ClutchFans Game Thread: Celtics @ Rockets 12/5/2016

I don't know how but I completely missed Smart flopping all over the place on the last play of the game. Wow that is hilariously bad

 

ameen

 

The more I watch it, the more I'm convinced that Smart could/would have tipped in that miss. HE WAS RIGHT THERE!!!

If I was a C's fan, I would be way more pissed off over that than anything else.

 

He would have tipped that in if he didn't try to flop.

 

Not only did he flop, he took Harrell down with him to give Horford the easy lane.

 

Fortunate to get this win. I'll take it.

 

Harden flails and flops and I only love it because he's a Rocket. Marcus Smart is an even more shameless flopper and I can hate him without holding back. Despite the flagrant, so happy that someone finally gave him a people's elbow to the face. Hope he lands on Shaqtin.

 

Tonight was bitter sweet for me.

Ultimately got the win, the most important thing and very happy about that. Team made a lot of big plays down the stretch, the bench did very well keeping the Rockets withing reaching distance, team stuck to the game plan even when shots weren't falling instead of giving up which is not something I could say about last years squad. Of course some great individual efforts as well(Harrell, Gordon come to mind).

That being said, we made a ton of bad mistakes.

Starting with Harden, 10 turnovers (mostly unforced and flat out bad), then his flagrant foul at the end of the game which was a horrible play by him, offense looked messy, too many iso's, giving up to many easy jumpers and buckets, struggled rebounding / boxing out.

Tonight seemed like a reallt lucky win to me. Not to undermine Hardens great offensive performance, the teams scrap etc, just a lot went our way by chance, a lot of dumb uncessary decisions that could have cost us.

 

On the plus side, many of these errors are fixable. Like you say, a large portion of these errors are unforced. The team just needs to get sharper and their focus needs to be better for the duration of the game.

I keep hearing that the first game back from a roadtrip is actually very difficult for the home team. Seen from that angle, this is a very satisfying win against a very good Celtics team.

 

Harden was flat out bad tonight effort wise. Numbers look great but man I was pretty pissed watching him stall offensively and get absolutely shredded on the other end. Celtics were attacking him all night with off ball cuts and other actions.

 

Rox gotta win lucky games like this....last year they'd loose this game due to bad luck alone

 

There's no such thing as an offensive/defensive flagrant foul.... They're just flagrant.

Technical fouls are similar (besides 3-seconds violations) and they aren't team fouls.

 

We're 14-7.

5-2 at home.
9-5 on the road.

Continue the home and road winning percentage and we go 29-12 at home and 26-15 on the road for a 55-27 record overall. Not too bad, right?

 

Funnily enough it wasn't for his huge 4th quarter we would have lost.

 

I know +/- is not perfect, but Harden was +3 in a game that we won by +1. We were up 10 by half mainly due to Harden, and we also won the game in 4Q mainly due to Harden. Turnover issue aside, the defense wasn't as bad as you make it out to be except during 3Q where all players including Harden played bad D. 'Flat out bad' is too strong a description for a player who put up 37-8-8 with good shooting, I would say overall good but still disappointing.

 

people are full of ****
Overly picky and crappy looking for something to be pissed about

Rocket River

 

so... criticising his turnovers is looking for something to be pissed about? 10 tonight, 12 the other night. How is this just accepted by so many posters here? Overall his d has been fairly good this season and the team is playing well but it's going to cost us at the pointy end somewhere, you simply cannot be this careless with the ball every single game.

We all want to win a ring right? Won't do it when he's turning it over 6 times a game, and it's been 21 games now.

 

Last night Smart's flop reminded me of this:

 

Hey check out Harden swinging his elbow again LOL...

 

Landmine!