NBA 2018-19: 3 Talking points from Houston Rocket’s win over the Boston Celtics

The Houston Rockets won a highly anticipated match against the Boston Celtics with a final scoreline of 127-113. It was a good game for the Rockets as they came in and executed their plans well, even though they were heavily short-handed.

On the other hand, the Boston Celtics were just not able to stop James Harden and Co. They were not able to handle the trio of Gordon, Capela and Harden. All of whom scored 20 points or more and were the biggest factors in Houston’s win tonight.

With this victory, the Rockets are now at 7th in the Western Conference with a record of 19-15. While the Celtics are at 5th in the Eastern Conference with a record of 20-14.

With all that in mind, let’s now look at the top 3 talking points from this match.

#3 The parity in the 3-point shots of both the teams

A year ago, Houston were the most dynamic 3-point shooting team. Their whole team was built to be like the Warriors in order to challenge them and possibly beat them, even though they fell short of that goal.

But this year, they have fallen off from the top spot in terms of 3-point shooting as well. And it’s a massive drop. They are currently ranked 19th league wise in terms of 3-point effectiveness.

Even though that’s clearly not where they want to be, but in this game, they were like the last year’s Rockets. They found open men, they took quality 3-point shots and they made a lot of 3-pointers which swept the Boston Celtics out of the game.

The Rockets made 18 of their total 45 3-pointers, which were six more than their opposing team. This clearly had a huge impact on the outcome of the game.

#2 Domination on the boards for Houston

Were the Celtics seen anywhere on the boards tonight? They grabbed only 38 rebounds while the Rockets had 54. They were in the mood of not giving the Celtics any rebound in this game. They were putting in the effort and being physical when needed.

This rewarded them with them getting 16 more rebounds than the Celtics and led to them taking more shots and having a chance to score a second time.

Clint Capela was a beast on the boards for the Rockets as he came up with 18 rebounds on his own. Then other multiple players also contributed their part in making sure that they give their team crucial rebounds so that they can take the game away from the Celtics.

The Rockets are ranked 26th for rebounds per game, but this was clearly a refreshing sight to see them put in so much effort on the boards.

#1 The James Harden avalanche

The reigning, defending MVP of the league is in no mood to give up that title without giving a fight. He is currently the leading scorer in the league with averages of 32.7 points per game on 45% shooting from the field and 38.2% from the arc.

Harden has been on a roll currently and he is the biggest reason for the Rocket’s comeback from an early season slip. No team has been able to stop him and he seems to be getting the Rockets back to where they belong almost single-handedly.

In this game, he scored 45 points with 6 assists. And he was the greatest factor in the Rocket’s win tonight. The Celtics didn’t have an answer for him and he did whatever he wanted to do with them. It’s going to be interesting to see Harden in the next games as well, since he is in sublime form and no team is able to stop him.

In the next game, the Rockets will go to New Orleans to face the Pelicans while the Celtics will hope to get back to winning ways against the Grizzlies in Memphis.