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

[GrandTheftRondo]

I actually thought Horford played well enough. He was aggressive, played some damn good defense, and was often in position to make shots... that didn't go down (neither did most of Smart's yet somehow what would the game be without these two) To me, they're both always good even when they're not good.

Good defence? Are you for real?

Did you miss him being blown by for layups on multiple possessions?

[Bar Fight]

I think we also sometime need to discuss playoff seedings soon. We play the Raptors/Wizards two more times each.

We are losing ground on getting the first seed back now, of course beating the Raptors twice would solve this maybe but that seems difficult to imagine.

And the Cavs are falling.

Do we want to be 2 and the Cavs fall to 4th?

Never honestly cared about seeding. Hell, I want to beat both the Cavs and Raptors if anything. **** those teams. If we're the best team in the East we're going to the Finals regardless of positioning/HCA.

[BRUNiNHO91]

I think we also sometime need to discuss playoff seedings soon. We play the Raptors/Wizards two more times each.

We are losing ground on getting the first seed back now, of course beating the Raptors twice would solve this maybe but that seems difficult to imagine.

And the Cavs are falling.

Do we want to be 2 and the Cavs fall to 4th?

I think 1st round match up is more important. I put the Wiz with Wall at a similar level to the current Cavs with Love. Maybe a bit below..

Question is who do we want first..Bucks and Giannis? Miami who is a terrible matchup with all that defense and Dragic + Whiteside? Or possibly Embiid and the Sixers? I have a feeling there are going to be some tough, tough 1st round games coming in the East this year.

[Bad-Thoma]

Helluva game regardless of the outcome.

[tlee324]

For a team that was playing hopeless basketball just 2 or 3 weeks ago, the Celtics showed that they are slowly becoming elite. I'm extremely proud of this group, they gave Harden diarrhea.

I think there was reason to be pissed off though. Zero fourth quarter clutch play by our top players, and the team overall. It was just a very very poor showing in those last five minutes.

[CelticsPride18]

Lol talking about Horford showing up in big games. He was our best player in the playoffs last season.

[PierceFan4ever]

No moral victories fellas, please. We were better than the Rockets for the first 46 minutes and it took us to do high school level basketball stuff from us, stuff we haven’t done all season, to lose that game. I’m not putting the Rockets on the same level as the Warriors where I would tip my cap like I did with the Warriors game when Curry dropped 49 and we lost a close one. I believe imo we are just as good as anyone not named Golden State when we have everyone healthy not named Hayward. We’ve shown that but there’s nothing happy to be about when our 2 best players simply didn’t show up against the best team record wise on the road when you had the game the whole time.

[Shak_Celts]

what is going unnoticed is how those starts by rozier might have amped his career, kid has been on 1. dont like injuries but that turned out to be key for rozier's confidence, hitting all types of buckets he wasn't before. it's amazing really.

[CelticsPride18]

No moral victories fellas, please. We were better than the Rockets for the first 46 minutes and it took us to do high school level basketball stuff from us, stuff we haven’t done all season, to lose that game. I’m not putting the Rockets on the same level as the Warriors where I would tip my cap like I did with the Warriors game when Curry dropped 49 and we lost a close one. I believe imo we are just as good as anyone not named Golden State when we have everyone healthy not named Hayward. We’ve shown that but there’s nothing happy to be about when our 2 best players simply didn’t show up against the best team record wise on the road when you had the game the whole time.

I can think of a few games we had a meltdown in the last few minutes.

[Infinite Llamas]

what is going unnoticed is how those starts by rozier might have amped his career, kid has been on 1. dont like injuries but that turned out to be key for rozier's confidence, hitting all types of buckets he wasn't before. it's amazing really.

I would have given rozier that Horford 3 towards the end 100/100 times. Rozier has been phenomenal despite that one turnover tonight.

[CelticsPride18]

Read on Twitter

[K For Three]

I think we also sometime need to discuss playoff seedings soon. We play the Raptors/Wizards two more times each.

We are losing ground on getting the first seed back now, of course beating the Raptors twice would solve this maybe but that seems difficult to imagine.

And the Cavs are falling.

Do we want to be 2 and the Cavs fall to 4th?

I think 1st round match up is more important. I put the Wiz with Wall at a similar level to the current Cavs with Love. Maybe a bit below..

Question is who do we want first..Bucks and Giannis? Miami who is a terrible matchup with all that defense and Dragic + Whiteside? Or possibly Embiid and the Sixers? I have a feeling there are going to be some tough, tough 1st round games coming in the East this year.

Not sure who I would want in the first round at all. I think the Sixers/Wizards are trying to climb up though hard lately. I feel like we might get the Heat, Bucks or hell even the Pacers (they have a tough road the rest of the way).

I might be an epic nutcase homer but I think we take anyone in the first round in 5, 6 at the most. And as bad as the Cavs look, they looked bad heading into last years postseason too.

I also always maintained we will get a Lebron/Kyrie series this year. I would rather it be in the ECFs though for the instant classic feel to it.


Wizards drive me up the wall.......but I often feel like 2 times out of 3 we will outsmart them somehow and steal the win. They are tough as hell to play against at times but I just feel like we have the small edge in brains.

The only one in the east who still scares me is Lebron James when he feels like showing up. I guess I am still unsure if I should even fear this Cavs team but playing Lebron in the playoffs is a load.

[PierceFan4ever]

Read on Twitter

Celtics will be nearly impossible to beat if the bench continues giving good production. They should have won this game against the best team record wise in their own building if Kyrie or Horford played even close to average basketball. It wouldn’t even be a game if they both played average. It says a lot about how good this team is when everyone aside from Hayward is healthy because the potential is scary. Hell even Jaylen Brown was robbed of minutes because of horrendous calls. I have confidence against anyone in the East although Lebron scares me because he’s Lebron but I feel way more confident in this team than last years if we meet up.

[Bar Fight]

Moral victories are for minor league coaches. We haven't beaten a great team in a LONG time. This was our chance and we blew it in spectacular fashion. I'm only praising this team when we WIN big games. May be unfair, but I have a high standard for these guys based on the level I've seen them play at before.

[CelticsPride18]

I think we also sometime need to discuss playoff seedings soon. We play the Raptors/Wizards two more times each.

We are losing ground on getting the first seed back now, of course beating the Raptors twice would solve this maybe but that seems difficult to imagine.

And the Cavs are falling.

Do we want to be 2 and the Cavs fall to 4th?

I think 1st round match up is more important. I put the Wiz with Wall at a similar level to the current Cavs with Love. Maybe a bit below..

Question is who do we want first..Bucks and Giannis? Miami who is a terrible matchup with all that defense and Dragic + Whiteside? Or possibly Embiid and the Sixers? I have a feeling there are going to be some tough, tough 1st round games coming in the East this year.

Not sure who I would want in the first round at all. I think the Sixers/Wizards are trying to climb up though hard lately. I feel like we might get the Heat, Bucks or hell even the Pacers (they have a tough road the rest of the way).

I might be an epic nutcase homer but I think we take anyone in the first round in 5, 6 at the most. And as bad as the Cavs look, they looked bad heading into last years postseason too.

I also always maintained we will get a Lebron/Kyrie series this year. I would rather it be in the ECFs though for the instant classic feel to it.


Wizards drive me up the wall.......but I often feel like 2 times out of 3 we will outsmart them somehow and steal the win. They are tough as hell to play against at times but I just feel like we have the small edge in brains.

The only one in the east who still scares me is Lebron James when he feels like showing up. I guess I am still unsure if I should even fear this Cavs team but playing Lebron in the playoffs is a load.

An engaged Celtics team can beat any of the east teams except the Cavs(I still believe Lebron will push them to the finals) the problem is which Celtics team will show up in the playoffs.

[CelticTillDeath]

The more I think about this loss and the play of both of our all stars, the more I think this thread should be an ass of shame thread.

Kyrie and horford were absolutely putrid in all areas tonight. I stand by this being Kyries worst game as a Celtic. Terrible shooting percentages, some DUMB turnovers, complete lack of defense, missed the game icing lay up, and the complete debacle where he couldn’t miss one free throw in two separate tries. Just a terrible game. This loss is on his shoulders with horford not too far behind.

There goes the 1 seed. 3 back in the loss column now, and the raptors are on one hell of a stretch with an easy schedule to close out their last 20 games.

[DaTruth34]

Blew that one big-time. Rozier getting stripped leading to the 3 while the Celtics up 5 (I think?) was the sequence that turned the game around.

I thought Kyrie's lay up that popped out and would have put us up 7 with 2 minutes was the biggest play of the game. That was one of those 'Woow Kyrie is a killer and just ice'd the game' type of plays and it turned into second life for them.

We had our chances. I still don't understand why Horford threw that ball away while on the floor. Hold the damn thing at the very least and get a jump ball. The amount of idiotic plays this guy made that cost us points on offense and led to points for them on the other end were bizarre.

Can't complain about handing them over this game..they gave one away in Boston..we returned the favor.

Up 8, se were up by 6 at that point

Inviato dal mio Moto G (4) utilizzando Tapatalk

[CelticTillDeath]

Moral victories are for minor league coaches. We haven't beaten a great team in a LONG time. This was our chance and we blew it in spectacular fashion. I'm only praising this team when we WIN big games. May be unfair, but I have a high standard for these guys based on the level I've seen them play at before.

I completely applaud you sir. You couldn’t be more right. I HATE people that find the moral victories in tough losses. One of my biggest pet peeves.

Teams should only be praised when they win, and like you said, we haven’t beaten a quality team in a LONG time. Not a good sign.

Our last 3 quality opponents we’ve faced have been the raps, the Cavs, and now tonight. We lost two of those games by 20+ points and choked away a 6pt with 2 minutes left and allowed Houston to close on a 12-2 run down the stretch tonight. Another common theme in those 3 games, Kyrie was subpar to down right bad in all of them. Not a good trend to have against quality teams going into the playoffs.

[Captain_Caveman]

Blew that one big-time. Rozier getting stripped leading to the 3 while the Celtics up 5 (I think?) was the sequence that turned the game around.

I thought it was Kyrie's layup that rimmed out before going back the other day for a quick corner 3 with 3 minutes to play.

[bucknersrevenge]

I actually thought Horford played well enough. He was aggressive, played some damn good defense, and was often in position to make shots... that didn't go down (neither did most of Smart's yet somehow what would the game be without these two) To me, they're both always good even when they're not good.

Marcus isn't making 30 million though. Horford is getting money to get more than 15 points in a game where Eric Gordon guarded him in the post about 6 times..that should be a bucket every time..at worst half the time..dude didn't get a single one.

He better show up for the playoffs.

Love you Brun but I hate this take. We really need to let the "He makes 30 Million" thing go. What he makes has nothing to do with nothing, to do with nothing. That's a Merloni-esque take and you're better than that. They got the matchups they wanted in the post. Al shoots over 73% at the rim. He usually cashes in those looks he got tonight. I'll take him getting those looks EVERY time. Sometimes the other team just makes a few more plays than you.

And there's a big factor for this team that simply doesn't get near enough visibility.

http://www.espn.com/nba/team/roster/_/name/bos/boston-celtics

http://www.espn.com/nba/team/roster/_/name/hou

Look at the rosters and more specifically at the ages of the players in rotation. Then consider that Hayward hasn't played all year and we JUST got Monroe. How many times has it been said that this league eats its young? AND...unlike those other great teams this is a roster that had a major overhaul this offseason. Those other teams have been playing together for 3-4-5 years. They know each other like the back of their own hands. Not trying to make excuses but we really need to come off the ledge after random games.