Celtics (44-19) at Rockets (44-13) Game #64 3/3/18

[FLCeltsFan]

at
Boston Celtics (44-19) at Houston Rockets (48-13)
Saturday, March 3, 2018
8:30 PM ET
Regular Season Game [HASH]64, Road Game [HASH]30
TV: ABC
Radio: 98.5 Sports Hub
Toyota Center


Probable Starting Matchups
Point Guard
vs
Kyrie Irving vs Chris Paul

Shooting Guard
vs
Jaylen Brown vs James Harden

Small Forward
vs
Jayson Tatum vs Trevor Ariza

Power Forward
vs
Al Horford vs PJ Tucker

Center
vs
Aron Baynes vs Clint Capela

Reserves
Abdel Nader
Marcus Morris
Greg Monroe
Terry Rozier
Shane Larkin
Semi Ojeleye
Marcus Smart

Injuries
Gordon Hayward (ankle) out
Daniel Theis (hamstring) questionable
Guerschon Yabusele (G-League) questionable

Two Way Players
Kadeem Allen
Jabari Bird

Head Coach
Brad Stevens



Reserves
Tarik Black
Eric Gorden
Gerald Green
Joe Johnson
Luc Mbah a Moute
Nene
Zhou Qi

Injuries
Brandon Wright (knee) out
Ryan Anderson (hip) out
Chinanu Onuaku (nose) out

Two Way Players
RJ Hunter
Markel Brown

Head Coach
Mike D'Antoni

Game Notes
The Celtics travel to Houston to take on the hottest team in the league. The Houston Rockets have won 14 straight and currently have the best record in the league. The Rockets have won 10 straight at home as well. The Celtics are on a 4 game win streak. The Rockets are 24-6 at home while the Celtics are 21-8 on the road. The Celtics are 16-6 vs the West while the Rockets are 18-5 vs the East.

The Celtics came from 26 down in the first half to beat the Rockets 99-98 at home on December 28th. In the last 7.3 seconds of that game, Marcus Smart drew 2 offensive fouls on James Harden and the Celtics scored 4 points over that span to get the win. The Rockets were missing Chris Paul, Luc Mbah a Moute and Clint Capela in that game.

It was 10 years ago this month on March 18, 2008 that the Celtics stopped Houston's 22 game win streak with a 94-74 win in Houston. KG, Paul Pierce and Leon Powe all scored 20 or more points. I'm sure those two Celtics' wins will be fresh on the mind of the Rockets in this game.

Daniel Theis traveled with the Celtics but is listed as questionable for this game. Gordon Hayward posted another w workout video and is making progress in his rehab, but remains out for the Celtics. Brandon Wright (knee), Ryan Anderson (hip) and Chinanu Onuaku (nose) are all listed as out for the Rockets.

It should be noted that there are 3 former Celtics on the Rockets' roster. Former Celtic Gerald Green joined the Rockets in Boston when they played the Celtics the first time this season. Also, they have former Celtic RJ Hunter on their roster. They signed him to a 2-way contract on January 12. Former Celtic, Joe Johnson was also signed after the trade deadline.

Key Matchups
vs
Kyrie Irving vs Chris Paul
Chris Paul is averaging 19.1 points, 5.8 rebounds, 8.2 assists, and 1.8 steals this season. He is fitting very well with Harden on this team. He missed the first game between these two teams and should make a difference in this one. Kyrie will need to out-play him on both ends of the court.


Shooting Guard
vs
Jaylen Brown vs James Harden
Harden is the Rockets top player and is averaging 31.4 points, 5.2 rebounds, 8.9 assists and 1.8 steals per game. In the last game, Brown was out and it was Marcus Smart who was tasked with guarding Harden. Harden scored 34 but in the last 7.3 seconds, Smart got in Harden's head and drew 2 offensive fouls from him. We will likely see a combination of the two players on him in this game.

Honorable Mention
Aron Baynes vs Clint Capela
Capela is averaging 14.5 points, 11.0 rebounds, 1.0 assists, and 1.8 blocks per game. He is also their rim protector. Baynes has been playing very well and hopefully will continue that in this game.

Marcus Smart vs Eric Gordon
Gordon is averaging 18.5 points, 2.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists off the bench and is shooting 33.5% from beyond the arc. Marcus Smart and Terry Rozier will be tasked with slowing Gordon down along with helping on Harden.


Keys to the Game
Defense - Defense is always a key to every game. Defense wins games. The Rockets are 2nd in the league in scoring at 113.8 ppg. The Celtics are 21st and averaging 104.1 ppg. The Celtics are still tops in the league with a defensive rating of 101.1 while the Rockets are 9th with a defensive rating of 104.3. The Celtics absolutely need to play hard nose gritty defense. The Celtics need to play tough team defense and limit the Rockets' scoring if they expect to get a win in this game.

Rebound - In order to score, the Celtics need the ball and to get the ball, they will need to crash the boards as a team. They can't allow the Rockets to own the boards, which will limit the Celtics fast breaks as well as their second chance points. Houston averages 43.5 rebounds while the Celtics average 44.3 rebounds per game. When the Celtics put out extra effort on the boards, it usually carries over into the rest of their game.

Energy and Aggressiveness - The Celtics need to play physical ball and be aggressive on both ends of the court. They have to come out and play hard from start to finish with no let up. At times it seems that when the Celtics get a lead, they stop being aggressive. They have to be aggressive and they have to play like the team that wants it more for 48 minutes. They can't let the Rockets get a big lead in this one because they won't give it back like they did in the first game.

Take Care of the Ball - The Celtics need to move the ball and find the open man, but they also must make careful passes and not get careless with the ball. The Rockets average 17.7 points off turnovers, good for 6th in the league. The Celtics can't give them extra possessions by being careless with their passes or lose focus and allow the Rockets to steal the ball.


X-Factors
On the Road - The Celtics are playing the 1st game of a 3 game road trip. They have to focus on the task at hand and not allow the distractions of the road and a hostile crowd to take them out of the game. The Celtics have played well on the road and hopefully that will continue.

Revenge Factor - I am certain that the Rockets circled this game in the locker room after their loss in December. The Celtics ended the Rockets' 22 game win streak 10 years ago and they embarrassed them in December by coming back from 26 points down and getting the win. Harden, in particular, will want to get revenge for the way Smart goaded him into 2 offensive fouls in the final seconds of the game. The Celtics have to be ready for the Rockets to come out fired up and for them to play hard throughout the game.

[jmost]

This one should be interesting. Both teams playing well. Both well rested. And both reasonably healthy. A win tonight against a very hot Rockets team would go a long way to convincing me that we have a legit shot at a deep playoff run this year.

[eja117]

Been close the whole game

[eja117]

Rockets playing very well at home but the Celts are just not going away at all

[afceltic]

Kyrie and AL blew that one. The team played great with the exception of those two. Brad really messed up by not putting Monroe back in the game as Al was his pathetic overpaid self when he came back in. Al was a -22 on the floor while Kyrie was -17. They were 0-4 from the floor with 3 or 4 combined turnovers (I lost count) in the last 3:33 after we were up by 6. Both of them need to return their game checks for this one. Brad also gets some of the blame for not pulling Al and putting Monroe back in the game as he showed what he can bring to the table and had a team best +23 tonight.

[mev17]

Good effort overall but we choked at the end. Three dumb turnovers blew the game when we should have had the ball and a 3 point lead in the final minute. And I can't believe Horford did not call a time out instead of throwing that lame pass from the seat of his pants. And on a minor note, Kyrie not being able to properly miss a free throw just added to our late game problems. We played our tails off for 99% of the game, only to blow it in the final 2 minutes. Really a shame.

[eja117]

I thought that was a tad cruddy the way CP3 was leaning on Marcus at the end

[afceltic]

Mar 3, 2018 23:14:43 GMT -5 eja117 said:

I thought that was a tad cruddy the way CP3 was leaning on Marcus at the end

The Western Conference Finals Virgin is a overrated dirty sack of !!!GREENIAC!!!. They won't make the WCF's again and who will he blame for his failure this time?

[Roadrunner]

One of those where would a blow out loss (ex: @tor) be better than this (a close game, should have won). The bench was awesome, except another 4-12 game from Smart tonight. Anyway, BOS has legit shot at winning the Finals, and can play with the big boys.

[eja117]

Mar 4, 2018 0:10:48 GMT -5 Roadrunner said:

One of those where would a blow out loss (ex: @tor) be better than this (a close game, should have won). The bench was awesome, except another 4-12 game from Smart tonight. Anyway, BOS has legit shot at winning the Finals, and can play with the big boys.

I think this game was better. I kept thinking "Wow. The Celtics are just good"

I do think a 7 game series is entirely different but still. And this is without even G Hayward.

[jmost]

Great game. This is what I take from this:

1) As Roadrunner said "We can play with the big boys". The Rockets are 32-1 when Harden, Paul and Capela are all playing. They have won 15 straight and we had a damn good chance of winning on their court. This was more impressive than beating them on our court when they were without Paul and Capela.

2) We finally have a bench that can score. Monroe, Morris and Rozier were all terrific.

3) Brad needs to rethink his end of game lineup. It's time to at least think about whether Al should be on the court, especially when Morris and Monroe are having games like that. I also am done with Smart at the end of games. If Brad wants to put him in for defense, fine, but he should not be taking shots or even running the offense at the end (or ever). I thought the game went downhill when he came back in from his injury. Rozier has hit multiple end-of-quarter 3 pointers in the recent past. He can free himself more easily than Smart. Why wasn't he taking that last shot?

Overall, I come out of this game very encouraged. Think of where we were going into the all-star break, having not only lost a few in a row, but, more importantly, looking awful. We're playing very well again, and, as Brad says, are clearly getting better.

mev17, Horford did try to call a timeout on that play when he was on the floor. So did Brad. You might have seen how angry Brad was and he was mouthing the words "I did".

[Roadrunner]

BOS matches up well with HOU. BOS has split with the best teams in the NBA.

[mev17]

Actually Jmost, I did not catch that. I could see Brad was upset but did not make out what he said. Good catch!

I agree about the end of games. The one way I think Brad needs to be more like Doc is that Doc would put House in instead of Rondo or Posey instead of Perk if the matchups or games performance dictated. Monroe and Morris should have closed out the game IMO, given how Houston had no answer for them.

[Roadrunner]

Mar 5, 2018 11:53:47 GMT -5 mev17 said:

Actually Jmost, I did not catch that. I could see Brad was upset but did not make out what he said. Good catch!

I agree about the end of games. The one way I think Brad needs to be more like Doc is that Doc would put House in instead of Rondo or Posey instead of Perk if the matchups or games performance dictated. Monroe and Morris should have closed out the game IMO, given how Houston had no answer for them.

Brad plays Smart in crunch time for defensive purposes, however it is like playing 4 on 5 offensive purposes, because Smart can not shoot. I would like to see Brad play T-Roz III a game, crunch time, and see if it works. There are about 20-games left, no way BOS slips past #2 in the East, however a #1 seed and BOS can forget about either TOR or CLE, because they have to play each other. Also, CLE could easily slip a spot to #4 which is the same scenario.