The Celtics didn’t draw back from the truth of Saturday night time’s battle with Kevin Durant, Ime Udoka, and the vertically advantageous Rockets.
It was a hard-to-bear reminder of the place Boston sits on the NBA totem pole.
Houston was working and gunning, dominating Boston in each measurable means. On the boards, they grabbed 53 rebounds to Boston’s 36. On the rim, they blocked 11 photographs to Boston’s two. And from deep? The Rockets drilled 65.5% of their 29 three-pointers, whereas the Celtics managed simply 31.8% on 44 makes an attempt. It didn’t matter what Boston’s shorthanded group did; a belt-to-bottom beatdown was an inevitable vacation spot for the Celtics, who had been left speechless within the aftermath of their 128-101 defeat at TD Backyard.
“We got here able to play, however we acquired popped tonight,” Payton Pritchard mentioned. “So transfer on, prepare for the following one. I don’t even know if there’s a takeaway of this recreation. I believe you simply form of flip the web page. They simply punked us, and also you gotta prepare for the following one.”
The Celtics took the ground on the second night time of a back-to-back, taking part in their third night time in 4 nights. Driving a three-game profitable streak, they flipped their rebounding woes from a evident weak spot to a newfound energy that empowered the crew’s red-hot stretch — the C’s outrebounded each opponent, each offensively and defensively. Boston’s streak carried them from the league’s Twenty fifth-ranked rebounding crew to second total, and atop the Jap Convention, corralling a mean of fifty.7 rebounds per night time.
However in opposition to Udoka’s beginning lineup, which averaged 6-foot-8 in peak, although Josh Okogie’s 6-foot-4 body introduced the quantity down barely, the whole lot modified.
Scoring turned an uphill problem for the Celtics, as they had been held to 24 factors by means of the primary three quarters consecutively. Boston’s lineup of Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Neemias Queta, Josh Minott, and Pritchard mixed to attain 50 factors on 20-of-52 capturing from the ground. Brown dedicated a game-high 5 turnovers, all of which finally pressured Boston to waive the give up flag early.
Attending to the road turned a discrepancy that stood out like a sore thumb. Houston tried 35 free throws, making 25, whereas Boston managed simply 7-of-7 from the charity stripe.
“The free-throw price goes to be correlated to your turnover proportion, so we pressured 20 turnovers,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla mentioned. “I believe it’s a mixture of teaching those that you need to get higher at — whether or not it’s taking away a person tendency, whether or not it’s a bonus foul on the finish of 1 / 4, whether or not it’s as a result of we had a breakdown in our particular person protection, and we’re going to guard the rim. It’s important to outline these. So there’s all the time going to be that correlation between your free throws and your turnovers with the best way that we wish to play from a physicality standpoint.”
To place it merely, the Celtics couldn’t hold with the Rockets.
Udoka savored the enjoyment of his private Tremendous Bowl, and ex-Celtics guard JD Davison contributed 5 factors in eight minutes off the bench throughout his return to Boston.
The daunting problem of competing with the Rockets got here far too early for a Celtics crew nonetheless gentle on expertise.
It’s laborious sufficient to defend Kevin Durant, a generational scorer. Add the problem of guarding 6-foot-11 Jabari Smith Jr. and 6-foot-11 Alperen Şengün, alongside a frontcourt cobbled along with unproven newcomers, and the duty shortly turns into too tall for these Celtics this early within the season.
There was nothing Boston might hold their hat on — not Mazzulla-ball, not grit, not even equal vitality. Durant and the Rockets danced across the Celtics, firmly in command from the opening tip. Houston, at one level, stretched its result in 36 factors, conserving Boston ever catching up.
Maybe it was pent-up exhaustion, or perhaps the Rockets had been merely discovering their rhythm as a projected Western Convention powerhouse, flexing over the less-talented Celtics. Both means, everybody in Boston’s locker room agreed on one factor after Saturday night time’s efficiency: it was an evening to neglect.
“Clearly, it wasn’t our night time,” Mazzulla defined. “The Rockets performed effectively — a superb crew, effectively coached, they had been ready, and this wasn’t our night time tonight. So, to me, that occurs over the course of a season. And so, it’ll be extra essential about how we reply on Monday at shootaround and into the sport on Monday night time (in opposition to the Jazz).”
