POST GAME HOUSTON

Just call them the OT Celtics. What's that old song by Ringo Starr.....It Don't Come Easy!
5 in a row and climbing the Eastern latter with Philly just a game back but tied in the lost column!

Pierce rounding into form with 30 pt effort +9. Ray Allen with 21 pts +19. Poor effort by Wilcox and Petrus.

Bradley with nice ball pressure and 4 pts in limited play. I think Bradly could become the our second point guard for now on. He is for real and a great find to bring off the bench when we need to apply ball pressure.
We need to keep pushing on offense and not become passive as Tommy pointed out.

NEXT GAME WEDNESDAY 7PM CSNE PHILLY

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POST GAME RECAP WEEI 850

FAST BREAK: LOCKOUT UGLY, BUT CELTICS BEAT ROCKETS 03.06.12 at 10:17 pm ET
By Paul Flannery | No Comments

This was lockout ugly hoops at its worst. Slow offense, shoddy rebounding, careless turnovers, they were all on display in abundance as the Celtics and Rockets met in a game someone had to win because obviously they both couldn’t lose. The Celtics prevailed, 97-92 because their old men — Paul Pierce and Ray Allen — turned back the clock in the overtime.

It was Allen’s 3-pointer that gave the Celtics a late lead in regulation and Pierce — 30 points, six rebounds — who willed them to the win in the extra session. The old guys still have something left. How much they have for Philadelphia on Wednesday night remains to be seen, but somehow it’s a game for first place in the Atlantic Division.

WHAT WENT RIGHT

The second quarter, for once: Down by seven points after an uninspired first 12 minutes, the Celtics stormed back on the strength of their defense. The Rockets shot 63 percent in the first quarter, but they made only five of 21 shots in the second. The effort started with the much-maligned second unit who managed to score only six points in their four-minute run. However, they also held the Rockets to just two points and Houston started the quarter 1-for-11 from the floor.

Greg Stiemsma had his best game since his last good game: It’s been a long time since the Stiemer had done something of note. You’d have to go all the way back to Jan. 2 when he scored 13 points as a starter to match his production in the first half against the Rockets when he scored eight points on 4-for-6 shooting. Stiemsma was pressed into service after Brandon Bass went back to the locker room to have his ankle re-taped. As with Sunday’s game, Bass’ tape job took over 20 minutes to complete.

Just your average Rajon Rondo: There was very little buzz in the arena and the national television cameras were nowhere in sight. The opponent was Kyle Lowry, an excellent NBA point guard, but not a phenom on par with Jeremy Lin. Rondo was alternately the best player on the court, and the owner of the game’s biggest mistake when he fumbled a ball and missed a breakaway layup that would have iced it. He finished with nine points and 12 assists and outplayed Lowry for three and a half quarters.

WHAT WENT WRONG

Slow starts to halves: The Celtics started the game in a haze, almost as if there was a carryover from Sunday’s emotional overtime win over New York. Rondo was the only active Celtic for most of the quarter and Luis Scola and Chandler Parsons shot 7-for-8 as Houston built a 28-21 lead.

That was only a prelude to a lockout-ugly third quarter in which the Celtics were outscored 28-17 and saw a 10-point lead turn into a five-point deficit. They went without a field goal for the last five minutes, 21 seconds of the quarter.

Not a banner night for KG: Fresh off his string of double-doubles, Kevin Garnett had a rough night against Rockets’ center Sam Dalembert. Not only was he held to just 13 points and seven shots, he also picked up a fourth quarter technical foul and missed two free throws in overtime. Garnett had 13 rebounds, but the Celtics got annihilated on the boards, 57-38.

Bench production lacking: Chris Wilcox was 1-for-4 in an ineffective 20 minutes. Mickael Pietrus missed both his shots and so did Keyon Dooling. The veteran trio scored four points in 44 minutes.

There's the easy way and then there's the hard way and these Celtics just have to do it the hard way. Down in the 4th, when we shouldn't have been, rallying late to get into OT and then winning by 5. Sound familiar? Not a pretty game but we won, so it's beautiful.

We were in the penalty early in the 3rd quarter, about 6 1/2 left, and the Rockets lived at the line. Bad, dumb fouls by Wilcox. In the end, though, fouls were just about even (23-28 for Houston, 23-31 for Boston). It was tough, though, watching a Houston team that couldn't throw the ball in Boston Harbor, hang in there with 8fta.

Not much running for us, only 6 fast break points.

1. Paul Pierce put the team on his back, in the 4th and OT, and carried us home. 7 of the Celtics' 13 OT points were Pierce's. He looked like crap the game after the all-star break, but he has been phenomenal since. Not that there weren't lapses. We had a few turnovers because Pierce wouldn't give up the ball. Tommy was yelling "move the ball or move yourself!" He had a very untimely 8 second violation because he insisted on trying to dribble the ball over halfcourt by himself under pressure.

2. On Sunday we saw Rondo the Treat. Last night, we saw Rondo the Trick. Stagnating the offense by walking the ball up, taking ill-advised and unnecessary jumpshots. It was so bad, at one point, that the Celts took a time-out and, coming out of that time-out, Rondo ended up taking an off-balance 3pt bankshot because he didn't move the ball. Statistically, he had 12 assists, but the offense looked very choppy. Not particularly good floor generalship by Rondo, IMO. He almost became the goat of this game by losing the ball out of bounds on a breakaway in OT. Lucky for him Pierce bailed him out.

3. Tommy and Mike were chuckling all game about Scola being called "the best player in the league under the rim" by a Houston team guy. Well, he is and he can play for me anytime. Anytime. He had 11 points and 7 rebounds in the first quarter. Fortunately, he picked up 5 fouls and you could see him become less aggressive on defense. Sneaky near the rim (I guess you have to be if you're not going to soar over it) and very reliable from mid-range. I'm not a big fan of Euros, but I confess to having a soft spot for Argentineans. They are consistently tough hombres.

4. Brandon Bass went in to the locker room to get "re-taped". He was there so long I thought he was going to come out looking like The Mummy. In his absence Steamer played 13 minutes and looked very good, I thought. He was 4-6 from the field and at least 1 of those fga was a buzzer beater he should never have been put in the position of having to take. What I liked was the complete lack of hesitation on his part taking the shots. He doesn't shoot enough for me to really know his shooting motion, so I can't say if he rushed his shot, but they left his hand almost immediately. His name is Greg Stiemsma and he's a shooter. He remembered that last night and put a big smile on my face. Steamer's problem, as a rookie, is inconsistency like with so many other rookies. Last night, though, he came in and got the job done.

5. Bad game for Wilcox. Stupid fouls putting Houston in the penalty early, not running on the break and not rebounding. I know this is his first bad game in a bunch, so I'm not going to dump on him for this one, but he didn't have a good game.

6. Pietrus said, at the all-star break, that he was going to attack the basket more in the 2nd half. Maybe he was talking about the 2nd half of something else. The 2nd half of his life? He's toooo much in love with 3s. This was his problem, and downfall, at both GSW and Orlando. He's very athletic, he needs to take it to the iron more. More? What am I saying? How about "some" or "at all"?

7. Too many minutes, 45, by Rondo (despite him not being a particularly good version of himself at that) due to the uselessness of Keyon Dooling. I don't understand why Bradley only played 8 minutes though. Sure, he blew a bunny, so did Rondo, but he was playing defense and he did hit an outside jumper (2-4). That's better than Dooling (0-2) and Rondo needed to sit a bit.

Two games against two good, but not very good, teams that are in the lower half of the playoff seedings and we had to go to OT to win both games at home. Yes, a win is a win is a win but if we want a championship this year we have to be eating these lower echelon playoff teams for lunch.

Sam opined on what Danny will do about this a bit last night, on the Game On thread (another nice showing there!) and I'll let him speak for himself, but I don't see this team going very far the way they are playing now. Having to rally from behind in the 4th, at home, against the Knicks and Rockets, after leading most of the game, just to get into OT? This is a sugar rush. It makes you feel good short term but inevitably leads to a crash later.

Playing tonight back-to-back in Philly. A lot of minutes on this team due to the abovementioned back-to-back OT games this week. If we win tonight (Go Celtics!) then we lead the Atlantic Division by virtue of being 1 game up on the Sixers in the loss column. With 29 games left to play it's not fish-or-cut-bait time as far as playoff seeding goes, but with the March 15 trading deadline looming it might be that for the 3 Amigo Era.

bob

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Paul Pierce is an amazing basketball player and simply would not let his team loose last night.

Off to Philly.

What's up with Pietrus? Now in a severe 10 game slump shooting 33% from the field (20 for 61) and only 18% on threes (7 for 38). And he said we were going to see a different Pietrus after the All-Star break. We certainly have and I don't like it. Come back to us Mickael.

And Dooling's been even worse. 24% his last 11 games from the field and 4 for 20 on threes. Two of our important bench shooters making these games a real struggle when we should be winning easily against mediocre opposition.

Houston is 21-18...they are far from mediocre.

The Celtics should have run away with the game in the second half last night, but in general they are NOT good enough to blow people out anymore.

I think we should be happy with competitive games..and if they win in the end, that is even better.

mrkleen09 wrote:Houston is 21-18...they are far from mediocre.

The Celtics should have run away with the game in the second half last night, but in general they are NOT good enough to blow people out anymore.

I think we should be happy with competitive games..and if they win in the end, that is even better.

If mediocre is .500, 21-18 is not "far from mediocre." That's two games from being below .500. And we were at home. Granted, our record is in the same ballpark but we've played most of the season without a center who will now probably miss the rest of the season, plus having had to deal with injuries to Pierce, Rondo and a bunch of bench players.

Houston was coming in having won 7 of their last 8 games. They were trending up in a big way.

This Celtics team is not capable of blowing people out any longer. I am happy to collect wins, by whatever means necessary.

mrkleen09 wrote:Houston was coming in having won 7 of their last 8 games. They were trending up in a big way.

This Celtics team is not capable of blowing people out any longer. I am happy to collect wins, by whatever means necessary.

And I think we had a worse recent record against them than any other team in the league. We had lost the last three to them in Boston and I think they had beaten us in 10 of our last 12 meetings. Go figure. And they're not that good. But they've given us fits the last four or 5 years. And last night we trailed by 10 with 5:23 to go. And miraculously pulled it out. Even while blowing several chances late to put the nail in the coffin.

mrkleen09 wrote:Houston was coming in having won 7 of their last 8 games. They were trending up in a big way.

This Celtics team is not capable of blowing people out any longer. I am happy to collect wins, by whatever means necessary.

How was Houston coming in "having won 7 of their last 8 games" when they've now lost four in a row?

My fault...I saw a stat last night on ESPN....thought they were talking about the current Houston record. Must have meant that the Rockets had wont 7 or the last 8 meetings with the Celtics

Another stat just noticed.

Greg Stiemsma, with 8 points in 13 minutes, was not only the leading bench scorer, he almost outscored the entire rest of the bench by himself.

Wilcox - 4
Dooling - 0
Bradley - 4
Pietrus - 0
Total pts - 8


Our bench is NOT stepping up. What we need is someone who can come in and just light it up. Like JJ Redick in Orlando, or JR Smith (now with NY). Oh, wait a second, how about E'taun Moore? Nah.

C'mon Doc. Dooling has fallen into a black hole. He's not running the team well, not playing spectacular defense. At least with Moore our fga will go up.


bob

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