POST GAME HOUSTON - AWAY

Celtics Wrap: Boston Earns Ime Udoka First Win With Victory Vs. Rockets

The C's improved to 1-2 on the season


NESN by Sean T. McGuire

The Boston Celtics earned Ime Udoka his first win as a head coach in the NBA following their 107-97 victory over the Houston Rockets on Sunday at Toyota Center.

Boston improves to 1-2 on the young season while Houston dropped to 1-2.

ONE KEY TAKEAWAY
The Celtics put together a much better effort in a variety of areas Sunday. Boston’s ball movement was much-improved and they made shots (44% from long range). The C’s also didn’t turn the ball over as much (11 turnovers), all while forcing Houston into 18 turnovers which led to points off turnovers (28) on the other end.

That was all on display during the third quarter, specifically, as Boston extended it’s two-point halftime lead to 89-72 heading into the fourth. In that third quarter, which proved too great a deficit for Houston to make up, the C’s shot 11-for-19 while forcing Houston to shoot 7-for-18. Boston also forced four Houston turnovers in the third as the C’s scored 26 points off turnovers through three quarters.

And the contributions came from a variety of players in that 12-minute stretch. Al Horford helped with Boston’s ball movement, running the floor in transition and even knocked down a 3-pointer. Dennis Schröder was working as the facilitator, especially with Jayson Tatum on the bench and Jaylen Brown not in the lineup. Marcus Smart finished strong through contract to help maintain Boston’s momentum and Grant Williams (18 points) knocked down one of his five 3-pointers in the game.

STARS OF THE GAME
— Tatum guided the Celtics to a two-point lead at the half while scoring 20 of his game-high 31 points before the break. He also helped Boston pull it out down the stretch as he shot 12-for-24 (4-for-11 from long range) with nine rebounds and two assists.

— Schröder was among those who provided Tatum with the scoring help he needed while playing aggressive and getting down hill. Schröder finished with 18 points (tied with Grant Williams for second most on team) on 7-for-14 from the floor. He added five rebounds and five tied Smart for a team-best five assists.

— Rockets shooting guard Jalen Green was deadly from long range Sunday, and it helped Houston stick around with Boston. Green was 8-for-10 from 3-point range and 11-for-18 from the field while scoring a team-high 30 points for the Rockets.

WAGER WATCH
Tatum needed to wait until crunch time, but the two-time All-Star cashed the Over 27.5 on his points prop with time to spare. If you were to bet $105 on Tatum to hit the over, you would have ended the night $100 richer, according to DraftKings Sportsbook.

More Betting: NFL Week 7 Sunday Slips: Sportsbooks Rooting Against Packers, Patriots

UP NEXT
The Celtics will return to action Monday night in the second game of a back-to-back against the Charlotte Hornets.

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The plan was for me to get some shut-eye early so I could wake up at 2:30am to watch the game but the 2nd glass of raki (Turkish ouzo) killed that plan.  I'm looking at the boxscore and reading the Game On! comments.

Al with an inefficient (4-12) double double.  8-9 from the line.  Was he playing more inside?  3 blocks.  It's amazing what a year off can do for an old man's body.

Grant with a huge night offensively, it appears.  18 points on 6-8, 5-7 from 3.  Can't ask for more from him.

A combined 2-10 from the kids Pritchard and Nesmith.  They are both struggling starting this season.

If Jalen Green had anything other than a career night, shooting 11-18 and 8-10 from 3, this would have been a laugher.

Our bench outscored theirs 31-14, fueled by Grant's 18 points.  That's the good news.  The bad news is that if Grant doesn't have a monster night maybe we lose to one of the worst teams in the league.  Furthermore, even with Grant's big game, it means our starting 5 lost to their starting 5.  That's not good.

https://www.espn.in/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401359861


I don't think I've ever posted a Grant Williams post-game presser but I like that Grant is using the right words here.  Ime said they got 'punked', Grant is saying that they 'got punked', so he's listening to his coaches and responding correctly.  I like that he's talking about Pride.  I realize that it's just words, but words translate into emotions which translates into actions.  Grant said a lot of good things in this interview.  He was asked a wide-range of questions, from his weight loss to Ime, and now that he's playing better (much!) he has some standing to talk.




Bob


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You can see the difference in offensive creativity when Schroder is playing 1 vs Smart. He can drive and break down the defense. Pesky defender as well.

I was surprised to see no Langford today. Nesmith just needs to settle down into his shot making. Missing so many wide open shots!

Loved Al's effort; what will he have in the tank tomorrow? The Celts still look like they are trying to figure out a lot.

Yep, Al and GW have made a huge impression so far.  More power to both of them.  We can definitely take some good things away from this game.  The abrupt change in TO's had to be a coach's threat or Houston just really sucks.  I'll take a combo.  Houston may be getting the #1 pick in the draft, so this was a G-League team at best we beat.  It was on the road and much needed as we were about to go desperate, so we'll take it.
Another loss would have been disastrous to everything Celtic.  

Still lots of holes in our defense and there were way too many open lane dunks.  But still, HOU only got 97 which is a pretty good effort by our guys to keep the good defensive numbers up or down.

Schroeder is beginning to look like a very good value pick up.  He keeps that up and he definitely needs to start.  Yeah, he looks a little wild and out of control at times but that's a good thing IMHBAO as no one can put a finger on him or know what he's going to do next, so everybody pay attention!!  

It looks like Ime is narrowing down his selections/rotations as only 9 played for us.  A little early for this unless he is starting to feel the wrath of Brad?  Where was Jaylen, BTW?  All around, significant improvement and a much needed win to stop the early hemorrhaging  

Unfortunately, things won't continue to get easier as we head into Charlotte of all places.  Normally the laughing stock and stop of the NBA where people would quip "How could the greatest player of all time (not my words of course!) continually keep putting out such shitty teams", these clowns just beat (punked is now the operative word!) the biggest clowns in the league, BKN.  Not going to expect much here so put us down for 1-3 for me.  I'll beg for forgiveness if we win this one.  Don't worry, though.  Michael will somehow find a way to blow it for the Hornets this season and live up to crossover expectations.  

db

Star of the Third Quarter:

Al Horford

https://www.espn.com/nba/recap?gameId=401359861

After Houston knotted it at 55 on a lay-up by Green two minutes into the third, Boston went on a 10-0 spurt started with four straight points by Horford and capped on a 3-pointer by Tatum.

The Rockets responded with five straight points to cut the lead in half, but Boston responded with a 24-9 run to open the lead to 20 on a three-point play by Horford with 1 ½ minutes left in the third.



My comments: The third quarter run where we got some separation from the Rockets was thanks to Al.  His energy is incredible.  I believe the "three-point play by Horford with 1 ½ minutes left in the third" was the one where he made a block on one end, ran down the court and slammed the ball on the fast break, ending up on the floor.  Not bad for an old duffer many had counted out long ago.

prakash wrote:You can see the difference in offensive creativity when Schroder is playing 1 vs Smart.  He can drive and break down the defense.  Pesky defender as well.

I was surprised to see no Langford today.  Nesmith just needs to settle down into his shot making.  Missing so many wide open shots!

Loved Al's effort; what will he have in the tank tomorrow?  The Celts still look like they are trying to figure out a lot.

+1
We won despite Smart, Smart has his strengths, but full time point is way over his head form obvious reasons.

Team is still finding its identity, glad we won without Jaylen and Romeo. Good defensive job on Wood, not letting him go off. Would like to see more offense from RWill, Smart and Tatum have to get him some slams. Nice to see Tatum look like himself, if he did this in Knick game, would not have went OT. There is a process and we are still going thru it. Team is no where near best version of themselves quite yet. PP and Nesmith haven’t found their rythmn yet. Schroder finding his niche, very good at breaking down a defense, something Smart rarely does. Al’s shot was off, but played great D, ran well. Strong 3rd quarter looked like us, it’s still coming….hope Jaylen can play tonight.

No one has been more critical of Grant Williams than me.  His consistency in catching and shooting wide open jumpers really looks good.

For the 3 games thus far, he is 9-13 from deep or 69.2%.  Teams do not game plan for him.  They pretty much leave him open.  Let's see how he does when teams start to respect his shot making abilities.  

If Marcus Smart did not take so many 3 point shots the Celtics would be a better team.   For the year he is 6-20 from deep (30%)  and 8-28 (28%) overall.  His shot selection is really bad.  20 out of 28 FGA have been 3 point pointers.  That comes to 71.4% of all shot attempts.  He did make 2 nice drives and scores last night but he still went 1-5 from deep.

Dennis Schroder is a better PG than Marcus.  I knew this before he came to the team.  They have some things in common however.  Neither can hit the broad side of a barn from behind the arc.  Both are willing defenders.  Schroder is way quicker off the bounce and a lot more creative with the basketball.

I hate the pairing in the starting lineup.  

I would prefer to see Josh Richardson in there starting at 2.  he just looks like a more natural fit playing off the ball and he does have a fairly good handle.

On Al Horford who has done well in two games.  He has been a solid rebounder and he has 7 blocks in two games.  However he is not shooting the ball well at all.  We have seen a lot of energy in two games.  Now comes the first B2B so let's see if he is able to sustain the same level of intensity.

Robert Williams is not getting opportunities to score.  Go back and watch the game.  Last night i saw multiple times where he set the high screen and rolled to the hoop and there was a clear passing lane to get him the ball.  I am not even talking about lob opportunities.  Jayson Tatum would not even give him  a shot.  Robert went 1-2 last night.  He should be getting at least 6-8 shots up per game.

Aaron Nesmith is 0-10 on the season.  He is not getting hardly any playing time.  It is very easy to lose confidence when a coach does not give a player time.  Those players come in with an added layer of pressure and are in fear of making a mistake.  They are looking over their shoulder waiting for them to be yanked out of the game.  I can trace this back to our 4th preseason game when he only played 12 minute going 2-3 from the field.  Prior to that he played 19 mpg in three games and shot the ball well while scoring 12.6 PPG.  During the recent Toronto debacle he only got 4 garbage time minutes.

Peyton Pritchard is also being buried on the bench.

It is early in the season so a lot of things will change.  I am surprised that coach Udoka has relied on guys that cannot shoot the ball.  

Romeo did not play due to a sore calf.

I am glad we won our first game of the season albeit against a team in a rebuilding mode. We have a fairly challenging road schedule to play and hopefully coach Udoka can make better decisions. We need our coach to be as good or better than the coach on the opposing team.

Nesmith not getting much playing is no excuse for his missing open shots! It’s like anything else in life, when you get your chance you need to show and prove. If little playing time is killing his confidence than maybe we made the wrong pick. He needs to take advantage of every opportunity. If he does we are all the better. If he doesn’t…welp!

I like Shroader’s play throughout the game but I don’t know what he was thinking rolling the ball up the floor, killing clock when we had the lead. Duh.

PP only shot 2 for 6 for 6 pts but still the second best percent on the team. If that's his off night I'll take it. Also his assist per 36 is better than either Smart or Schroeder. Smart is, at best, our third best PG. Start him at the 2 or bring him in as sixth man, and get him back to doing what he does well.

GWill is a good NBA player, but he is not a 5 unless we're playing the local elementary school. Neesmith looks like a lot of good parts but some assembly required. Langford is the much more complete and confident player at this point. Hopefully the calf strain is not serious. Richardson starting to show why we wanted him. Schroeder too. Just wish he wasn't a one and done. As I've said before, the musical chairs at the PG position is not helping.