POST GAME HOUSTON - AWAY

Rockets 104, C's 90: Cold beyond arc

By Chris Forsberg | ESPNBoston.com

The Boston Celtics have not been shy with the 3-pointer this season, but maybe they should have been on Saturday night. The Celtics nearly clanked their way into the NBA record books by missing their first 21 attempts beyond the arc in Houston before Jeff Green's triple with 4:10 remaining broke up the 3-pointer shutout. It didn't matter by that point, however, as the Rockets breezed to a 104-90 triumph at the Toyota Center.

• Over early: The Rockets outscored Boston 37-22 in the opening quarter, shooting 57.1 percent in the frame and leading by as much as 19. Without the 3-point shot, Boston stood no chance of rallying back, particularly as it struggled consistently generate stops.

• Rondo Report: Like his teammates, Rondo endured a tough night shooting. He finished with four points on 2-of-9 shooting to go along with eight assists, 10 rebounds, three steals, and five turnovers. He was minus-18 in plus/minus.

• Feeling Green: One game after putting eight figures in double figures, the Celtics had only two scorers in double figures topped by Jeff Green at 17 points (though he was a team-worst minus-22 overall). Jared Sullinger added 14 points and nine rebounds, but had the frustrating task of guarding Dwight Howard.

• Debut of the Game: Celtics coach Brad Stevens initially stuck with a 10-man rotation, but rookie James Young played the final 5:47 for Boston and a little floater in transition -- while being fouled -- served as his first NBA hoop.

• What it means: Boston falls to 1-1 while its struggles against Western Conference foes continues on the road. The Celtics were 0-15 on the road against the West last season and that streak is still alive heading to Dallas on Monday night. 
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FIVE THINGS WE LEARNED IN CELTICS’ BLOWOUT LOSS IN HOUSTON

WEEI - By Rob Bradford  

Somewhere between TD Garden and the Texas state line, the Celtics lost their way.
Brad Stevens’ team arrived safely in Houston for Saturday night’s tilt, but its game was misplaced. Everything that went well for the Celts in their runaway, season-opening win Wednesday night went wrong in a 104-90 loss to the Rockets.

In a nutshell, the Celtics weren’t aggressive enough early on, and were remarkably bad from beyond the 3-point line. The C’s went to the foul line 24 fewer times than the Rockets, while having the worst 3-point shooting night in franchise history.

With the 1-for-25 showing from beyond the 3-point stripe, it marked the first time in franchise history the Celtics have not hit a three while taking more than 10 attempts. Jeff Green hit his team’s 22nd attempt. The NBA record still stands at 0-for-22, set by the Nuggets in 2012.

The closest the Celtics would come in the second half was 11 points.

RAJON RONDO IS A WORK IN PROGRESS

It was easy to forget Rondo didn’t play a single preseason game after watching him excel against the Nets. But in Game No. 2, the point guard seemed out of sorts from the start.

Before exiting the game for the first time, with the Celtics trailing, 22-8, Rondo had trouble both offensively and defensively (where he was often lost on rotations after double-teaming Dwight Howard). He would re-enter the game with the C’s still trailing by 14 (32-18), continuing to lack any sort of spark.

Rondo finished the first half going 0-for-2 from the field. For the game, the point guard went 2-for-9 from the floor, but did haul in 10 rebounds.

LEANING ON JUMPERS PROVED DANGEROUS

There was a reason the Celtics attempted just three first-half free throws, while the Rockets were going to the line 24 times: the C’s weren’t exactly taking it at the hosts.

The missed jumpers, particularly in the first quarter, were especially damaging considering how Houston was able to transition into makable shots (shooting 57 percent from the field in the initial quarter, leading to a 15-point Celtics deficit). The Celtics started going inside more in the second quarter, but the hole had already been dug.

The most noticeable aspect of the Celtics’ reliance on their outside game came from beyond the 3-point line, where they turned in a historically bad performance.

DEALING WITH HOWARD PROVED DICEY

Stevens attempted to rotate the trio of Jared Sullinger, Kelly Olynyk and Tyler Zeller on Howard. That strategy, however, ran into some issues with all three carrying three fouls into halftime. The trio finished with five fouls apiece.

The unevenness at the position also translated to a dramatic 180 for Olynyk from Wednesday night, when he totaled 18 points. This time the second-year big man couldn’t find a comfort zone

Howard only finished with 14 points and eight rebounds, but his presence allowed for the likes of James Harden (26 points) to get in the clear.

LIVING WITH THE UPS AND DOWNS OF MARCUS SMART

So much was made of the performance of the rookie in Game 1, with Smart contributing on multiple levels against Brooklyn.

This time, however, he couldn’t supply any help for a Celtics team desperate for some aggressiveness. Smart went 0-for-7 from the field

HOT STARTS ARE STILL A THING OF THE PAST

The Celtics failed to go 2-0 once again, not having accomplished the feat since 2009.
112288

Hey, I did not expect to win tonight....but I also did not expect to see Bull Shxt basketball.  Celtics gave us an extra Trick but no treat!

This team was not prepared to play this game and as much as there was blame to go around all the players........the coaching staff is the biggest blame.... they did not put a good game plan together!

As for the players......

1) Passes to nowhere
2) Passes into crowds
3) Recipients of passes not coming out for the pass but just standing still
4) No defense.... we were running around like scatter brains all night chasing ghosts !!!!!!!!
5) Never attacked the paint but settled for jumpers and 1-22 3 pointers....never liked living and dying by the 3 pointer unless your down by a bunch with time running out.
5) Players standing around with one player playing hero ball........when you see Jeff Green trying to go 1 on 1 almost all night ....you know your in for a long night!
6) As Scal said.....we need a center..............KO is in no mans land....he is not and never will become a top 5 defensive center.........so where does he fit in with the Celtics......PF.......SF.....?

Pissed off so happy belated Trick or Treat!

112288

It only counts as one loss. Not much can be taken from this game except for some time for the team to watch the film and learn from it.

On to Dallas.

a couple of thoughts about this game.

1) everyone was shooting LOUSY . Even Thornton couldn't shoot. Maybe they all had the same virus....the crappy shooting the ball virus. that doesn't happen most games , where NO one can hit a shot.

2) 4% from the three?....IF they would have hit just 30% from three last night, the Celtics would have scored 102 points. so just like the first game where we couldn't miss, things balance out.

3) Kelly got exposed on defense by Jones and his athleticism. We all know that Kelly can't hold up against the Howards of the world (not that many of them , thank goodness), but he HAS to be able to outsmart the "lesser" big man if nothing else.

4) Our pace was LOUSY all night. Where was the running? Where was the motion? I only saw a few instances in the third quarter, where they looked like the team in the pre-season.

5) I figured they would have Sully, Zeller and Bass all on Howard last night. They fouled him as much as they could, and he was hitting FT's. Sometimes the ball is just bouncing your way I guess.

6) Young looked pretty good on offense in the few minutes he played against their scrubs late. I don't think he'll back down from taking a shot. we may not know if that's good or bad for a bit though.


It will be interesting to see how this young team reacts in Dallas. WHO are the leaders of this team? Who will be willing to step up and take and MAKE that first shot? Will Stevens have them reeved up on defense and on high octane on offense on the road?

We could have played better, but at this early stage, it seems we're two teams: potential monsters against the League's dregs, but outgunned against contenders. Hard to hit 3s when you're up TIGHT. I don't see a future lineup with Kelly and Sully in at the same time. Our biggest problem seems the same; no beast in the middle. Zeller may be a good backup, but where oh where is our future Cowens-Parish (Russell is too much to hope for)? Hawk

I had the Houston announcer's feed all night.  And people say Tommy's a homie?  Howard hits Smart across the throat while he's in the air and dumps him and they say "that was a borderline offensive foul by Smart".  Harden takes a 3 that hits the very front of the rim and bounces straight out and down to the free throw line and they say it "just nicked off the front of the rim".  A 3/4 court Hail Mary is thrown at the end of the 1st quarter, hits the backboard about 1' below the top while going horizontally, thrown with way too much strength and not enough arc, and they say it "almost banked in".  It would have almost banked in if the rim was disconnected from the backboard and moved out to the dotted line. Evan Turner goes in the lane and puts up a fairly soft shot 3' from the rim and they say it was "a wild shot and got bailed out with a whistle".  Ugh.  The stuff I put up with for the Celtics...

To be fair, the Rockets defense extended all the way out to the 3pt line, making it hard to get open shots.  On the other hand, we kept running into traps.  A lot of turnovers and steals came from us not "being tough with the ball" as Brad calls it.  I call it "making it easy for them".

We scored 38 points in the first half.  They had 37 points in the 1st quarter on 57% shooting.  Not getting the job on either side of the ball.  In the 2nd quarter, though, our defense picked up some, only giving up 16fgas and driving down their fg% to a much more acceptable 42%.  Unfortunately, we were also 0-12 from 3 at the half.

1.  After being the Player of the Game on Wednesday, Kelly got chewed up last night by 6'9"  Terrence Jones right out of the gate.  First two Rocket possessions went to Jones in the low post against Kelly and produced for Houston.  After 1, Jones had 12 points on 5-7.  The mismatch became so obviously bad, Kelly didn't start the 2nd half, Bass did, and things got better.  Not so much because Bass did better than Kelly (although Steady Eddie did come in during the 1st quarter and immediately started dropping his reliable mid-range jumpers when nobody else could hit a thing), 6'8", 250# Brandon Bass was still at a significant physical disadvantage against Howard it was because of what it did for Sully.

2.  Sully had to defend Howard to start the game and that's about as tough a job as you get in the NBA, but when Bass started the 2nd half and took over that assignment, it freed Sully up to play against Terrence Jones and Sully just ate him up.  Jones could not keep him off the boards, could not stop Sully from overpowering him.  As much of a mismatch the quicker, more athletic Jones was for Kelly that's what Ragin' Rhino Jared Sullinger was for Jones.  With 5:07 left in the 3rd quarter the Celtics had scored 38 points in the paint vs only 22 for Houston and much of that was Sully the bully.  

3.  Jeff Green had a nice game.  He had 17 points on 7-19 (37%) and that's not good but it is almost exactly what we did as a team, so it's hard to single him out as a culprit.  Hey, at least he scored, which is more than most of the Celtics roster can say.  In fact, he was Celtics high scorer.  He also outplayed Ariza, so let's give him that too.  Perhaps most importantly, by hitting that 3 he helped us avoid setting a new one-game team record of most missed 3ptrs.

4.  Why was Avery Bradley always trying to channel left-handed James Harden to his left?  Here's an idea:  force players towards their weaker hands.  If that means it channels them towards the middle instead of the sideline, so be it, but don't let them go dominant.  Bradley couldn't stop anybody last night and he shot 3-11.  Yuck.

5.  I thought Zeller played the best defense against Howard of any Celtic.  In one sequence he was man-to-man against Howard in the low blocks and thwarted him enough that Howard had to pass out (probably hoping to reset and get it back) and, by the time he did that there was a 24-second shot clock violation.  Good D by Tyler.  He fought, showed some muscle inside.  He looked like a center while Kelly looked like a Raggedy Ann doll owned by a deeply disturbed child.

6.  Rondo didn't have a dominating game.  Statistically he was ok with 10 rebounds, 8 assists (only 4 points) but his job is to create offensive flow and coherency and he failed to do that last night.  He also had 5 TOs, with a couple of them so bad they looked like something you'd expect from Bradley and not from one of the best passers in the league.

7.  Smart was 0-7 and 0-5 from 3.  His defense was as underwhelming as Bradley's.  This one is not going into his scrapbook.

8.  Microwave Marcus wasn't his usual scoring machine self, he was 4-10, and he still scored 9 points in 19 minutes.

9.  Young came in, played the last 6 minutes, and looked really good.  Kelly made a fantastic steal and hit a streaking Young for a bunny + 1.  A cameo appearance, but the kid did well.

10. Too bad the cameras did show whether Jason Terry still had that leprechaun-holding-the-trophy tattoo on his arm. It would have provided some comic relief after suffering through the nitwit announcers.


I was pretty pissed off last night during the game.  After Wednesday I thought I saw something and then, last night, the basketball gods took it all away.  This morning, however, I've had a chance to calm down and think a bit more about it all and I'm not so pissed now.  Look, we couldn't stop them man-to-man on defense and couldn't score either but we only lost by 14.  "Only 14!?" you say?  Yeah, only 14.  We were 1-25 from 3.  If we shot a still-miserable 20% (5-25) it would have been just a 2-point, 1-possession game.  We took 98 fgas.  I like that.  Yes, a lot of them weren't great shots, running down 1-on-3 and throwing up a 3 (that missed, of course) was bad decision-making, but I like that we gave ourselves a chance with our hustle and effort.  At one point we got their lead down to 11.  We ended up with 60 points in the paint.  That's A LOT of paint points and I surely do like that!  We also had 22 fast break points and that's a great positive as well.  In fact, the Houston Rockets, with their much vaunted front line, only had 38 paint points and only 16 fast break points.  We lost because we shot an almost-record-poor 3pt fg% and because they got 40 ftas.  That's a 28 fta differential and that translates into a lot of opportunities to get easy points.  James Harden was 14-14 from the line due to Bradley and Smart's inability to defend him.  My point here is that if we just pay a "normal" game, one where we don't shoot 4% from 3 and do even a slightly better job defending Harden (remembering that he and Terrence Ross are both lefties would be a good starting place to fine-tune that defense) and this game is much more competitive, and Houston is one of the better teams in the very good WC.

They were 2-0 coming in.  This was their home opener.  We dug ourselves into an early hole with terrible shooting.  This is just one game, it counts for just one L.  As Brad preaches "don't get too high with your successes nor too low with your failures".

Next, Dallas.



bob



.

This game was over at 22-8 in the first quarter and in a quarter that the Rockets would go on to score 37 points to our 22, the biggest culprit was easily Jeff Green. Defense is a total team concept, if one player is out of position, the whole defense breaks down, the player that was in a fog on defense the whole game was Jeff Green, Ariza was getting anything he wanted, wide open looks, slashes right on Green like he was tissue paper....I kid you not, go look at the quarter leading up tp 22-8, someone has to go, he really sucks.

Sully played great, punishing people in the paint, his post defense on Howard was surprisingly effective, he gets low in his stance and you can't move him, hes like an offensive tackle. He'll never be a great weakside shotblocker, but he has 6 blocked shots in 2 games, has alot of Paul Silas and Charles Oakley in him. Tyler Zeller also played pretty good defense on Howard, we didn't lose this game because we couldn't handle Howard. I thought AB played pretty good D on Harden, he was 5-14, they gave him alot of calls and AB got called for alot of ticky tack stuff.

bob, Green outplayed Ariza? your kidding me right?

cowens/oldschool wrote:bob, Green outplayed Ariza? your kidding me right?

Cow,

Ariza had one or two plays where he drove to the paint, but he didn't have a big night nor, in my opinion, did he have an "intangibles" game where he stopped his man (Green) or anybody else. He had 8 rebounds, ok, that's good, but only 4-9 from the floor for 9 points.

Green doubled his points, with roughly the same fg% (and Ariza's fg% was worse than his teams') and, unlike the Rockets we desperately needed someone, ANYONE, to start putting the ball in the hoop. Jeff Green did that.

Tell me, how many times did Ariza's name get called last night, on offense or defense? Not many.



bob



.

bob

I just got off the phone with 112288 a few hours ago, we both were disgusted with JG, go rewatch the game, in the early part of that game there were many breakdowns, Jeff Green was in a fog, didn't even know where Ariza was, that game was over early.....so Jeff scored a few points after we were behind by 20!! sorry during Rockets building up that big lead, Green was way too slow and unaware of where his man was which lead to breakdown after breakdown. 37% FG sucks by the way.

cow

Hi,
Besides the already mentioned +'s on Rockets side and -'s on Celtics side, I'd like to say that coach Kevin outsmarted coach Brad. As an example - all paths for passes were covered which greatly disrupted the motion offense; also RR was covered the moment he crossed into HOU side which also diminished his efficiency to distribute the ball. Brad couldn't adjust until it was too late.
Oh well, back to Earth with very hard landing. Hope they'll learn the lesson...

AK

Live by the 3 and die by the 3.

When Boston cut the lead to 11 points they had already missed 17 straight 3 point shots.  I remarked to my wife that if Boston had hit 4 out of the 17 3 pointers we would be leading by a point.

This was one of those games where the shots were not falling.  When that happens all the other things that did not go right become magnified.

Overall the Celtics were simply out of synch all night.  The timing and rhythm of everything they tried to do was just off.

I mentioned many of the obstacles they would face in my pregame thread but I did not foresee them missing 21 of 22 3 point shots.

On to Dallas,

Go Celts!

dboss

I expended many of my views on last night's game in the thread about threes.  But, just to summarize:

• The Celtics have a long way to go in coalescing.  On offense, they don't have a feel for where teammates are on the floor.  On defense, the 3, 4 and 5 positions can't exist man-to-man.  They need better help defense than they exhibited last night.  Kelly's and Sully's most effective defensive moves are fouls.

• Live by the 3, die by the 3 is ridiculous!  No team should do that.  If the 3 isn't hitting, take it to the hoop.  In fact, taking it to the hoop early in every game helps to establish open 3s just like a football team establishes its pass game by displaying a strong running game.

• Rotten spacing; too much readiness to default to the three; failure to make the extra pass; miserable swing of the ball; porous interior defense.

• I don't fault their effort, just their execution.

• And, finally in this abbreviated rant, when things aren't going well, diagnose and adjust.  Don't just do more of the same.

My wife and I delayed our return from San Francisco to attend the Giants' victory celebration.  We stood for two hours at City Hall Plaza, much of it during fairly heavy rain.  Still no sign of the duck boats.  So we left and watched the ceremony on television at the hotel.  Then we coped with late flights, dashing between connections, and extremely cold and damp conditions on our return to Boston.  Dashed again for the bus back to the Cape.  Heard much of the first half on the radio during our car ride home and saw the second half on television.  I have no idea why we hurried.  There were no glimmers in this one.  Maybe the appearance by Young, who definitely knows how to finish from in close.

Onward, Celtics!

Sam

sam wrote:I expended many of my views on last night's game in the thread about threes.  But, just to summarize:

• The Celtics have a long way to go in coalescing.  On offense, they don't have a feel for where teammates are on the floor.  On defense, the 3, 4 and 5 positions can't exist man-to-man.  They need better help defense than they exhibited last night.  Kelly's and Sully's most effective defensive moves are fouls.

• Live by the 3, die by the 3 is ridiculous!  No team should do that.  If the 3 isn't hitting, take it to the hoop.  In fact, taking it to the hoop early in every game helps to establish open 3s just like a football team establishes its pass game by displaying a strong running game.

• Rotten spacing; too much readiness to default to the three; failure to make the extra pass; miserable swing of the ball; porous interior defense.

• I don't fault their effort, just their execution.

• And, finally in this abbreviated rant, when things aren't going well, diagnose and adjust.  Don't just do more of the same.

My wife and I delayed our return from San Francisco to attend the Giants' victory celebration.  We stood for two hours at City Hall Plaza, much of it during fairly heavy rain.  Still no sign of the duck boats.  So we left and watched the ceremony on television at the hotel.  Then we coped with late flights, dashing between connections, and extremely cold and damp conditions on our return to Boston.  Dashed again for the bus back to the Cape.  Heard much of the first half on the radio during our car ride home and saw the second half on television.  I have no idea why we hurried.  There were no glimmers in this one.  Maybe the appearance by Young, who definitely knows how to finish from in close.

Onward, Celtics!

Sam

Sam

sam,


Any excuse to delay in San Francisco is a good one.



bob



.

Bob, you're right!  We got to go to each of our two favorite San Francisco restaurants twice.

Sam

My thoughts on last night's game tend to drift towards Rondo. No, he did not miss all 24 of the missed three pointers, but he also did not move himself or the ball very well.

He is the team captain, team leader, most decorated player and most experienced player and when the guy holding down all these spots does not play well it is easy to see why a young team also does not play well.

Rondo lost the pace he had the other night, he let himself get contained far too much by one defender right after walking the ball up over mid court, did not drive to the hoop and even did not play much of an inspired game on defense. His rebound total was good, but his overall game was poor.

He is better than what he showed in Houston, and I bet his team will rally around him in Dallas if he rallies himself.

Clyde,

Good call.  Rondo's ability to force the pace to match Brad's plan will be pivotal this season—not just in producing wins but even more in determining how well and quickly the team can develop.

Sam

Hate to pin it all on a player who .......

1) played no pre-season
2) Has played only one meaningful game in over a season (I don't really count the play one sit one from last year)
3) is coming off serious knee surgery

It took a total team effort to stink up the joint.

beat

Your overlooking the coaching staff that came up with a poor strategy against Houston and did not adjust to what Houston was throwing at them defensively nor offensively.

I also getting a little miffed when I keep reading on different web sites that the Celtics are small.  Last time I looked KO was at 7'0....Zeller is at 7'0.............??????

112288

Zeller's defense was surprisingly very good on Howard, on teams with good post up bigs we've got to use him more. KO is not a center....in a perfect world I'd love to trade KO, Green and one of our draft picks for a rim protecting center.

beat,

You are correct in saying that very few members of the team (and coaches?) also did not play well against Houston, but when your offense is bad on any given night the first place to look is to the guy who has the ball the most.

And, I realize that even a past all star can have a bad game, but I saw him perform much better last Wednesday night so I cannot give Rondo a break due to his not playing in the preseason or at a high level last year during his attempt to come back from his knee injury.

Again, I think that if he plays better tonight the Celtics will play much better, too.

Clyde, I have a hunch you are a floor general junkie as I am.  If I posted the percentage of offensive responsibility I place on the floor general, especially in the Celtics' traditional team-oriented approach, this forum would light up like the ramparts' red glare and the bombs bursting in air.  My reasoning is that a real floor general has great influence on how all of the other four teammates succeed or fail.  No, they're not expected to be infallible.  For my money Cousy came closest to being infallible and Rajon is certainly no Cousy, especially when it comes to orchestrating the offensive attack.

I agree with you that it's harder to give Rondo a pass once having seen how he can perform a few nights earlier.  On the other hand, it seems to me that there were serious breakdowns everywhere in the Rockets game, and as bad as the offense was, the defense was arguably worse.  It seems to me that, where the Celtics are concerned, the quality of their offense is often dictated (for better or worse) by the quality of their defense.  And I certainly don't believe Rondo was more responsible than any other Celtic (or the coach) for the awful defensive showing against the Rockets.  Brad has a lot of work to do in order to get this team to the stage where they'll have the basics down pat and can focus on repetitions that will ultimately be the key to their development as a team.

Sam

Wide

Sorry I gotta disagree. Only his second game back... this time against a quality opponent. So he might have had the ball in his hands the most. Well if no one is open what do you do. He's still getting into basketball shape and I don't expect him to begin being "Rondo" for a couple more weeks anyway. We saw a glimmer against the Nets.

It appears you expect a lot for someone that has played very few meaningful minutes with many of these guys. And some of them ONLY 30.

They need to get use to Rondo and vice versa. Houston is not the Nets. And if he plays OK tonight and we loose, who to blame then.....last I checked it's a team game. Rondo stunk, not going to argue that, but I am far from throwing him under the bus for the loss.

We need to be patient..............very patient.

It could be a lot worse, there are the Lakers.

beat

Cow,

I know we spoke about Green's performance, and I understand your continuing concerns about Jeff.  But let me ask you this question.  Taking everything into account, how would you rank Jeff Green among all Celtics who played in the Rockets' game in terms of culpability for the Celtics' poor showing?

Personally, I'm not prone to look at specific individuals for responsibility in such a wholesale stinker as that game.  I look first at energy (which wasn't bad) and second for how well the players interacted with one another in general (which WAS bad).  They did a poor job of enabling one another on offense and perhaps an even poorer job of backing each other up on defense.

It's no secret how I love the Russell Celtics.  But, IF Bill Russell had not been there to back them up on defense, and IF there had been computer chat boards in those days, those forums would periodically have been buzzing with bozo advice about trading Cousy because he kept losing his man in their man-to-man defense.  (Actually, Cousy could afford to play the passing lanes because of Russ' backup availability, and Cooz probably would have won the steals crown every year if that stat had been kept.)

So would you be willing to give me a number to indicate how you'd rank Jeff's overall responsibility for the loss to the Rockets?

Thanks,

Sam

One other thought re: Rondo

No one expected him back this soon due to the hand injury. I'm glad he is but......

So in some ways it is like the Baseball star doing his rehab in the minors to get the timing down and get his swing back.

Well Rondo is getting his rehab assignment with the big club and it's tough to hit a 98MPH fastball when your on your game......let alone playing in only your second one. And basketball is a little more complex than just hitting a baseball. He'll get better and more consistent, but it's going to take time.

beat