What a game in Houston! In a duel at the highest level, the Houston Rockets narrowly beat the Boston Celtics. With 123:120, the best team in the league extended its winning streak to 15 in a row.
In contrast to the first duel of both teams, this time they could almost draw from the crowds. That’s why the usual Starting Fives began: Chris Paul, James Harden, Trevor Ariza, P. J. Tucker and Clint Capela on one side, Kyrie Irving, Jaylen Brown, birthday boy Jayson Tatum, Al Horford and Aron Baynes on the other. Both teams opened the game wide opener, with both Houston (14) and Boston (4) meeting with winning streaks in their luggage for this top game.
Accordingly, the game was played at a rather high level right from the start. The Celtics had the outside touch in the first quarter (6/9 3FG), but they also suffered 5 early ball losses and gave the rockets extra opportunities. However, a 10-0 run at the end of the quarter brought the guests a slim 32:30 lead before the second quarter.
In the second quarter of the year, Boston continued to push the envelope thanks to its good bank. After only 16 minutes of playing time, Paul took his third foul and there was a technical challenge on top of it – interestingly enough, this was more likely to spur the rockets on. Especially Harden took over the helm more strongly and hung up Brown’s third foul, but then it was again Rozier who had the right counterattack. Boston led the break with 64:58.
Of course, the Rockets didn’t give up their series without a fight. Houston fought and regained the lead at short notice in the third quarter, while Boston took several technical fouls, but then also came back into the match. It went back and forth, before the last quarter Celtics took the lead again after Monroe-Layup with 89:86. And that’s exactly what happened in the last quarter.
The game kept on rocking up in crunchtime. 1:30 minutes before the end Ariza equalized the match with a threesome, then he stole Irving’s ball and hit the layup – now the Toyota Center was completely upset. The Celtics still had several more chances, but Horford and Rozier missed. 15 seconds before the end Paul went to the free-throw line and increased his lead to 4 points, then Irving hit a layup and foul Harden, who actually missed one – 120:117 at 6 seconds on the clock!
Now Irving was fouled and wanted to miss his second free-throw deliberately, but the throw fell in. CP3 hit two, again Irving was fouled, 3 points behind and 2.8 on the clock. This time he missed the ring with his second free-throw, a violations. Gordon now hit one of two free throws, Smart missed the last threesome – Houston escaped with victory No. 15!
Top scorer was Gordon with 29 points (7/11 3FG), Harden with 26 points and 10 assists (6/18 FG). Ariza contributed 21 points, Paul scored 15 and 7 assists. Morris scored 21 points in Celtics, Irving and Monroe eighteen each. Four other players scanned two-digit numbers. Daniel Theis was at the team’s disposal again, but he was not deployed.
Houston secured first place in the Western Conference with his victory. Boston remains second in the east.
Houston Rockets (49-13) vs. Boston Celtics (44-20)123:120 (BOXSCORE)
Eric Gordon. In the final phase, Ariza, Harden and Paul were the most important ones, but Gordon’s shooting kept the rockets within striking distance for a long time. The noble sixth man also cut a good figure defensively, especially when bigger players were switched to him. However, his missed free-throw at the end made the rockets sweat again for a short time.
Kyrie Irving. It wasn’t a bad game from Irving in the classical sense, but during the crunchtime the other Clutch king made an unlucky impression on this day, he got upset about the free throws – rightly so – but before that he had already undermined annoying turnovers. The same goes for Horford, who also missed the last minute’s possible throws for potential compensation.
One of the central questions in this NBA season is how best to defend the offensive machine Harden. In the first matchup of both teams, Boston had already done quite well and in this match, too, they at least prevented the MVP favourite from taking over completely. The crucial point was that the Celtics Harden always gave different looks. Brown defended himself a lot against him, but also cashed in some (partly questionable) calls. Tatum also took over Harden several times – and probably the best job Smart did.