Self-Inflicted Wounds Are The Reason The Celtics Lost To The Rockets, Not The Refs
Well it finally happened. The Boston Celtics lost a basketball game. Their first loss since January 26th and first in the last 8 games, there's certainly no shame in losing on the road to a good Rockets team, but that doesn't mean it wasn't frustrating. Mostly because this was a winnable game in the fourth quarter and the Celtics couldn't close. That's the annoying part. A rational person would say it would be unrealistic to expect the Celts to go 8-0 on this tough stretch, before it started I said I'd be over the moon at 5-3 and you could make the argument that after stealing the OKC win things sort of evened out here.
What I don't want to hear from my fellow Celtics fans is complaining about how the game was called. Oh the Rockets get foul calls? Yeah no shit. It was no different in this game than any other game they've played this season. They know how to grift and get themselves to the line. It's something that we LOVE when our own players do it. Shit there's a cult following for Marcus Smart solely because of his ability to grift. We all love when Kemba draws the fouls coming off a screen into a three at the top of the key, we ALL want Tatum to develop his gifting ability so he gets to the line more. Just because someone was more effective with it against you and it impacted the game is just how the grifting world works. I can't on one hand want all the players on my team to bait officials into fouls and then complain when someone else does it against Boston. That would make you a hypocrite. We'll get more into this later.
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We knew this 8 game stretch was going to be a test. The Celts did show us some good things despite a down offensive night, and the fact that they were even in this game to begin with was impressive given how they shot the ball. The question is with LAC up next, how will they respond to this. Will things spiral or will they bounce back with a solid win? Before we worry about that though, let's talk about what we saw.
The Good
- Another tough night for the "Gordon Hayward is never consistent and never plays well against a good team" crowd. Did the Celtics win? Nope, sure didn't. But that doesn't take away from Hayward's 20/8/6 on 8-14 shooting (2-3 from deep)
After averaging 17.9/6.4/3.4 on 50/39% splits in January, Hayward is putting up 16.8/8.2/5.0 on 49/47% splits so far in February taking just 13 shots a night. That's pretty good for a fourth option. The fact that Hayward only had a 20% usage rate which was fourth among starters is pretty shocking considering he showed to be their best all around player last night, and this is where I wish they would play through him more. Jayson and Kemba couldn't buy a bucket so why not go through Hayward who was showing he could own his matchups.
He led the team in assists, only turned it over twice, was efficient, and has been nothing but solid for well over a month now.
- Part of me hates that Jaylen feels he needs to gut it out when it comes to having two sprained ankles, but man did he show up in a big way
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It was Jaylen that really helped keep the Celts in this game early, time after time he bailed this team out of a scoring drought with a big time three, and then when it came time to make plays in the fourth quarter he was there. He finished 7-12 (4-8) and you could tell his ankles were bothering him because this man only took 2 FTA. He was much more willing to try and beat them from the outside, and the confidence he now has in his three point shot is real.
What we didn't see was Jaylen be uber aggressive and attack smaller defenders, and I don't think that's a coincidence.
- Good minutes from Wanamaker off the bench. He had 11 big points on 5-9 shooting including some big makes down the stretch and he finished a team best +7.
- Celts won the rebounding battle, won the points in the paint battle, won the 2nd chance points battle, won the fast break points battle. Almost always will that result in a win, so that's where the annoying part comes in. They did check off pretty much every box you need and yet their inability to defend without fouling did them in.
The Bad
- It was very clear about 5 seconds into his first stint that this was not the game for Enes Kanter. The fact that HOU goes small you would think having that size advantage might help, but what we saw is something we cannot ignore. When facing smaller, quicker teams, Kanter gets exposed too easily. Add to it that he was a turnover machine in the post, this just wasn't the matchup for him. If he isn't going to rebounds, or score in the post against smaller defenders (PJ Tucker owned him), you have to go a different direction. Brad is usually really good at knowing when to play Kanter, and for some reason he went BACK to him in the second half which was highly questionable.
There are matchups you need Kanter for and teams he can make an impact against, but small teams like this ain't it.
- The fact that Jaylen seems to get hurt in the final minutes of a game while trying to get a defensive rebound is extremely frustrating. Why he was still in the game I'm not sure, and I just hope that whatever he did at the end of this game doesn't screw him for Thursday. He'll probably be out, and that is some shit luck.
- It's very hard to win on the road against a good team when your two best players combine for 10-32 shooting and 1-13 from three. I'm not a big math guy, but I feel like that is not an ideal percentage. This team will go as far as Kemba/Tatum take them, and they picked a bad night to disappear.
Kemba did not score a point in the second half. He went 0-6 and 0 FTA in his 13 minutes. Tatum went 2-5. To put that in perspective, Harden/Westbrook had a combined 52 second half points. Their best two players showed up over the final 24 minutes, the Celtics didn't. Pretty simple.
- Oh, and Tatum missing 4 FTs including air balling one didn't exactly help in a game that was 96-94 in the fourth quarter.
The Ugly
- Let's talk about that run. After that Tatum dunk the Rockets called a timeout with 5:40 to go, up 2 points. What we then saw was Jaylen fouling Harden taking a three, a Kemba turnover, Theis fouling PJ Tucker for two more FTs, a Hayward layup and then a Danuel House three. In 1 minute of game action this went from a 2 point game to an 8 point game and that was that. The Celts never got close again. After the lead ballooned to 10, following a timeout Kemba immediately fouled Harden taking a three, Hayward missed a three and it led to a Westbrook layup. Now the lead was 15.
The problem you see was pretty self inflicted. Time and time and time again we saw the Celtics inability to not bite on pump fakes. Every single one was a foul and the fact that they weren't prepared for that is maddening. Of course HOU is going to try those, it's what they do. Stay the fuck down and don't jump. What that did was kill your momentum and allow them to bank easy points. That is whys the FTA difference was 42-25. Was it annoying that every time they drove the basket they earned a foul whereas Kemba wasn't getting that same treatment? Sure, but welcome to playing on the road. That is no excuse for their inability to defend without fouling, something I wrote about before the game as a concern. The Celts are 30th in the NBA in opponent FTA this month, and it showed.
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- One of the strengths of this team is supposed to be their perimeter defense. Well let's see how the perimeter players did
Jaylen Brown: Guarded Harden on 14 possessions, allowed 3 points (all FTs). Guarded Westbrook 8 possessions, allowed 5 points
Gordon Hayward: Guarded Harden on 6 possessions, allowed 7 points (4 FTs). Guarded Westbrook 5 possessions, allowed 2 points
Marcus Smart: Guarded Harden on 9 possessions, allowed 6 points (0 FT). Guarded Westbrook on 13 possessions, allowed 12 points
Jayson Tatum: Guarded Harden on 7 possessions, allowed 11 points (5 FTs). Guarded Westbrook 13 possessions, allowed 8 points
Safe to say the perimeter defenders did not do their job, especially Smart and Tatum. They got cooked pretty much all night and Hayward didn't really provide too much resistance either.
- Then you factor in the TOs. Going on the road and turning it over 18 times, I'm not sure what you expect to happen. You want to know why the Celtics lost this game, it's not the refs. If was their inability to be disciplined on the defensive end, and then being sloppy with the ball on the other end. Jaylen with 5 TOs, Kemba with 3, Smart with 3, you can't do that shit against a good team and expect to win. They've been lucky in the past with sloppy games not coming back to bite them, well this is what happens when you do it against a team with a pulse. They make you pay.
- 69 second half points on 54.5% shooting and 31 FTA for the Rockets. That's your ballgame.
So in the end, the Celts had an opportunity to steal this game late just like OKC, but due to self inflicted wounds they couldn't get over the hump. They'll have to be a whole lot better offensively against the Clippers which is no easy task, and considering the rest of this stretch it'll be interesting to see how they respond. Win on Thursday and head into the break feeling great, have another performance like this and it's only going to make things harder once the games start back up again later this month.