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

[KGs Knee]

I always have to laugh at the dumb, reactionary hot takes after a close, tough loss.

There isn’t anything “hot takey” about saying our stars, especially Horford, played like poo tonight and were fundamental in us coughing up the game; it’s legitimately empirically verified in the stats. It’s fairly difficult to have such low +/- numbers in a 3 point game.

Further, Al has been garbage ever since the ASB, distancing this critique even more from a “hot take.”

 

You're also the person who continually dismisses the Rockets for no apparent reason.

Hard to take anything you say seriously.

Lol! Where to start?

A) Perhaps you should look up what a "hot take" really is, because I just laid out for you exactly why it's not a "hot take." It's kind of strange and illogical to use language and concepts if you don't know what they mean...

B)This is me "continuously dismissing the Rockets for no apparent reason:"

Yikes! The turnovers! That’ll kill us.

These Rockets are legit title contenders though. They’re not going to beat themselves. C’s gotta show what they’re made of tonight.

I still don't buy them getting past the Warriors. Their style is just not conducive to beating a team like the Warriors four games out of seven.

What style? Top tier defense with an unstoppable offense? They’ve looked like a juggernaut as of late.

What style is conducive to beating the Warriors then?

Jacking up an inordinate amount of threes. It's that exact style that put them up 26 on us in Boston only to let us come back and win by one. They're not going to be able to make enough threes to win four games over GS in a seven game series.

So saying I don't think they can beat GS in a 7 game series is now somehow me "continuously dismissing the Rockets for no apparent reason."

Good job; good effort. But clearly that's an insane, illogical argument.

thanks for the good laugh

you still fail to make any good points, but keep trying

[86MaxwellSmart]

Even when we were up 8...I just KNEW it would come down to that awful foul call on Jaylen (Harden threw him to the ground) plus the Techs....Also, that Lame "Kicked" ball call gave Houston 2 FREE points.

Even so, we should have won this game...Horford played like a rookie...Plus, too many dumb plays in the last 3 minutes.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

In 2 games vs the Rockets, Cs have done a fantastic job of limiting Harden. They have made it hard for him in both games.

True, but they ruined their good D on Harden with bad D on guys like Gordon and Ariza.

Horford was not good tonight. Especially under 4 minutes to play. Three or four possessions where he missed shots

I thought he was terrible a good chunk of the game. Twice he got caught in a double team and turned the ball over, he missed a wide-open three with about a minute left, then he had another good look from 3 shortly after but didn't take the shot.

Eric Gordon was insane tonight, kudos to him.

But I think that Irving layup that went in-and-out was the ultimate killer. Could have become a 115-107 game after that if it went in (and 99% of the time it does) but instead it quickly became just a 113-112 lead and HOU came back. 

Gordon was hot, but any solid 3-point shooter should perform that well when consistently left wide open as he was. The Celtics hardly contested any of his shots. The Irving layup hurt, but so did plenty of other missed bunnies throughout the game—Smart missed two, Horford one, Jaylen missed a dunk.

Just a very frustrating game.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

Fun game in spite of the outcome.

I don't know why anyone is complaining about the game. The Celtics went toe to toe with arguably the best team in the league. Then, some **** luck/breaks, bad referring, and 2 minutes of poor execution. Change any of those and they would have won.

This game gave me hope for a finals appearance by the Celtics.

I'll tell you why: They completely fell apart in the last 4 minutes of the game. They'd play good D but give up an offensive rebound, they'd miss a bunny and Houston would counter with a 3, Houston would cough up the ball but two or three Celtics players would fumble it, all of them trying to take off on a fast break before securing the ball, and give it right back to Houston.

This isn't even including some missed opportunities earlier in the game that could've given them a bigger lead near the end of the game.

[jpotter33]

I always have to laugh at the dumb, reactionary hot takes after a close, tough loss.

There isn’t anything “hot takey” about saying our stars, especially Horford, played like poo tonight and were fundamental in us coughing up the game; it’s legitimately empirically verified in the stats. It’s fairly difficult to have such low +/- numbers in a 3 point game.

Further, Al has been garbage ever since the ASB, distancing this critique even more from a “hot take.”

 

You're also the person who continually dismisses the Rockets for no apparent reason.

Hard to take anything you say seriously.

Lol! Where to start?

A) Perhaps you should look up what a "hot take" really is, because I just laid out for you exactly why it's not a "hot take." It's kind of strange and illogical to use language and concepts if you don't know what they mean...

B)This is me "continuously dismissing the Rockets for no apparent reason:"

Yikes! The turnovers! That’ll kill us.

These Rockets are legit title contenders though. They’re not going to beat themselves. C’s gotta show what they’re made of tonight.

I still don't buy them getting past the Warriors. Their style is just not conducive to beating a team like the Warriors four games out of seven.

What style? Top tier defense with an unstoppable offense? They’ve looked like a juggernaut as of late.

What style is conducive to beating the Warriors then?

Jacking up an inordinate amount of threes. It's that exact style that put them up 26 on us in Boston only to let us come back and win by one. They're not going to be able to make enough threes to win four games over GS in a seven game series.

So saying I don't think they can beat GS in a 7 game series is now somehow me "continuously dismissing the Rockets for no apparent reason."

Good job; good effort. But clearly that's an insane, illogical argument.

thanks for the good laugh

you still fail to make any good points, but keep trying

So, let's lay out this conversation thus far to see how ridiculous this post truly is:

- First, you bemoan my "hot takes" regarding our stars' poor play tonight.

- I then respond to your post explaining in detail why exactly they are not "hot takes."

- You ignore that argument and sarcastically post an emoji in response. You then move on to a false characterization of my position on the Rockets and for whatever reason claim that I can't be taken seriously because of this false characterization of my position on the Rockets.

- In response I post exactly what I said about the Rockets and highlighted why that was a false characterization.

- Once again you sarcastically ignore the arguments, and then you have the audacity to state that I fail to make any good points and to keep trying, even though you have yet to even respond to a rebuttal.

Yikes, that's embarrassing. 

Seems to me that this is simply a case of you having no rebuttal to me refuting your fallacious arguments, so you move to ad hominems instead. You're better than that, KG's Knee.

[hwangjini_1]

Fun game in spite of the outcome.

I don't know why anyone is complaining about the game. The Celtics went toe to toe with arguably the best team in the league. Then, some **** luck/breaks, bad referring, and 2 minutes of poor execution. Change any of those and they would have won.

This game gave me hope for a finals appearance by the Celtics.

I'll tell you why: They completely fell apart in the last 4 minutes of the game. They'd play good D but give up an offensive rebound, they'd miss a bunny and Houston would counter with a 3, Houston would cough up the ball but two or three Celtics players would fumble it, all of them trying to take off on a fast break before securing the ball, and give it right back to Houston.

This isn't even including some missed opportunities earlier in the game that could've given them a bigger lead near the end of the game.

sorry for not being clearler. what i meant was i think people spend too much time ****ing and moaning about the loss. not - i am clueless as why people spend so much time ****ing and moaning about the loss. 

[nickagneta]

Knock it off guys. Let's stay civil.

[ozgod]

IMO the biggest issue that came out of the game was that our D disappeared again. Giving up 120 points, many of them uncontested wide open 3s. Obviously Houston is a great offensive team and Gordon was light out tonight but it was fortuitous that our bench produced 67 points and we shot 55%+ from the floor. We just haven't been able to get back to our early season defensive form.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

IMO the biggest issue that came out of the game was that our D disappeared again. Giving up 120 points, many of them uncontested wide open 3s. Obviously Houston is a great offensive team and Gordon was light out tonight but it was fortuitous that our bench produced 67 points and we shot 55%+ from the floor. We just haven't been able to get back to our early season defensive form.

Gordon was lights out, but a lot of that had to do with him being wide open all night.

[CelticsElite]

That smart heave at the very end was nice, even though it didn’t go in. That looked real close

[Somebody]

As much as I hate to say this Horford killed us. Our rebounding immediately went to **** after he came in for Monroe and Houston immediately pulled out a run to bury us. Big Horford fan but he has to play PF against teams with strong rebounding bigs like Capela down the stretch. IMO Horford and Monroe together could have worked.

[j804]

Horford played like straight garbage. You can’t be getting bodied and smothered by Harden and Gordon in the freaking post and not be able to take advantage. He’s soft as hell at times.

[GreenEnvy]

That smart heave at the very end was nice, even though it didn’t go in. That looked real close

I can’t believe he got off such a good attempt given the situation. Looked like he stepped out of bounds, but wasn’t called.


That layup that Kyrie just missed was the key to the game. That would have put us up 8 but instead they ran down and banged a three. Five point swing and all the momentum. If that layup doesn’t roll off, I think the outcome is very different.

Still, Celtics actually outplayed them imo. The Rockets were very hot from behind the arc, and definitely outhustled us late, but when we weren’t sloppy, we looked like the better team.

Without Gordon, this won’t be our year. But we can be legit contenders next season.

[JHTruth]

I put this loss on Brad. His insistence of playing soft small ball down the stretch is really hurting the team. We were playing terrific playing big and then he goes small and predictably we fall apart. Really frustrating..

[Somebody]

I put this loss on Brad. His insistence of playing soft small ball down the stretch is really hurting the team. We were playing terrific playing big and then he goes small and predictably we fall apart. Really frustrating..

The lineup we were winning with (Rozier-Smart-Tatum-Morris-Monroe) wasn't even that big either, Smart is a PG while Morris is more of a 3. Brad then went with his marijuana lineup of 3 Edited.  Profanity and masked profanity are against forum rules and may result in discipline.ing guards and Horford at C, and things went downhill from there. Brad needs to stop playing Horford at C in crunch time unless we're trying to get/prevent a buzzer beater.