BSJ Game Report: Celtics 126, Rockets 102 - Tatum, Brown combine for 77 as C's pull away

Everything you need to know about the Celtics' win over the Houston Rockets, with BSJ insight and analysis. 

IN A NUTSHELL

The Celtics came out pretty blah, completely playing into the letdown portion of my preview. They had spurts of playing good basketball, but they mostly played with their food over the first couple of quarters. They pushed the lead to double digits at the end of the third quarter and then broke it open in the fourth. Jaylen Brown had 39 and Jayson Tatum had 38. Robert Williams was the only other Celtic in double figures before garbage time with 11. 

Box Score

HEADLINES

Good team vs. bad team: This was the ultimate “good team vs. bad team” game. The good team settled for a bunch of jumpers early and did just enough to keep some distance. The bad team played bad basketball but hung around until the good team decided to end things. 

Tatum and Brown dominate: I wouldn’t even call these performances dominant. It’s more that someone had to score all the points, and those were the guys who did it. Brown took one more shot (26 to 25) and scored one more point (39 to 38). But it'd be silly for me to say they didn't dominate this game. They nearly became the first Celtics duo in history to drop 40 apiece. 

Make/Miss something something...: The Celtics put up 56 3-pointers in this game, one off the team record. In the first half, they shot 8-29 (27.6%).  In the second half, the Celtics were 12-27 (44.4%). 

“First half we generated a lot of shots, a lot of good shots,” Tatum said. “In the second half they just went in, and I think that was the difference from half to half.”

TURNING POINT

The Celtics responded to a 10-3 Rockets run midway through the fourth quarter with a 22-8 run to close out the game. It started with 3-pointers from Marcus Smart, Brown, and Tatum in less than a minute to make it a 15-point lead. The knockout blow followed a couple of minutes later. 

THREE UP

Jaylen Brown: 39 points on 53.8% shooting and he set the tone in the first quarter with 15 points. He got another huge chunk of it with a 14-point third quarter, 11 of them coming after he got whacked in the head for a flagrant foul.

"Yeah sometimes you getting smacked in the face is exactly what you need in the middle of the game," Brown joked. "Like 'Jaylen, what the hell are you doing?' -Smack in the face-, and then proceed to score the ball."

Jayson Tatum: 12-25 shooting and a 12-point fourth quarter to help put the game away. While Brown was, for a while, chasing history for the most point scored without a rebound or an assist (he ultimately ended up with 1 rebound and 2 assists), Tatum grabbed 8 boards and dished 4 dimes. Tatum and Brown only and 2 turnovers apiece. 

Robert Williams: 11 points on 4-4 shooting and some growing comfort on the floor. He had 15 rebounds, 5 offensive. 

“Just fitting in, helping wherever I can,” Williams said. “Tonight Joe put a big emphasis on they’re one of the best offensive rebounding teams, so I just tried to put the pedal to the medal a little bit with that.”

ONE DOWN

Sam Hauser: Okay, now I’m getting concerned. He was 1-4 from 3 in this game and he’s now 28.6% from deep in December. Sometimes guys go into slumps and it takes them a while to break out of it, but I’m starting to wonder if they need to take any drastic measures. Should he just get one game in Maine where he can get 14 3-point attempts and find his rhythm? Should the Celtics play him more so he can get into the flow more? This is in his head, and something needs to be done to get it out. 

TOP PLAYS

ONE TAKE KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

- I’m going to harp on paint touches until I die 

This era of NBA basketball prioritizes the 3-point line, because standing behind the line and hitting a shot gives teams such a significant advantage. The extra point adds up quickly, so the math behind the shooting binge, like it or not, is significant. 

Tatum and Brown shot 12-31 combined from the 3-point line, a good 39%. Overall, the Celtics shot 20-56, an average 35.7%, but the non-Jay shooters were 8-25 … a bad 32%.

The problem with how Boston generated its looks, despite how much they want to argue about how good they were, is that too many didn’t come with the requisite work to create the right kind of open looks. 

Boston shot 8-35 (22.8%) on 3-pointers taken when the ball didn’t touch the paint during the possession (this number filters out a garbage time make from Justin Jackson, and a missed heave by Smart). They hit 7-12, 58%, when the ball hit the paint first (one make and one miss came off an offensive rebound -- they're included in the percentage, but make note that they're also not exactly the kind of paint touches I’m talking about). The Celtics were also 4-7 on plays where they attacked but kicked the ball out before actually getting to the paint. That's a distinction that needed to be made, to me, because while it accomplishes the same goal as a paint touch, it’s not fair to lump it into either other category. 

I will fully acknowledge that not every 3-pointer has to come off a paint touch. At some point, the drives become drives simply aimed at passing and that can be sniffed out by the defense. There are also some good plays being run to get the ball going side-to-side and find a good shooter behind a screen, so I’m not going to say those sets are bad. There's wiggle room on either side of this conversation. And to be fair, sometimes the paint touch leads to a kick/swing scenario where the pass is the same one as a bunch of the non-paint touch passes. 

But it’s also obvious that attacking first leads to good things. Even if the 3-pointer comes off drive/kick/swing/swing, it’s the flow of the offense that throws the defense into a tailspin. The attack gets the defense out of sorts, the ball finds the guy its supposed to find, and the ball tends to go in more often.

And I just looked at 3-pointers. There are times when the kick/swing leads to a second attack and either open 2-pointers, layups, or free throws. 

Again, no one expects the ball to hit the paint every time. Sometimes early offense can be good with retreating defenses and good shooters stepping into open, clean, in-rhythm looks. But it continues to be pretty clear that the less the Celtics get the ball into the paint, the less the ball goes in. 

Next up: The Celtics finish the home stand when they host the Clippers Thursday night at 7:30