[Game Thread] Celtics @ Rockets 11/4

Kind of an off-sync start to the half for the Celtics. The Rockets are capitalizing and have cut the lead to 1.

 

T-Mac's laziness on the defensive end is annoying me

 

Yao ... jesus. Missed a simple, wide open left handed dunk. Inexcusable.

 

T-mac is getting burned by Ray Allen.

 

Scola's found his jumper. His stroke has been pure, from the field and the line. Unfortunately, Yao's completely out of sorts. He's losing Perkins to much on defense, and he's not finishing his shots around the basket. The Rockets may benefit right now from inserting Hayes or Landry into the game. They're not getting it done trying to play through Yao.

 

Back to back steals and great plays by Tracy. He's gambling a bit now to overcome his inability to stay in front Ray Allen. But he's help cut into the lead a bit.

 

Tracy just might be on fire right now. Wow.

 

Damn it .. the Rockets had a golden opportunity to take the lead at the end of the quarter, and they f'd it up. Yao Ming is completely out of sorts. Hopefully the Rockets get a shot in the arm with Brooks and Barry in the fourth quarter. It may be a good idea to keep T-Mac in the game ... he's kind of got it going right now.

 

Rockets are now going with Brooks-Barry-Artest-Landry-Hayes. They've had success with that lineup before. The Celtics are playing small up front right now, so they can get away with a smallish front court.

 

T-Mac and Yao back in the game right now for the home stretch. Artest is getting a breather.

 

I don't understand this substitution of Rafer for AB. And Yao gets stuff on the post up.

 

And a turnover for Yao. He's just been awful.

 

Rafer gets a tech. Thanks Rafer. Thanks a lot.

 

An And-1 opportunity for T-Mac. I think we should forget trying to post up Yao and just ISO T-Mac and Artest the rest of the way. And, for god's sake, get Rafer off the damn court. We need a freaking shooter.

 

Adelman wants to stick with the starters for the closing minutes.

 

Rockets cut it down to 3 with a little over a minute left. Celtics ball after the timeout. Scola has had a great game. He gets the game ball if we can pull out a win.

Good defensive switch, putting Artest on Allen. T-Mac hasn't been able to stay with Allen all game.

 

Down by 3 with a minute!

 

Miss by the Tracy on the pull up jumper, and Celtics go to the line. Rockets are going to lose, and the Celtics squarely outplayed them. We've got a long way to go on the offensive end, guys.

 

The Celtics offense is so much more comfortable. All of their Big Three are completely in sync. The Rockets don't have that chemistry yet.

 

Celtics just have more experience with their big 3. When they run plays, they just know where to go and what to do. At times, it seems as if the Rockets are a little confused and don't know what to do. We haven't developed the chemistry just yet. As I'm writing this. Rockets ball with 13.6 seconds down by 4, 101-97.