BSJ Game Report: Rockets 111, Celtics 109 - Celtics mess around too much & can't catch Rockets at the end

Everything you need to know about the Celtics loss to the Houston Rockets, with BSJ insight and analysis

IN A NUTSHELL

The Celtics came out playing well in the first few minutes, but then started giving up offensive rebounds and the Rockets got some confidence and took a lead (thanks to Jalen Green’s 17 points). Jaylen Brown (43 points) got it back in the second quarter, but the Rockets kept making the hustle plays to take a 7-point lead into the half. The Rockets pushed the lead to 13 in the 3rd but then Jayson Tatum started attacking to cut it to 5 heading into the fourth. The Rockets went on a late run to get it back up to 11 before a late comeback cut it to 1. It was 2 when Tatum had a last-second layup roll off the rim. 

Box Score

HEADLINES

Mess around and find out: I think the Celtics opened up the game pretty well, and the Rockets fired up 3 airballs in that stretch, so I think Boston saw that and immediately said “oh, easy night” right away. They gave up a bunch of offensive rebounds and second-chance points, got loose with the ball, and Houston got a ton of confidence. Boston had their chances and left a lot of points on the floor, and it burned them in the end. 

Hustle plays: This is where the game was lost. Houston was +6 in points off turnovers, +7 in second-chance points, +1 at the line.

“That's the game. That's every game,” Joe Mazzulla said. “Those margins are extremely important. So I don't care if you take half court shots. If you don't win those three margins, you're not going to win many basketball games. And when we're at our best, we do that. And when we're inconsistent, we don't do that. And we have to be committed to those.”

So a lot of the talk will be about Boston being 12-42 (28.6%) from 3 and 27-45 (60%) from 2 -- and there's certainly something to talk about there -- but if the Celtics boxed out and protected the ball, they could have cut into a lot of those 13 points. And in this game, all they needed was to get 4 of them back. 

Slipping in the standings: The Celtics are now 2 games behind Milwaukee (3 in the loss column) but Milwaukee is in progress with Sacramento as I write this. Regardless, they are now only a game ahead of the Sixers. They do have the tiebreaker, so that's basically a 2 game cushion, but Boston is heading in the wrong direction in the standings. The tiebreaker might not matter at this point, and the Celtics could be heading for the third seed if they're not careful. That would mean home court in only the first round, an unnecessary sacrifice. 

TURNING POINT

The Celtics had it down to 87-89 with 8:55 left in the game and it looked like they might be cruising to a runaway fourth quarter. The Rockets responded by out-scoring Boston 17-10 and getting the lead to 106-97 with 3:05 to go. That lead was just big enough to last the rest of the way. 

TWO UP

Jaylen Brown: A wasted 43-point night for Brown who seemed like the only guy who came to play from the jump in this one. 43 points on 16-25 shooting is amazing, and then tack on 5 rebounds, 2 assists, and a steal. He should have gotten the last shot. He probably should have gotten more than 25 shots in this game, to be honest. Why they didn’t just ride the hot hand more in a game where most guys were playing lazy is beyond me. The gift was right there and they passed on it. 

Malcolm Brogdon: He was the other effective Celtic in this one. 20 points on 5-11 shooting and 3-5 from deep. He hit some big shots down the stretch as he and Al Horford had a few minutes late in the fourth where they combined to keep Boston in it. 

FOUR DOWN

Jayson Tatum: He finished with 22 but I don’t really care much about that. He was awful for most of the night, only turning it on when Boston got down 13 in the third quarter. He very obviously came into this game thinking it was a walkover. 

“We picked it up kind of too late, and I take the blame for that,” Tatum said. “I didn't necessarily start the best and I feel like that kind of spread throughout the team. I have to be better starting the game, just from an energy level, being active out there.”

Tatum was honest after the loss, but where will that get them if they don’t learn from it?

Marcus Smart: He is in a funk. He’s playing his worst basketball of the season. Honestly, Even if everything else stayed the same, just an average Smart game gets Boston this win. He was guilty of critical turnovers, bad misses, and poor defense basically all game long. 

Sam Hauser: Not just an off night, a night where his first shot missed everything. Weird. He was 1-6 from 3. 

Grant Williams: Just an 8-minute stint but it was empty. At this point, I don’t know what’s salvageable from him. It’s kind of unfair to only give him 8 minutes at this point. I feel like a short stint and nothing after that is worse than the full-game DNP.

TOP PLAYS 

TAKES KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

- Any given night blah, blah, blah

I’ll save a lot of the words you probably want to hear for my next piece. For now, I’ll just say that this is yet another reminder that when you try to cheat the game in 2023, you’re gonna get burned.

I don’t care that the Rockets are bad. In this year’s NBA, any team, at any time, can get hot. Any team that tries hard can stay in a game. Any team given confidence can steal a win against anyone. 

I’ve seen it happen all season long around the league and to the Celtics, yet they continue to think they can get away with it. 

- Mazzulla’s emphasis on 3-pointers might be backfiring

Mazzulla might have a ton of data to back up his emphasis on 3-point rate, but the numbers don’t take human nature into account. They don’t take the attitudes of his players into account. They don’t take the tendencies into account. 

I think players feeling they have the green light to bomb away from deep takes them away from making the right play too often. I think too many guys see the 3-pointer as a shot that's good enough for the coach so it’s good enough for them. 

I acknowledge that I’m not in the film room, so I don’t know who gets called out on what. But it just feels like these guys are way too willing to indiscriminately fire without taking the flow of the game into account. 

The basket was wide open all night long. Lanes to the rim were there most trips down. This was a night for Boston to attack the basket, take about 10 fewer 3-pointers, and punish the Rockets for their poor defense. 

The best shot to take is situational. Sometimes it’s a 2, sometimes it’s a 3. The game will tell you what that is. Sometimes the game demands 50 3-point attempts. Sometimes it demands attacking the rim and living at the line. 

The Celtics closed a significant free throw gap by attacking in the second half. They should have had that from the beginning. 

It’s too late to change anything now. I just hope Boston can figure this out organically at some point before it costs them a playoff series. 

Next up: The Celtics face the Timberwolves in Minnesota Wednesday night.