The Celtics completed perhaps the most satisfying back-to-back swing of the coach Brad Stevens era with wins both in Oklahoma City and in Houston.
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The Spurs are now riding a five game win streak, and they are the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference. 500 at 5-4. The Spurs display tremendous team depth each night with 11 players averaging double-figure minutes per game and five players averaging double-figure points. The Celtics used a 28-8 run in the third to put the game out of reach. The Rockets’ 4-6 record contrasts with their 9-1 mark at the same point in 2014-15. “The Celtics they fed off of that”, he said.
Stevens knows 10 games is far too small of a sample to get comfortable, but 21 months after challenging his team to embrace the idea of a defensive DNA and become a top-10 defense, his Celtics own the third-best defensive rating in the National Basketball Association early in the 2015-16 season.
Grizzlies 122, Thunder 114: Newcomer Mario Chalmers scored 16 of his season-high 29 points in the fourth quarter and the Grizzlies held on for a victory over the visiting Thunder.
The criticism and the fingers have already pointed at Kevin McHale for his inability to pull the Rockets out of the ditch, though he’s changed lineups, tried different tactics, done virtually everything but consult a Ouija board.
In nine games, opponents have scored 100 or more points only three times this season. “We were missing layups, we missed everything, open shots”. One of the reasons Capela’s percentage is so high is that 22 of his 34 made field goals this season have come on dunks.
The Houston Rockets played their fifth game in seven days on Monday night, and the end result was their fourth consecutive loss. We need to be on the same page. “Things aren’t going our way and we hang our head”.
The six-point margin was too much for Philadelphia to overcome. To beat the Celtics, he said, “We’re gonna have to play a hell of a lot better than we have been”.
“It was a good talk”.
It is … unless you have to play against them. Unless you’re talking on defense.
You can’t blame Harden’s struggles on adapting to playing with a ball dominant guard in Ty Lawson, either.
McHale thinks having Howard back can at least help defensively. The Rockets are allowing an average 57.3 points in the paint the last three times he’s been out compared to 48.7 in the six games he’s played. “We hadn’t had an opportunity to communicate like that since the season had been going”. Dwight Howard had five points and 12 rebounds. “You just gotta keep fighting. We gotta press the issue and be a little bit more aggressive and vocal”. In his four years in Houston, he’s established a reputation as a players’ coach, one that cajoles, relates, inspires and does not grab at the spotlight to bask.
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In that time frame, the Celtics built a 29-point lead by forcing 18 turnovers, holding James Harden to two free throws, and stifling the Rockets to 36.1% shooting. Getting Lawson away from Harden’s ball dominance would hopefully enable him to act as a conduit for the second-team offense, while plugging in a guy like Patrick Beverley (once he returns) back into Lawson’s spot would not only give Houston better defensive coverage alongside a defensive liability in Harden, but Beverley has also historically been a better spot-up 3-point shooter than Lawson, enabling the Rockets to make better use of Harden’s drive-and-kick capabilities.
