Payton Pritchard struggles, Celtics run out of gas vs. Rockets: 8 takeaways

The Celtics’ five-game winning streak came to a halt with a clunk on Monday, as the Rockets defeated them in a comfortable 109-93 victory. 

Here are the takeaways.

The Celtics ran out of gas

The Celtics never really felt like they found a foothold in Monday’s game. 

There were a number of factors working against them on the floor, which we will get to, but we should note that roughly 29 hours removed from Sunday afternoon’s game in Orlando, the Celtics looked very much like a team on the second night of a back-to-back. At 12-for-42 from 3-point range, the Celtics were under 30 percent for the second game in a row, and they turned the ball over 15 times. 

Notably, given all of the angst before the season began, the biggest absence was Paul George. The Celtics really could have used another big wing to counteract all of Houston’s firepower, and to open up the offense. George has proven himself a very effective defender, he’s the only member of the Celtics’ starting lineup shooting better than 32 percent from three so far, and he gives the Celtics a crucial outlet when teams clamp down on Tatum. 

This is one of the flaws of the Celtics’ roster construction: The team leans a little too heavily on a 36-year-old who played in 41 and 37 games over the last two seasons, and their playoff hopes rest on him being healthy. 

On the second night of a tough back-to-back, the team made a wise decision to sit George — there are bigger fish to fry this season, and while the Rockets on a road back-to-back weren’t quite a schedule loss, they were always going to be a big challenge. 

Still, the Celtics certainly felt the effects.

Jayson Tatum had trouble against the Rockets’ big wings

Things started poorly for Tatum at the 9:21 mark in the first quarter when he took his first shot — a sweeping step-back 3-point jumper — and missed everything.

From there, very little improved. Tatum managed to work his way to the free-throw line eight times and made all of his attempts, which salvaged his efficiency a bit, but he was just 5-for-16 from the field, scoring 19 points. 

The Rockets have a lot of big wings to throw at star forwards — Kevin Durant, Tari Eason and Amen Thompson are all essentially interchangeable, and all of them can switch as necessary. Eason drew the matchup frequently, and he played Tatum pretty well — he’s strong enough to knock Tatum a little off-balance and to absorb the bruising drives that have taken Tatum’s game to another level over the last few years. 

Tatum still led the team in multiple categories, and his nine assists were impressive work given how poorly the rest of the team shot, but at 19 points, he didn’t get enough help to pull the Celtics over the finish line. 

The Rockets, who are now the top seed in the Western Conference, are something of an interesting thought experiment in the early season: If the Celtics battled through three playoff series and made the Finals, a matchup against Houston would be far less friendly than (for example) facing Dallas in 2024. 

Payton Pritchard and Derrick White could NOT find it

With Tatum struggling against the Rockets’ wings and George on the sideline, the Celtics needed a big performance from one or both of Payton Pritchard and Derrick White to have a shot, and they got neither.

Pritchard in particular had a nightmarish outing: After going 3-for-11 against the Magic and 0-for-7 from three, Pritchard went 0-for-7 from the field overall, finishing with just four points, all from the free-throw line. Pritchard has picked on the Bulls twice this season, but he is yet to put together a good performance against a good team.

White, meanwhile, was slightly better at 3-for-12, but he was just 1-for-5 from behind the arc, and he turned the ball over three times. 

Pritchard and White certainly weren’t alone, but on a night when George had his feet up, the rest of the Celtics’ top scorers didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory. 

The Celtics tried double-bigs several times

The Celtics went to double-big lineups multiple times with some success. Neemias Queta in particular was effective — 16 points on 6-for-7 shooting, and he was +7 in a game the Celtics lost by 16. The Rockets sold out repeatedly to stop drivers, and that allowed Queta to find and exploit pockets of space around the rim. For those keeping track, he also knocked down his second 3-pointer of the year and is now shooting a white-hot 66 percent from behind the arc (2-for-3). 

Luka Garza, meanwhile, went 4-for-7 from three and was integral in keeping the Celtics attached in the first half. 

The guess here is that the double-big experiment will be used very situationally over the course of the year, but the Rockets’ size combined with the Celtics’ shorthanded roster gave Mazzulla an opportunity to break the glass.

Marcus Smart had a lot to say

To the surprise of absolutely no one, Marcus Smart refused to allow an opportunity to play his old team pass uneventfully.

Smart, perhaps more than any other player, has the ability to make himself the main character of a game for lengthy stretches, even while he shoots 2-for-10. 

Just witness him yapping to Joe Mazzulla after Mazzulla challenged an offensive foul called against Pritchard, claiming Smart flopped. 

“I don’t flop,” Smart could be seen yelling at Mazzulla. 

After a few minutes’ deliberation, the officials determined that Smart did indeed flop. 

That started a very funny — and very petty — stretch of play in which Smart flopped four times on one Celtics possession. Twice the officials simply ignored him, but he picked up away-from-the-play fouls on the other two. 

Smart went back and forth several times with his old teammate Pritchard, whose career in Boston overlapped with Smart by three years before Smart was dealt to the Grizzlies. 

Finally, Smart tried to get a technical called on Tatum for complaining to the officials. 

Smart was unsuccessful twice — first in getting the technical whistled, and second in getting Tatum to find the whole incident funny afterward.