Slipping defense crashes hard
Even before Celtics torched them, team allowed 15.3 3-pointers per game in previous three
BOSTON — The Rockets could have labeled the debacle a “schedule loss,” and to a degree, they did. If ever a game fit the criteria, the Celtics’ 145-113 romp Saturday night would do it.
The Rockets also knew their second-half face-plant involved more than the hard road to get to Boston, more that will have to be corrected than getting a good night’s sleep and spending a day putting their feet up to refill their tanks.
That will be welcome, too. They did not get to their Boston hotel until shortly before 4 a.m. They played in Detroit the night before, a game that came down to its last shot. They needed to rally back from double-digit deficits in each of the first three games of the road trip, a draining exercise even before a late-night flight and weather delays. One of those games, a loss in Chicago, went to overtime.
They were also playing the team with the best record in the NBA, one coming off its own backto-back breakdown with a deficit that reached 43 at Milwaukee. That gave the Celtics something to prove in their return home, where they moved to 19-0, a franchise-best start.
That all caught up to the Rockets when they went from an 11-point halftime deficit to trailing by as much as 36.
The Rockets also knew they had been trending the wrong way, especially defensively, where they had been the best team in the NBA at defending the 3-point line before the Celtics made 24 of 47 3s, the most for a Rockets opponent this season on the best 3-point percentage (.511).
Even before the Celtics torched them, the Rockets had allowed an average of 15.3 3-pointers on 39% shooting in the previous three games. Before they left town to start the sixgame road trip, they had been giving up 11.7 3pointers per game on 33.1% shooting. Including Saturday’s loss, they have gone from the best 3-point defense in the NBA for 34 games to the fourth worst in the past four games.
Consequently, the Rockets knew they could not entirely blame fatigue or the schedule for Saturday’s defensive struggles.
“I think a little bit,” coach Ime Udoka said of the impact of the back-toback, “but we were trying some different coverages, things we haven’t worked on a ton. That can take some energy as well to execute those. We were in scramble mode at times.
“I didn’t love our physicality and understanding, how we made them too comfortable. A lot of those walk-in shots were just uncontested. I would have loved people to have guarded them the way we guarded them tonight when I was here.”
The Rockets tweaked their defense to keep extra bodies in front of Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, straying from their switch-everything style. It did not work. Brown and Tatum combined for 59 points on 20-of-32 shooting, including 8-of-13 from the 3-point line.
The back-to-back meant no practice or shootaround to work on the defense. But with Monday’s game at Philadelphia a day game, there will be no practice or shootaround to ready that defense for Tyrese Maxey, who had 42 points against the Rockets in Houston. It also could be an option Wednesday to defend the Knicks’ Jalen Brunson, who like Maxey has gone for 50 in a game this season.
“It was a good start for us,” Fred VanVleet said of the initial execution in the different schemes. “We played the first quarter pretty tough — first 15, 16 minutes. But they started to adjust a little bit. Put the coverage in, try it, fly around. It worked a little bit, but overall, not good enough IQ consistently to get it done.”
Through 15 minutes, the Rockets trailed by just three, but the Celtics were 14-of-27, consistently getting good looks. The Rockets were nowhere near as disruptive and physical as when at their best defensively, allowing Boston to move the ball too easily, as did the Heat, Bulls and Pistons in stretches.
“Didn’t love our competitiveness when we came out in the third quarter,” Udoka said. “Got to be better than that, coming out down … 12 at halftime, still in striking range. Got ugly pretty quick there.
“I said that to the group. ‘There can be schemes, there can be coverages and things like that, or you’ve just got to guard.’ It started with the (lack of ) competitiveness and the effort, us not getting matched up, us turning the ball over.”
The Rockets have been far less physical and determined when going over screens. Alperen Şengün, Udoka said, has been less effective when moving to the level of the screen. He said the Rockets have “slipped back into some old habits.” But he added the defensive trend could be easily explained.
“No Dillon (Brooks). No Tari (Eason),” Udoka said.
Brooks returned Saturday after missing nine games, and the Rockets’ defense did miss him badly when he was out. Opponents averaged 117.6 points on 48.6% shooting in the games he missed. The Rockets had held opponents to 108.3 points per game on 44.3% shooting in the first 28 games of the season.
“Just add more energy, understand the game plan, and regardless of what the score is, you can still play hard,” Brooks said of what is needed. “Execution wasn’t that good. We weren’t rotating fast enough.
“Defense is what keeps you in games, what … ultimately wins championships and gets to the playoffs. We have to figure out, every single one of our players, defense comes first; offense comes later. Right now, and this week, we’re not focused on that end.”
Brooks said his conditioning felt good, even after a three-week absence, and that he felt no rust, though he would like to have attempted more than one 3-pointer to get a feel for that. Eason, however, is out for the balance of the road trip.
“That’s a big part of it — two of our elite defenders,” Udoka said. “But in general, there has been some slippage.”
Slippage turned into a crash. But the Celtics went from a 33-point loss in the second half of a back-to-back on Thursday to a 32-point win Saturday. The Rockets are not on par with the 30-9 Celtics, but they would be happy to bounce back enough to return where they were through most of the season.
“Sometimes you’re the bug; sometimes you’re the windshield,” VanVleet said. “You’ve got to be able to flush it and move on to the next.
“I’m not in the overreaction business. It was a tough night we had (in Detroit) — late night getting in, didn’t really have enough juice to compete with this team. There’s lessons in every game.”