They lost by 12 at Detroit right before New Year's — it was the second night of a back-to-back, and Kevin Garnett had just gone down with a scary injury. They lost by 11 at to Derrick Rose and the Bulls in January — again a back-to-back, and one of the game's best players got hot and torched them for 36. Oh well. It happens. They lost later that month by 17 at Phoenix — a back-to-back once more, and they were still jetlagged from a cross-country fight.
They lost to 14 at Denver on Feb. 24. That was the day they traded Kendrick Perkins and four other players. They literally had nine guys in uniform.
Then on Friday night they got manhandled, a 93-77 final that was actually even uglier than the final score would indicate. It wasn't a back-to-back, it wasn't an emotional day for any particular reason, and the team was even relatively healthy. The Rockets were even without Luis Scola, arguably their best player, with a knee injury.
So what was Boston's excuse this time?
Simple. They didn't have one.
"We just got our asses kicked," Glen Davis said. "Point blank. They just outmanned us. They beat us bad. We couldn't get a stop. They were making every shot. We needed a stop? They made a shot. They just beat us. That's it."
Fair enough.
You'd be hard-pressed to find a hole in Davis' logic. The C's were just the weaker team on Wednesday night — they fell behind early, as Kevin Martin and Kyle Lowry laughably outplayed the Celtics' guard duo of Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen. Lowry knocked down three 3-pointers in the first quarter alone, Martin hit a shot every time Allen left him open, and the Rockets quickly built a lead. They were up six at the end of the first quarter, and 22 at halftime.
"We just couldn't make a shot," head coach Doc Rivers said. "At halftime, I think we showed them seven point-blank shots at the basket that just didn't go in. I thought we got a little frustrated because were were missing shots — Kevin got great turnarounds in the paint and missed, and Ray missed good shots too, and that's uncharacteristic of us. I definitely thought our offense led to our bad defense."
Garnett wanted to disagree but couldn't.
"We're a defensive team, and we can't let our offense dictate our defense," Garnett said. "But it certainly seemed that way. They got into a rhythm and it was hard to turn them off. We couldn't get stops. We just couldn't get stops, man."
The C's were already down double digits before halftime, but things got even worse in the final minutes of the second quarter. Davis got shoved out of bounds away from the ball by Jordan Hill, flying into the stands and landing on a cameraman. Tempers flared, Davis was T'd up, and Garnett jumped in to dispute the call. People started barking at people, and the Celtics quickly lost their composure. The Rockets capitalized, running away with the game right there. They closed the half on a 13-3 run.
At a certain point, it was time to give up on Friday and focus on the following night, when the Celtics head to New Orleans.
"Yeah, middle of the second quarter," Rivers joked. "No, honestly, right toward the end of the third. My number was about 16, if we could cut it. That's always a tough call as a coach — you think maybe you can keep your starters in, and cut it, and get a little tighter. But once we didn't do that, I just thought let's throw this one away. This was just one of those games. They did everything better than us. Rick [Adelman] did a better job than me, and they did a better job than our players. You just move on to the next game."
