Houston, We Had A Problem: The Rockets Became The Latest Elite Team To Have No Problems Exposing All Of The Celtics Flaws

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2nd night of a back to back, 3rd game in 4 nights, that is all true. You know what's also true? I don't really care. It's early November. Nobody should be tired yet. I don't remember hearing too much about fatigue or the schedule when the Celts won their first B2B, so I'm not really interested in hearing that when it comes to this loss. I know Paul George sat, so what? Tatum played, yes? White was in? Pritchard played? Hauser was active? All the young wings and the entire front court? They all played? 

That should be more than enough then, right? The roster is better this year, correct? We were all were in agreement with that heading into the season, even without George in the lineup. Swapping Brown for Tatum and adding Mitch to the frontcourt is a better roster than what we watched last year. We all said it. 

I'll tell you what. What I watched in this loss was absolutely no different than the HOU blowout on a B2B last year. Granted, the Celts lost that game by 27 because the Rockets shot 66% from deep, but every single problem area that existed in that game also showed up last night, which also happens to be similar to the problem areas we saw against the Pistons in that loss, which was something we saw in the DET losses last year as well.

There's going to be a lot of conversation and comparison from this year to last year, for obvious reasons. I find it pretty interesting that the second this year's team does anything, it's immediately talked about as if things are drastically better, that they are doing things no other previous Celtics team was able to do on the court, and it all feels a little…..forced to me. In reality, so far this season, they aren't really all that different. The production is better in some areas and worse in others. The same struggles that plagued last year's team still exist with this year's team. Obviously it's early, but the fact of the matter is it's pretty clear that despite what many people wanted you to believe last year, not everything was Jaylen Brown's fault.

You'll remember last season, when the role players would suck ass and Jaylen would also suck ass, we were told their production didn't matter, and the only thing that DID matter was the play of the #1 option. That those losses were all on Jaylen Brown because, as a max player, it's his job to carry and not the role players to do their jobs. I don't exactly agree with that, but that was the supposed standard. 

Well, we've now seen similar situations in both the DET and HOU losses. So which is it? Does role player production now matter? Or is the only thing that matters Jayson Tatum's play? He's been bad in both of those games against elite teams, but watching that game, it would be insane to chalk everything up to only HIS play, right? We all watched. We all saw what the entire roster did. That's one of the issues I have. This is no different from last year when the role players would struggle against the best as well. Perhaps now it's a bit clearer that basketball is a TEAM SPORT. It matters what EVERYONE does on the floor, not just the best player.

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Players have stinkers, teams may not have it every night over the course of 82. That's all normal stuff that you go through as you navigate an NBA schedule. But I think we're at a point where we have a large enough sample against the good teams for the last few years of some of these problem areas, and I don't think you're wrong for talking about them even if we're only on Game 7.

We have a lot to discuss, let's begin.

The Good

- While most of the roster was complete and utter ass, I do want to shoutout both Garzilla and Neemias Queta. At least they played with a pulse and did their jobs.

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Queta was a +7 in his minutes on 6-7 shooting with 4 OREB and only 1 TO. Garzilla added +2 in his minutes with 14/3 while going 4-7 from deep, I have little to no issues with either of their play in this game. In fact, both have been pretty damn good this entire season in their small sample

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But here's what I will say that I did notice and put a pin in. It was pretty easy for Sengun to move Neemy off his spot, which reminded me a lot of his struggles against Embiid in the postseason, and then also their struggles with Duren in the opener. If the opposing team has a big, strong, physical center, the Celts are really struggling to provide any sort of resistance. Sengun finished 10-12 from the floor and pretty much got whatever he wanted at the rim. That's a bit concerning.

- To be honest nothing really feels worthy of being added to this section after that shit sandwhich of a performance, so we can keep it moving.

The Bad

- We begin with the best player. As the franchise player and #1 option and hopeful MVP candidate, the buck starts and stops with Tatum. His previous 5 games? Awesome stuff. As good as it gets. What we saw last night? Very bad!

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And while the main issue of this loss was the non-Tatum minutes, let's not pretend like the Tatum minutes were anywhere close to his standard or the standard required of his role. There's a reason he was pissed after the game

He played like shit. The 5-16 (1-7) was tough enough, but this is a game in which Tatum also finished with the same number of TOs (5) as FGM (5). For a primary offensive engine, that is not going to cut it. We're actually starting to see the Tatum TOs creep up a little bit recently, with this being the 3rd straight game (and 4th in 5) that he's finished with at least 4 TOs. 

I know we all love this new version of Tatum that is getting to the line at an insane rate, but I also think it's a little concerning to be overreliant on his whistle when it comes to his production. I still don't think he's taking enough 3s to not only get himself going, but to help the spacing and the offense. His struggles from behind the arc certainly aren't helping, but so far the halfcourt offense hasn't looked quite as fluid while this team trades 3s for more 2s/midrange. Especially Tatum. I think he's only taking like 1 pull up 3PA a game, which is just bad process in my opinion. The reason that shot is important is more than if it goes in or not. If the Celts aren't manipulating the defense by consistently being a threat from deep, then they become easier to guard. To me this isn't really debatable. 

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With George getting a rest day, we saw how tough it is to survive a Tatum stinker against an elite defense. Not really all that different than how tough it was last year to survive a similar Jaylen stinker last year. Which brings me to my next concern.

- Creation. This was probably the #1 thing people identified as an issue heading into the year. The creation outside of Jayson Tatum was flat out non-existant, and whatever creation there may have been was easily shut down against big, physical perimeter defenses. 

This was true against the Pistons, it was true against the Nets, it was true against the Magic, and it was true against the Rockets. This is what I mean when I say their same issues from last year still exist this year. In the playoffs, they are going to face big, tough, physical defenses. When that happens, Payton Pritchard is being nuetralized, Derrick White is being neutralized, and when that happens the entire thing falls apart. We know defenses are going to take the ball out of Tatum's hands and let the "others" try and beat them. If there is virtually zero creation ability from anyone not named Jayson Tatum, then that's a huge issue.

Should George help there? In some ways. But he's also 36 and isn't really the same level of self creator he was in his younger days. That's not really where his playmaking and assists are coming from. I'm not sure what the answer is, but the lack of creation from the non-Tatum players is a GIANT hole and will ultimately continue to plague this team against good defenses.

- It was hard to avoid the impact this had in the non-Tatum minutes. To me, this is where the game was truly lost and should probably give people the most concern. 

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Giphy Images.

To start the 2nd quarter, the Celts lost the non-Tatum mintues by 5. As you can see, things got much worse in the next shift in the second half. While this helps boost Tatum's on/off differential, it's an example of a bigger problem that was supposedly supposed to not be an issue this year.

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These minutes needed to be carried by White/Prithcard/Hauser, and how did they do?

Derrick White: 3-12 (1-5)

Payton Pritchard: 0-7 (0-5)

Sam Hauser: 1-5 (0-5)

A combined 4-24 (1-15)

Giphy Images.

Not good enough! Payton Pritchard only taking 7 FGA? Very bad! Stop being passive! I don't care that you missed every shot you took. Keep shooting! The second Pritchard no longer becomes aggressive, his play tanks. Where was getting into the paint? Why was he creating space, and then not shooting? I know we focus a lot on the good team vs bad team production from Pritchard, but I don't really see it that way.

I see it as Aggressive Pritchard vs Hesistant Pritchard. 

His role off the bench is to be a super scorer correct? Well then I need much more than 7 FGA.

With Derrick, this is now 1000000% something of concern. I understand his value defensively. I understand his impact on winning. I buy ALL of that.

But you know what else is important? Making shots. I don't care how good your advanced stats are, when you are in a game that requires your 2nd best player to score, he has to score. I know everyone ignored his playoff failures to instead just blame Jaylen Brown for everything that happened, but the offensive regression from Derrick is starting to outweigh his defensive impact for me. He's now shooting under 30% from deep since the opener, and this is simply not sustainable.

He's not in a more on ball role this year. He's not being asked to create. So I don't really buy that "role' angle either. He's just been a brick to start the year after spending all of last year also being a brick. That's concerning and you're lying to yourself if you say it isn't.

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Hauser somewhat gets a pass because this was his first stinker of the year and he's been largely great, but in a game like this on a B2B, his shot disappearing was tough.

- 20 assists and 15 TOs…..is that good? It doesn't feel good but I'm not sure. 

- Call it tired legs if you want, but 93 points on 38/28% shooting is pretty fucking gross. Back to back games sub 30% shooting from deep, we saw what a difference it is to do that against a bad team like ORL and then an elite team like HOU. You're just not going to beat anyone with a pulse scoring 43 points in a half. Within striking distance entering the 4th, and they put up 20 points on 38/27% on one end while allowing 61/55% on the other and the next thing you knew it was a blowout.

- That's probably the most annoying part of this loss. As bad as they played, there were MULTIPLE opportunities for the Celts to sneak out a win. They had it down to 4 or less multiple times, and every time they did the Celts followed it up with mistakes. Offensive rebounds leading to points, turnovers, all of the things you cannot do when trying to swing momentum, the Celtics did.

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I believe when things were within 4, they had the following possessions late in the 3rd quarter: turnover, missed layup, turnover, turnover, turnover. 

I mean what the hell do you think is going to happen when you do that shit?

The Ugly

- Let's be honest, the Celts have a Mitchell Robinson problem. I don't know what happened, but this is NOT the payer I was watching in the preseason. This feels like a Porzingis mystery illness situation or something, because none of it makes any sense. He's definitely out of shape, but it's more than that. He's become virtually unplayable.

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Look at that shit! His rebounding impact has been legit cut in half. And while Joe tried to cover for Mitch by talking about how his positioning is impacting his rebounding, I'm sorry we all have eyes. This is nowhere close to the player we watched ruin our lives while he was on the Knicks. It really does feel like we got sold a lemon, or that there's some sort of Al Horford on the Sixers situation happening here. Maybe this is just our version of that.

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The question is, what do you do? He has to play his way into shape and get reps in to adapt to his new team, but at the same time him being on the floor is nuking everything. I get it, it's early, but this was the big free agent signing this summer. His skillset was supposed to elevate the team, and since Day 1 of the regular season everything about his play has been hurting the team. To see his production in contrast to the other bigs is fucking insane. I don't know what the solution is, but we can't live in a world where Mitchell Robinson is unplayable. We just can't. 

The worst part? This was all coming off a rest day! 

- Last year, the Celts were 3-11 against the best teams in the NBA. I think the expectation of this year's roster was that they would be much better in that department. So far? Not really. Against top 3 seeds, they're 0-2. Overall, if you include the Knicks despite their record, they are 1-2 on the season. The same types of games they lost last year, they have lost this year. 

This is what I mean when I say that so far, there's really been no true difference. It doesn't mean they can't get there, but they most definitely are not there yet. It's more than their 5-2 start. It's how they look against playoff caliber teams and based on our initial sample, not that great. 

Considering they have 3 cupcake games ahead of the showdown with the Sixers on 11/10, we'll probably have to wait until that game to see where they're truly at following this loss. That's another elite team that's rolling and is a top 3 seed. If the Celts play like they did against DET/HOU? They're going to get blown out. If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. That's how it has always been and always will be. I'd like to see that start to happen please.