Celtics 120 @ Rockets 123 Post-game Notes (44-20)

[ParticleMan]

monroe was great. this is his role, come off the bench and score. yeah he sucks on D, that's why he's not starter material. but if he can abuse backups bigs and rebound that is exactly what we need.

Up until a few days ago the team was giving up more points than they were scoring with him out there. Maybe the last two games have changed that somewhat. Still, he’s a disaster defensively. In a playoff game you cannot have players out there leaking points when every possession is so valuable.

well, i'm gonna give him a pass on the first few games, he clearly didn't know the system, he looked lost out there. now he's settling into his role. i mean, it's not like he's never done this kind of thing before, this is the same greg monroe he's been his whole career.

he's bad defensively but if you can hide him out there he can be a positive. that's on brad. it's rare to have a go-to-guy in the post off the bench. i think it's a big part of why our bench is erupting lately.

[Iguodaladon]

That last turnover by Kyrie late in the 4th that led to the Rox taking the lead absolutely killed us. Overall, a very impressive game by all our guys (apart from Horford)- Monroe was pivotal in that game, finishing up close and even making nice plays from the top of the key. His defence was pretty solid too.

[bigfoot_cryptozoology]

The Celtics are just a skosh below Houston, who themselves are slightly not as good as the Warriors,
but seem to match up really well against them. No shame in the Celtics losing, more of a demerit, negative
for the unforced errors, questionable passing, lukewarm post play by Horford: the way they collapsed
in the clutch. Games against GS and Houston make one wonder just how special the Celtics will be with Hayward's return
and the need for one more impact player besides him to win the Title.

[FlyBono]

If Boston had ADavis for this game minus Horford and Brown ( via trade) would Boston had won this game?

[TheTruth316]

Boxscore: http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=400975685

While I'm sure I'll get over it in an hour or so, god damn that was a **** rough loss. ****. What the **** is there to say really? We seriously **** up. Credit to the Rockets or whatever.

Next game is Monday, March 5th, @Chicago, 8:00pm EST

Let's destroy the Bulls.

Were you watching the same game? I loved the game, hated the outcome.. It was like a playoff game.. There is no shame. .Just lessons to be taken in. Rozier will learn to hold on to the ball. Although not much you can blame him about that play. A lot of great things I saw last night. Defense needs to be better! Rebounding killed us! You can't give Houston 5 shots per possession.. We miss Theis. In crunch time don't settle for the threes..

Jaylen Brown!!!! Wow! Such effort and desire I saw on the defensive side!

We are a good team , that's getting better.. Chemistry on the bench.. Now the starters need to improve their offensive output!

[Green89]

I have been as high on Tatum as anyone, but Smart was about 5 times better than him tonight.

Horrible post lol.

It’s like hitting a home run early in the game, but striking out in the 9th inning with runner’s on base and you lose. Big freaking deal you play well early, because it’s how you finish the game that matters. Smart always seems to come up lame in the end. And I stand corrected from an earlier post. He didn’t take that unnecessary, contested shot with under two minutes to go, it was with 2:34 to go. Either way, it was a **** time for him to become Mr. Hero Smart with the ball. Didn’t even look to pass there. I don’t care how well he played earlier in the game, he sucked with the game on the line.

I’ll take the far more efficient Tatum getting 12 shots a game and let Smart take only 6, any game, any night. Tatum’s the more efficient shooter and Smart has no business taking a dozen shots in any Celtics game. He’s not that good an offensive player to be taking that many shots away from better shooters. Thought he had turned a corner by not chucking shots, especially late in games, and staying under 10 shots per game in his first 4 back from injury. I guess I was wrong. He hasn’t.

Tatum wet the bed after a promising start. Stevens couldn't even trust him down the stretch late.

Without Smart the game is not within reach. Worst "my" stat of the night I've seen in some time. A lot of things went wrong down the stretch but you're picking on Smart of all people. Who's overanalyzing now??

Smart had two critical mistakes down the stretch that contributed to this loss. We also have a much higher winning percentage in games where Smart keeps his field goals under 10. I didn’t see anything at the end of the game where Tatum helped contribute to the loss. Late in this game, Smart took a contested 13-footer where his miss led to Harden layup at the other end. Our 113-110 lead went down to 113-112 at the 2:30 mark.

That was an unnecessary shot that Marcus didn’t need to take, and I was pointing out he took too many in that game. 11 is too many shots for him. Especially when used an ill advised one to help choke away the game. Especially when he’s had problems all year taking shots he has no business taking. Especially when he didn’t do any of that in his first 4 games after the break. All valid criticism. If you think the worst shooter on our team deserves double digit shot attempts per game, and our young rookie who’s at the top of the league in 3pt fg% should take half of what Smart takes per game, I can’t help you.

[Green89]

If Boston had ADavis for this game minus Horford and Brown ( via trade) would Boston had won this game?

Add Kawhi, too, and I’ll go with “YES”.

[bigfoot_cryptozoology]

Read on Twitter

[Green89]

Read on Twitter

?s=20

That’s a strong, vet statement right here. Hopefully, the young ones take note. Most of all, we now know Al will either call time out or hold onto it for a jump ball, before rolling the ball across the court to no one.

[nickgammon]

I wrapped a film this week and crashed at like 8 P.M. last night, so I’m gonna watch the replay later today. Looking at the box score, can’t really be too upset. If this game occurred before the ASB, we probably would’ve lost by 25-30. And at least we didn’t blow a 26-point lead.

I’m okay with splitting a series with the team that has the best record in the NBA and only losing to them by 3 on the road. Looks like Kyrie didn’t have his typical game either and Daniel Theis’ impact on defense shouldn’t be ignored.

Just gotta hope they can bounce back against Chicago and Minnesota. Those are two very winnable games so we need those to keep pace with Toronto. On the bright side, looks like Cleveland could drop down to the 4th seed if they don’t get it together. I don’t want to face Cleveland in round 2. I want them hopefully worn out after a tough series with Toronto or to even lose to Toronto.

All in all, from what I’ve seen in these last 5 games, our guys do have a switch and it looks like they finally flipped it. While they’re not the best team in the NBA, they’re absolutely in the top-4 of the NBA. And when you factor in that Gordon’s coming back either in the playoffs or most likely next year, it should make you feel really good about where this team is at moving forward. Young guys are getting a chance to make mistakes and learn from them while still being very much in the playoff hunt, having the national media’s attention and getting each team’s best every night. I don’t even have to watch this game to know Houston wanted this one bad. Golden State wanted their second game against us bad. Cleveland wanted their last game against us probably the most out of anybody this season. Even scrub teams like the Knicks take their minds off of tanking when Boston comes to town. Everybody wants a piece of the Celtics and that’s a good thing.

[nickgammon]

If Boston had ADavis for this game minus Horford and Brown ( via trade) would Boston had won this game?

Of course, we’d be 82-0. We’d never lose to anybody ever again.

[Fencer reregistered]

I don’t want to face Cleveland in round 2.

How would you feel about Round 1?

Seriously, #3-6 or so are closely bunched together right now, with #7-8 not far back of that group.

[ConstableGeneva]

We played 9 guys in this game and 7 of them scored in double figures and Jaylen had 9. That is great team balance! Yes, mistakes were made and shots were missed in the last 3 minutes. That happens ALL the time in playoff-level games, of which this was one. The victory goes to the team who makes the most plays & the fewest mistakes during that final stretch of incredibly intense basketball. Turns out this time it was Houston, which is no surprise considering they have the best record in the league, are in the midst of a major winning streak, and were playing at home. How can you NOT come away from this game encouraged? The "no moral victories" argument is juvenile.

Very much this, esp considering where we were just before the All-Star Break. I love winning as much as the next guy, but I "prefer" this loss over our last few wins post-London when we stunk the whole 1st half then clawed our way back without having shown real improvement on offense. I care about seeding much less than health and finding our groove heading into April/May. The top seed is Toronto's to lose at this point imo. And they've deserved it more than we do with their consistent, high-level play all throughout so far (not trying to jinx them or anything ).

[ric munchn]

Still bummed about this one today. They threw it away. They played a really good team and were better for 45 minutes. The two seed looks like our spot this year. Not terrible but I don’t see us making the finals from there. Even as a 1 seed I’d take the field but at 2 it’s even a longer shot. Still if I get over the butthurt not a bad effort and encouraging for the future, we already can play with the best teams in the league.

[UNCBlue012]

I’m not even mad, guys. I hate losing, but the guys played hard. Mentally miscues were our downfall, but the young guys and bench were on it all night. Monroe was money.

[titlebound1]

Yeah this would have been a great win. Bit of an overreaction from some people on here though. Give Houston some credit. They made big plays. Moral victories are lame...but it's still the regular season and there are some positives to take from this.

Our bench has been GREAT. If we get this kind of production from Morris, Monroe, Smart and TRo in the playoffs, we will be going to the finals.

[Green89]

I’d say we just saw our playoff rotation, minus Theis. That’s the 10 guys we should go with.

[Jakeopp]

If Boston had ADavis for this game minus Horford and Brown ( via trade) would Boston had won this game?

Is that even a question? Horford was a negative on the court all night, Brown played alright but nothing special. Greg Monroe was feasting all night, imagine what Davis could have done...

[mwhis21]

How anyone can be happy with this performance is beyond me. This was a terrible loss. It was right around 2 minutes left in the game and we had I believe a 5 or 6 point lead. The rockets proceeded to go on a 12-2 run? With 2 minutes left? That’s pathetic.

Oh, and I praise Kyrie constantly, but this game was his worst of the season and it came at the most inoportune time. In those last 2 minutes he had a missed layup that led to an ariza 3. Then he threw a horrendous pass that got picked off and turned into a gordon(?) 3 pointer. Then the free throws at the end? Are you kidding me? You get two tries to miss a free throw and you make one and throw another off the backboard? I’m genuinely angry with Kyrie tonight. If he wants a superstar label, he can’t play this horribly in such big games against the best competition. Just so many bad plays from Kyrie tonight. So many bad passes. So many bad decisions. Defensively he got abused all night. When his shot isn’t falling, and he’s sloppy with the ball, he’s completely useless.

Our 2 all stars were -22 and -18 last time I checked. What a wasted game. We should have won this one.

lol

[Darth Celtic]

That last turnover by Kyrie late in the 4th that led to the Rox taking the lead absolutely killed us. Overall, a very impressive game by all our guys (apart from Horford)- Monroe was pivotal in that game, finishing up close and even making nice plays from the top of the key. His defence was pretty solid too.

I feel if we played Moose down the stretch over Horford, we win eays.