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

[K For Three]

I bet Lebron is going to re-watch tonights game and say to himself,"The Rockets made Kyrie look stupid, hahahaha Kyrie you are so stupid. Yes, I am going to the Rockets now, made my decision early."

[Big Baby]

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Jesus...This one? Just this one??? There’s never been an all star center who couldn’t score on a 6’2” guard. If you can’t even post up guards or stop anybody, how about at least grabbing some boards?

Al Horford is an elevated version of Mark Blount.

[K For Three]

These guys are a riot.

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[Captain_Caveman]

Somebody call the cops! Al Horford is stealing $25 million a year from the Celtics!!

.500 team at best without him in either of the last two seasons.

[CelticsPride18]

Somebody call the cops! Al Horford is stealing $25 million a year from the Celtics!!

.500 team at best without him in either of the last two seasons.

It’s a cycle the same bitching occurred in the reg season last year. Then in the playoffs he was getting praised.

[jfs1000d]

Execution down the stretch. What ya going to do? Make or miss league. I like where we are at. No complaints today. Rockets are good.


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[Setshot33]

Is it THAT hard to admit that both Al and Kyrie stunk the joint up tonight? Not for the season, just tonight.

Brad played it too stubbornly by not going to Monroe over Horford down the stretch tonight. He was killing it in the post, both scoring and passing.

And for all the talk from Kyrie about being "locked in" for the last week, he sure didn't seem that focused tonight.

Hopefully the team uses this as a kick in the ass for the rest of the season.

[jfs1000d]

Somebody call the cops! Al Horford is stealing $25 million a year from the Celtics!!

.500 team at best without him in either of the last two seasons.

Cave is so right here it isn’t funny.

Horford helps us go. He allows other people to fill in. He does.l Whatever is needed.

He isn’t a great scorer. And isn’t going to bitxh if he doesn’t get touches.

We scored 120 tonight. That’s good enough to win. Horfie is a big part of it.


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[jfs1000d]

Tonight, Eric Gordon got 29 and Ariza 21. Ridiculous. If Gordon shoots like that, rockets winning nba title.


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[LarryBirdsFingr]

Game was fine, someone has to lose. Yeah, horford missed some ymca shots But he always does so, celtics gonna celtic.

[fallguy]

Anti-Horford rhetoric is the sign of a low BBIQ. Criticize him for one game but the guy makes everything work.

[CelticTillDeath]

Execution down the stretch. What ya going to do? Make or miss league. I like where we are at. No complaints today. Rockets are good.


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No complaints? How about Kyrie shooting 6-17? Or the costly turnovers by Kyrie, particularly the 2 in the 4th down the stretch? How about the putrid defensive effort from Kyrie and Horford? How about the missed lay up by Kyrie that could have iced the game? How about the complete lack of awareness when horford threw the ball away instead of calling TO or getting a jump ball? How about Kyrie and Horford both having the worst +/- on the team at -22 and -18? How about Kyries boneheadedness when trying to miss a free throw on purpose, TWICE? How about allowing Houston to close the game on a 12-2 run?

There was a TON of things to complain about tonight, and almost all of it came from Kyrie. Horford had his donkey moments tonight as well. This should have and could have been a huge Celtic win. To blow a lead that late in the game by simply pooping their pants down the stretch is completely inexcusable. This is a terrible loss. This is a loss that more then likely will come back to bite us in the ass in the near future.

So yea, I’d say there’s some things to complain about.

[Theocy]

as much as i like harden's skillset i hate that 1 every 3 possessions he tries to get a foul

He does it against everyone. In theory the NBA is trying to minimise this and make refs aware of such strategies but damn he is often unbearable.

Rockets have a very good team. But to win the Warriors they need to outscore klay, curry and durant. I doubt they can do that. Tonight their 3's were falling. Perhaps our defence wasn't what is should have been but they are the poor man's warriors with this style of offence.

Kyrie had a mediocre night. Unfortunately he did. he was a bit unlucky at one or two possessions but still not his best night.

[K For Three]

What time tomorrow does Horford get his public humiliation ritual by Celtics fans since we can't do it to Morris?

Honestly I am the biggest Kyrie fan girl on the planet without being an actual groupie. But even I admit that Kyrie messed up tonight. Doesn't happen very often so it don't bother me and it's not a playoff game. But yeah I admit Kyrie was kinda out there in Flat Earth la la land tonight or maybe he felt it was round and he was all "off". Or maybe he just gets bad vibes in Houston or he had a bad lunch.

It happens.

[CelticTillDeath]

What time tomorrow does Horford get his public humiliation ritual by Celtics fans since we can't do it to Morris?

Honestly I am the biggest Kyrie fan girl on the planet without being an actual groupie. But even I admit that Kyrie messed up tonight. Doesn't happen very often so it don't bother me and it's not a playoff game. But yeah I admit Kyrie was kinda out there in Flat Earth la la land tonight or maybe he felt it was round and he was all "off". Or maybe he just gets bad vibes in Houston or he had a bad lunch.

It happens.

In big games recently, Kyrie has done the complete opposite of what we expect from him. Our last 3 “big” games against marquee teams were the raps, the Cavs, and tonight against the rockets. You know what all three have in common? All were bad losses where Kyrie was subpar to down right awful. Two of those losses were 20+ point blowouts, and tonight was a choke fest.

Lately Kyrie has been feasting on lesser talented teams, while not showing up against the tougher ones. Certainly not a good trend to see forming while we’re in the middle of a race for the 1 seed and heading into the playoffs.

[GrandTheftRondo]

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.

Ass of shame? Are you kidding me?

We were playing the second best team in the league on the road, with them having won 14 straight.

Losing at the end like that sucked, but I didn’t expect us to even be in a position to win to be honest.

Yes. Ass of shame. Clearly me and you have 2 different views of this team. The Celtics have beaten every team ranked in the top 7 in total rankings. We have the 4th best record in basketball. We have the best defense in basketball. We’re a team with finals aspirations.

Tonight though? Our two stars had the worst +/- on the team. Kyrie was terrible, particularly down the stretch. We had a 6pt lead with close to 2 minutes left and choked so bad that the rockets finished on a 12-2 run. That deserves an ass of shame in my book.

Any time a team blows a 6pt lead in a game they led damn near wire to wire, by committing bad turnovers, missing lay ups, playing poor defense, making dumb decisions, and allowing a team to go on a 12-2 run to close out the game, yea I’d say that deserves an ass of shame.

If Kyrie plays to his averages, this is an easy Celtic win. He deserves an ass of shame for what I think was his worst game of the season.

Your expectations are far too high for a team that is missing its second best player.

I want to win every game but there’s been times this season against good teams where it’s obvious that the Celtics flaws and lack of Hayward is exposed. That last two minutes was a clear example of that to me.

[CelticTillDeath]

Ass of shame? Are you kidding me?

We were playing the second best team in the league on the road, with them having won 14 straight.

Losing at the end like that sucked, but I didn’t expect us to even be in a position to win to be honest.

Yes. Ass of shame. Clearly me and you have 2 different views of this team. The Celtics have beaten every team ranked in the top 7 in total rankings. We have the 4th best record in basketball. We have the best defense in basketball. We’re a team with finals aspirations.

Tonight though? Our two stars had the worst +/- on the team. Kyrie was terrible, particularly down the stretch. We had a 6pt lead with close to 2 minutes left and choked so bad that the rockets finished on a 12-2 run. That deserves an ass of shame in my book.

Any time a team blows a 6pt lead in a game they led damn near wire to wire, by committing bad turnovers, missing lay ups, playing poor defense, making dumb decisions, and allowing a team to go on a 12-2 run to close out the game, yea I’d say that deserves an ass of shame.

If Kyrie plays to his averages, this is an easy Celtic win. He deserves an ass of shame for what I think was his worst game of the season.

Your expectations are far too high for a team that is missing its second best player.

My aspirations are too high? I don’t care who is missing. Hayward’s been gone from the jump. We’re still a 44-20 team. That’s good enough for 2nd in the conference and 4th overall. We’ve beaten every top ten team in the Nba at least once. We have the best defensive rating in the league. With how poor Cleveland has been all year, and even again recently after their trades, this Celtics team is absolutely a finals contender. I don’t think they can win a championship, but when you look at what they’ve accomplished, who they’ve beaten, who they’ve played tough, and how we’ve played recently, I absolutely think we can get to the big dance. I don’t think those are unrealistic aspirations at all.

Hell, we should have beaten a team on a 15 game win streak and who currently has the best record in the league. We gave this game away down the stretch. This team when locked in can compete with anyone, and that’s what makes this loss so frustrating.

[Parasite]

Somebody call the cops! Al Horford is stealing $25 million a year from the Celtics!!

.500 team at best without him in either of the last two seasons.

Cave is so right here it isn’t funny.

Horford helps us go. He allows other people to fill in. He does.l Whatever is needed.

He isn’t a great scorer. And isn’t going to bitxh if he doesn’t get touches.

We scored 120 tonight. That’s good enough to win. Horfie is a big part of it.


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Horford has been a huge part of our success this year. Having said that, you are absolutely delusional if you think he was a “big part” of us scoring 120 tonight. Horford was pathetic tonight. Terrible. And he knows it.

[K For Three]

What time tomorrow does Horford get his public humiliation ritual by Celtics fans since we can't do it to Morris?

Honestly I am the biggest Kyrie fan girl on the planet without being an actual groupie. But even I admit that Kyrie messed up tonight. Doesn't happen very often so it don't bother me and it's not a playoff game. But yeah I admit Kyrie was kinda out there in Flat Earth la la land tonight or maybe he felt it was round and he was all "off". Or maybe he just gets bad vibes in Houston or he had a bad lunch.

It happens.

In big games recently, Kyrie has done the complete opposite of what we expect from him. Our last 3 “big” games against marquee teams were the raps, the Cavs, and tonight against the rockets. You know what all three have in common? All were bad losses where Kyrie was subpar to down right awful. Two of those losses were 20+ point blowouts, and tonight was a choke fest.

Lately Kyrie has been feasting on lesser talented teams, while not showing up against the tougher ones. Certainly not a good trend to see forming while we’re in the middle of a race for the 1 seed and heading into the playoffs.

I understand what you are saying to be serious for a minute and it's something to watch as time goes on here. He hasn't really been great in a "big game" since the Warriors game.

He has a postseason coming up to prove himself still as a Celtic and hopefully all his best moments in the clutch vs. big teams come later rather then now. We are going to need him in the playoffs to be great in a lot of games and he knows this, hell it's what he wanted too by leaving Cleveland.

I will admit, tonight was a very odd ending for us IMO. I'm over it, but it was odd.


Of course as we all know we will win all the easy to average games the rest of the regular season probably. Really tough ones left like Raptors and Wizards twice each might really tell the playoff seeding picture. We are pretty much locked into the second seed at least, first seed is going to prove to be stronger challenge to regain then I had initially thought.

[return2glory]

Great effort by our bench. Morris, Monroe, Rozier were really good. Smart was solid.

Horford and Kyrie choked. Jaylen is still a strub. He did nothing after a good 1st quarter.