're playing well, it's a beautiful thing to watch, with occasional Curry flurries surrounded by scoring off of player and ball movement. They lead the league in assists at 29.5 per game, almost three more per game than the next best team, and they led the league last year, too. (The Celtics are fifth this season at 23.7).

The aspect I referred to is Curry's demeanor. He's keenly aware of how good he is, but he is always deflecting credit toward the team as a whole. He is confident in his skills, but he truly believes in the flow of the game, in ball and player movement, as the key to success. And he loves his teammates and wants them to get recognition that he honestly believes they deserve. When he heard that Andre Iguodala won the finals MVP, he couldn't have been happier; there wasn't a hint of disappointment that he didn't get it himself. That balance between supreme individual ability and devotion to team is a marvelous thing.

(Sorry if I'm over the top about Curry and the Warriors. I've tried to avoid that type of thing here, but I truly believe in this stuff. Of course, I'll probably jinx them, and they'll have a stinker game tonight and lose. They've got a tough three games in four days against Toronto, the Clippers in LA, and Chicago, and considering they haven't been playing as well lately, Green has the flu, and Klay has back problems, a loss or two is likely coming.)

I'm not sure whether Westbrook would work -- he might, I'm just not sure -- but I'm confident that Durant would. He has a great team ball attitude, is a willing passer (sometimes even too much so), yet has confidence in his own shooting ability and has no remorse about using it to rip the heart out of an opponent when the situation calls for it. Although they are obviously different types of players, Durant is on a par with Curry in being a selfless superstar. He just hasn't had an opportunity to play in a system that allows him to show that to its fullest capacity.