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Recap: Celtics shoot blanks in Houston

Chuck - Red's Army November 1, 2014 Recaps 12 Comments

The Celtics set a franchise record tonight for most missed 3-pointers (1-25, 4% ) and nearly set the NBA record for consecutive misses (0-21). The result, a 104-90 loss to the Rockets.

Despite trailing by 19 at the half, the Celtics made the game interesting in the 3rd quarter. Thanks to a 15-4 run, they had a chance to cut the lead to single digits but a couple of dumb fouls by Avery Bradley allowed Houston to fight off the run.

I believe an old wise man once said, “It’s a make or miss league.” The Celtics aren’t going to beat any team, never mind the Rockets, with an offensive showing this pitiful.

The Green:

Tyler Zeller and Brandon Bass combined for 16 points and 9 rebounds in 39 combined minutes. Zeller also did a decent job guarding Dwight Howard.

Jared Sullinger (14 points, 6-15 FG, 9 rebounds) was the C’s most effective offensive player.

The Gross:

Reread my opening paragraph and let it wash over you again.

After a steller opener against Brooklyn, Kelly Olynyk was an absolute dud tonight. Brad Stevens spared him the responsibility of guarding Dwight Howard, but KO struggled early against Terrence Jones (25 points, 10 rebounds). He picked up a couple of quick fouls and logged just 16 minutes.

Greenlights:

Sullinger spin move

Rondo steal and dunk

The Grid:

Jeff Green with a team high 17 points and team low -22
Marcus Smart didn’t make a basket 0-7
The Rockets had 40 free throws, Boston had 18

Box score

Gene Kim

Sigh…
Richard Jensen

I’m still on the “the Celtics will surprise you” bandwagon.

If they make even 20% of those threes, you’re looking at a very different ball game.

My greater concern on offense is how poorly executed their half-court sets were. They were moving a lot, which is good, but the passes were often either telegraphed and tipped/stolen, or off target. The Rockets were defending the ball aggressively, and the C’s didn’t make them pay for it.

Regarding the 1-25 shooting, somewhere down the line the C’s will hit 3/4ths of their 3s and blow some unsuspecting team out of the water.
romeo0119

all those turn over killed it, if we didn’t have 100 of them tonight we would have had a chance.
Brad P

Smart only 11 minutes? did he get hurt or something?
- Hex Effect
  
  I guess Stevens wanted to win so bad he didn’t bother putting him in that much. Bradley in a few years will be expendable once Smart gets better, he can do so much more than Bradley and he’s a freakin’ ROOKIE!
firm_fiasco

KO is so soft!! My god the dude has game but he’s soft, plain and simple. He’s for sure not aggressive. We’ve got some good young talent but man we desperately need a big man. I mean I honestly feel like this team can compete but not against big teams like the rockets. They played terrible from the start, so many turnovers and a lot of it was from Sullinger and KO. They don’t do a good job of reading defense when the pressure is on them. Also I don’t know if rockets were just playing good defense in the beginning or is it was just terrible plays. I mean some of the plays seemed predictable or maybe the players just couldn’t run them right. I really hope I’m wrong and i’m sticking with my Celtics as a “sleeper” out in the east.
Alex Costa

Bradley made the DUMBEST fouls at the WORST possible time. The C’s had such great momentum in the third quarter until he caused a quick touch foul to put them into the penalty AND shoved a Rockets player at the baseline for no reason at all… These two mistakes themselves were just utter stupidity.

Other than that, I am still optimistic with this group. You could tell they fought as hard as they could, but the ball just didn’t want to get in. They defended as best as they could, making Harden miss quite often and Howard wasn’t getting the easiest of shots most of the time.

Honestly, what frustrated me the most was the missed 3 pointers and the ball was just not going in whatsoever for the Celtics, even with basic layups. Oh well, it happens. But, my god, was Bradley an IDIOT that game.
- Dirk Diggler
  
  The more I watch of Avery Bradley the less impressed I become.
KGino

This game is far more of an anomaly than game 1. Rockets getting every call, banking in 3s, meanwhile celts can buy a jumper. We win that game if we hit 33% from three, so color me not worried. BUT, Brad should be playing Smart more especially with AB struggling from the field… And there’s no way Turner or Thorton should be getting more minutes than the rook!!
Dirk Diggler

When the lights get bright, Avery Bradley reverts back to Avery BADley. Many more of his 3-11 shooting performances on the way. I am a flat out Celtics homer but I’ve been consistently stating that Avery Bradley is simply not a good offensive player and should not be taking more shots than Rondo or even Olynyk.
- forever_green
  
  Avery is a specialist at some things..but shooting isn’t one of them and with him at shooting guard its gonna hurt you, he’s a guy you want coming off the bench for you. He’s just not a starter on a championship team, plain and simple.
  - Dirk Diggler
    
    I agree wholeheartedly.
    
    He struggles with ball handling and turning the ball over, can’t finish around the rim, is streaky at best from 3, and his defense is often neutralized by bigger and more physical shooting guards.
    
    I was a supporter of Bradley (AS A ROLE PLAYER), particularly during the 2011-2012 season. It was the season in which Ray Allen was playing on a surgically repaired ankle. I supported Bradley starting over Ray to provide solid perimeter defense and keep Ray fresh in that postseason.
    
    Unfortunately, the team has overvalued and overrated Bradley ever since. The organization thinks Bradley is MORE than a very good defensive minded ROLE player. In fact, the team showed this off season that the team considers Bradley a part of the team’s nucleus with that bogus contract extension.
    
    The fact is, that Bradley is not a starting shooting guard in this league…he’s a slightly below average all-around player who is often-injured even at such a relatively young age. And Danny wants to gamble on this guy’s health going forward?
    
    He was gifted a 4 year 32 million dollar deal this offseason while we watched the better all-around player in Shaun Livingston get 3 years for 16 million.
    
    I like Bradley as a role player, hate him as anything more than that. He shouldn’t be shooting and/or playing this much, period.