Rocket Failure: Houston Has A Problem As Launch Scrubbed By Celtics -- 103-91

{Taking...Deep...Breath....Trying...Not...To...Hyperventilate...}

WOOO HOOO!! That's five!! Five in a row against mostly quality opponents (sorry Phoenix.)!! And, the bench has been a major factor!! And...And...(*******)

Wow...I think I must have blacked out there. Breathe-in.....breathe-out...

Okay, seriously...how can you NOT be excited about how this team seems to be coming along? I can make like The Count from Sesame Street and start listing all of the things that make me believe that this is a legitimate turnaround, but I could waste an entire post on that and still not talk about what actually happened in this game. So, let me put the monocle away and do this the right way...

The Celtics: riding a four-game winning streak forged against some of the steel of the NBA. The Rockets: coming in having lost the first tilt of their three-game road trip, but still boasting a 21-15 record and wins in 10 of their last 13 games.

With that said, Houston found itself ahead by 9 points early on before the Celtics decided to show them what all the fuss has been about, breaking the game open in the first half off of some seriously heady play by growing rookie phenom Jared Sullinger (I think it's about time I start spelling his name correctly! I mean, the guy had 14 points and 8 boards in the first half alone, for Pistol-Pete's sake!), two emphatic jams by Mean Jeff Green, a pair of letters from Threeland by Jason "The Jet" Terry, and great defense and offense from Courtney Lee, who helped to "hold" (more on this later) James Harden to 24 points for the game. Lee continued his hot shooting, making 5-7 shots for 14 points along with Sullinger, who not only equaled his benchmate's point total, he added 11 physical rebounds to boot. Green scored 9 pointed points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists.

Being no pushovers themselves, however, the Rockets made a run of their own -- a stunning 15-5 run! -- that saw the Celtic lead of 17 points shrivel down to 2 before the cagey veterans, fresh from their evening naps on the bench, came in and ripped off a 15-3 run of their own. During the run, Brandon Bass, who didn't have a particularly memorable night shooting (4 points) or rebounding (3 snags), played strong defense and scored one of the night's most enjoyable baskets flying in for a put-back slam that was, if I may say so, simply Leon Powesque.

As for the "Tired Twosome," "Crinkly Couple," "Degenerating Deuce" or whatever name you haters want to call the Dynamic Duo of Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett -- whatevs! -- these two had their "let's show the yung'ns how we do" routine ready to roll from the git with Paul Pierce scoring a team-high 23 points (11 in the 3rd quarter) on 8-14 shooting with 6 rebounds, 3 assists and a steal and KG rainbowing and slamming home 17 points on 8-12 shooting with 8 boards and 4 angry blocks.

Shooting the Celtics their Rocket-red glares after the final buzzer were Jeremy Lin, who posted 12 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds and 3 steals (a nearly identical stat line to Rajon Rondo's 12 points, 8 assists, 5 rebounds and 2 steals), and budding superstar James Harden, who scored the aforementioned 24 points, but had to take 19 shots to get them (making only 9), most of them with either Avery Bradley, Lee or Pierce riding in his socks. For their efforts, the C's defenders managed to put the kibosh on Harden's 14-game streak in which he's scored 25 or more points in each game.

Last game, the story was really about the Celtics bench, which is starting to perform the way many of us predicted they would at the start of the season, and tonight they showed a similar cohesion with the C's subs outscoring the Rockets' extras by a score of 40-25.

While I am trying to keep the elevator somewhere among the middle floors as I write about this team and the marked improvement it's starting to show, I'm having a hard time trying not to think about the matchup problems that we're going to present to teams down the road as Chris Wilcox returns and Leandro Barbosa gets a little more run.

My favorite moments of the game? How about:

 -- Tommy Heinshon bellowing, "The man plays perfect defense and these officials don't have a clue about what good defense is!!" about a late-game foul called on Bradley.

-- And Green, who showed more liveliness and emotion than I've seen from him in all of this season's games combined exhorting the crowd after one of his thunderous first-half dunks and then later on the sidelines leading the bench in executing the always excellent "hold me up! I might faint!" reaction when KG scored his 17th point in the 4th to make it 98-84 as the C's worked to hold off the rockets.

Oh, and one more thing...

Remember that unheralded guy, Greg Smith, who killed us in the last meeting between these two teams (20 points, 6 rebounds)? Well, the C's held him down to 6 points this time, though he DID manage to grab 8 rebounds. Still, his performance tonight pales in comparison to what he did earlier this month.

Kevin McHale's reaction might just be the funniest thing I've seen from a coach in a while.

Next Up? Those pesky Charlotte Bobcats.

Tale Of The Tape

Box Score

Rockets' Red Glare Blinds Celtics, San Antonio Spurred To Win Over Boston By Parker & Neal

I preface this blog by saying that, though I, like many, many of our kind, love the Boston Celtics and one of my greatest passions is to watch, root for and talk about the Celtics in just about any and every instance...there are a few things that even I can admit take precedence over the game.

My heart goes out to all of the families and friends touched by the horrendous evil that befell Newtown, Connecticut this week. There are no words to adequately express the feelings of sadness...only the hope that there can somehow be a day when the painful moments are fewer and far between replaced by the happy memories of those who have been lost to the world.

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With that, I will press ahead with the games:

Fits and starts. That's what it's going to be for the Celtics as they look to fine-tune their defensive rotations and get their offensive players marching in synch heading toward the second half of the season in February.

Speaking of synch...it appeared that Rajon Rondo was on the outside of it for most of the night against the Houston Rockets. Yes, I understand that he got another double-double with 15 points and 13 assists with 4 steals. But he also had an uncharacteristic 7 turnovers and seemed to be in the midst of one of those days caught up in an affliction that my aunt used to refer to by its clinical name: "The Dropsies." He just seemed a little bit out of sorts and the rest of the team was also just a little bit off somehow. The game plan seemed keyed in on stopping Jeremy Lin and James Harden, which they did to mixed results, but it also allowed the unheralded Greg Smith to blast off for the stratosphere and help put away the C's in the fourth Quarter.

I could tell you that Captain Paul Pierce had an off night, scoring 18 but on 1-6 shooting, or that Kevin Garnett scored 14, but would that change the score? No. It wouldn't. Celtics lose 89-101.

 

Really, the standout moment was watching Doc, Courtney Lee and Kevin Garnett go over to a still deeply grieving Rockets Coach Kevin McHale and give him some love, the latter embrace bringing him to tears. McHale had recently returned to the sidelines to resume coaching duties following the death of his 23-year-old daughter, Alexandra. This was an extremely touching and personal moment played out before the cameras and as sad as it was to get a window into his pain, it was inspiring to see that there are players who recognize the truly important things in life and that it's about so much more than themselves or how well they can put a ball in a basket.

 

Box Score and Tale Of The Tape

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Now, I'll have to admit...I got caught out in the Christmas shopping rush tonight and didn't make it to watch the game. After reading a couple of other blogs and watching some of the game tape, though, maybe I'm kind fortunate that I spent the evening bouncing off of ravenous hordes of mall zombies and over-sugared screaming-while-texting tweenagers.

Apparently, these are the things that happened on the second night of the C's back-to-back Texas two-step:

Rondo continued his mini-funk, kicking away another 7 turnovers and failing to get to double figures in assists for the first time in 44 games (not including his ejection game against the Brooklyn Nets). Previously, he had gotten into double-digits in 42 of his past 43 games played. Clearly, he's not sharp and appears to be playing tired, and one can only hope that it's just a tiny hiccup in what has been a tremendous season for the League's best point guard. 

Jason Terry, on the other hand, appeared to have ingested some leftover Rocket fuel from the C's opponents the night before, scoring 17 points in the first half, but it turned out to be just exhaust fumes because after his return from the locker room after half time, he experienced some major Jet-lag, managing only a single

point for the rest of the game.   

Garnett continued his less-than-cordial relationship with Tim Duncan (see beginning of "game tape" link), and held him down to a decidedly un-Big-Fundamental night, scoring just 5 points on 2-13 shooting. But, Tony Parker, Gary Neal and Tiago Splitter? Well, you can watch the tape or check out the box score if you care to see for yourself. 

The crazy stats, considering the 15-point loss? The Celtics and Spurs had identical field goal percentage (46.9%), identical free throw percentage (75%), identical rebound figures -- offensive (11) an total (38), and points in the paint (38). The difference? Three-point percentage (37.5% for the Celtics to 48% for the spurs) and 17 turnovers to the Spurs' 12. Now, I've read a few comments about the refs not giving the C's a fair shake in this one, but I don't care if you had three Joey Crawfords out there, the refs don't cause 17 turnovers.

Other than that?

 Box Score