Watching live, I thought I had some beef about the final possession of regulation.  But, looking back on the play, there wasn’t too much to argue with.

My first complaint (I thought) was the play call: I normally hate isolating a player during the last possession.  Not only does it tend to result in a low-percentage off-the-dribble jumper, but it lets the defense set up in position.  But let’s be honest with ourselves: Paul Pierce was being defended by Chase Budinger.  Budinger couldn’t guard Pierce if Pierce was in his infamous wheelchair. 

As Pierce came off a Rondo screen to get the ball, undersized center Chuck Hayes made a terrific play.  Instead of allowing Aaron Brooks to switch onto Pierce, as would be normal protocol when a point guard sets a screen, Hayes jumped onto Pierce instead.  While Pierce would have easily posted up Brooks and shot the ball right over him, Hayes at least provided size and girth.

Rondo notices what Hayes is trying to do, and attempts to screen Hayes rather than Budinger, who started off the play defending Pierce.  Despite Rondo’s last-ditch attempt to screen him, Hayes is able to stay with Pierce.

Even though Hayes — not Brooks — was on him as Pierce caught the ball at the top of the key, Pierce had room to operate and a 6’6″, blocky big man on him.  It should have been go time.

In the above picture, notice Tony Allen setting a screen for Kevin Garnett.  This is only a decoy.  Garnett barely tries to come off the screen at all, flattening out to the wing after strolling around Allen’s pick.  Allen, too, pops to the corner, as do Finley and Rondo at the top of the screen.  This gives Pierce a lot of room to operate.

With 3.8 seconds left, Pierce starts his move.  Not a lot of time left, but that was by design.  Holding the ball in a tie game, you don’t want to allow the other team the chance to win the game.  Pierce was either going to win the game, or it was going to overtime.

The next part of the play is where I thought I had another beef.  Pierce decided to settle for a fadeaway jumper, even though Chuck Hayes, a center, was defending him.  Get to the damn hoop, Paul! 

On second thought, though, Pierce had little choice.  As he crossed over to his left, Chase Budinger was waiting for him in perfect help defense position, and Pierce was forced to spin into the aforementioned fadeaway jumper. 

At the point Pierce spun, he had a few options: 1) Continue dribbling, likely forcing contact with Budinger and hoping for a call, 2) Hit Michael Finley, open due to Budinger’s help defense, or 3) Spin away from Budinger, attempting a jumper over Chuck Hayes’ outstretched hands.

Dribbling at Budinger was ruled out because you can’t trust the officials to blow the whistle in the final seconds.  Passing to Finley was ruled out due to trust: Finley would have had a more open jumper, but Pierce — as I do — trusted himself more than Fin.  All that left option number three, the fadeaway jumper over Hayes. 

While I normally hate the fadeaway jumper in a game’s final possession, it was probably the best shot in this scenario.  The Celtics thought they could isolate Chase Budinger or Aaron Brooks at the top of the key for Pierce, but the Rockets made a great decision and Chuck Hayes guarded him instead, taking away Pierce’s bread-and-butter midrange post-up game. 

The results sucked, but the thought process was actually right.  As always, you can second-guess the play call.  Maybe Rondo should’ve gotten the ball and been asked to create.  Maybe the C’s should have simply given Pierce the ball at halfcourt, with no screening action, to assure that Budinger would be guarding him. 

But the reasoning behind doing exactly what the C’s did was solid, it just took a terrific play by Houston to keep Pierce from having his way with either Brooks or Budinger.  Here it is in video:

As Rasheed Wallace always says, “Game tape don’t lie.”

Rondo was great. Most other Celtics, well, weren't.

Thirteen seconds remained in a game the Boston Celtics had already let slip through their fingers.  Still trailing by only three points, the Celtics ran an intricate out-of-bounds play using Paul Pierce as a decoy while Michael Finley spotted up in the corner.  As Finley let loose the potentially game-tying shot, the whistle blew: Kendrick Perkins had been called for a  foul.

The moving screen was the final straw that broke the Celtics’ backs, but the Celtics lost the game far before Perkins hip-checked Chase Budinger.  A little effort, at all, all game long, was all it would have taken to defeat a broken-down Houston Rockets club.  Decimated by injuries to the point that Chase Budinger and Jermaine Taylor — both soon coming to a summer league roster near you — were in the starting lineup, the Rockets nonetheless outlasted Boston in the Boston Garden.  For the second straight game, the Celtics were out-executed down the stretch, at home, by a far less-experienced team.  Losing at home has been a malady that has harmed Boston all season, but losing close games to young teams is even more troubling.

With time running down as the Celtics nursed a three-point lead in the fourth quarter, and Aaron Brooks dribbling aimlessly at the top of the key, it looked like Boston would escape with the win.  But the Celtics didn’t deserve to win, and Brooks’ step-back three-pointer barely evaded the outstretched hand of Tony Allen, snapping through the nets and knotting the score at 109.  Boston would have another chance, but Paul Pierce — despite being defended by burly center Chuck Hayes — isolated and settled for a pullup jumper, drawing only iron and keeping the Rockets alive for overtime.

Rajon Rondo (23 points, 10 assists, 5 steals) led the way for the Celtics, dazzling with an array of points, assists and steals, in the process passing Bob Cousy for the Celtics’ single-season assists record.  Paul Pierce notched 27 points, but scoring while Chase Budinger defends you is like riding a bike with the training wheels on — anyone can do it.  Kendrick Perkins was good, registering 15 points, but had only five rebounds for a Celtics squad that was outrebounded by the Rockets’ crew of Mighty Midgets.  Rasheed Wallace (11 points, 8 rebounds) and Tony Allen (12 points, 5 rebounds, 5 steals) were both dynamic off the bench, supplying energy for a team that rarely displayed any on a night that should be remembered as one of the two or three worst losses the C’s have had this season.

Only for a short stretch, at the beginning of the fourth quarter, did the Celtics look poised to piece together a solid win.  Ironically, against a Rockets team playing mostly unwanted retreads, it took a lineup of benchwarmers for the Celtics to finally seize control.  Tony Allen, Michael Finley, Shelden Williams, and Rasheed Wallace — all unwanted by either coaches and/or fans within the past month – combined with Rajon Rondo to form a five-man crew that put together a 15-4 run, giving Boston a 98-91 lead and apparent command. 

But the command was short-lived, as the Rockets clawed back into the game and, eventually, snatched the lead.  Give the Rockets credit, for battling as an undermanned team on the road, but the Celtics deserved every boo that rained down from the Boston Garden crowd as the loss became final.

The Celtics have gotten rid of their morning walkthrough, but that doesn’t mean we have to. Here are a few Celtics links, and maybe even an NBA link or two, to help wake you up and get you focused for the day.

Houston couldn't handle the Truth.

Julian Benbow, Boston Globe – “It could have been worse. They could have called him Ricky Davis. Glen Davis pulled down seven boards, five on the offensive glass, and his teammates were waiting in the locker room with yet another new nickname for ‘Big Baby’/'Uno-Uno’/'The Eleventh Hour’/'Just Call Me Glen.’ ‘They’re in there calling him Moses Malone because he got five offensive rebounds, four of them were his own misses,’ Rivers said.”

Mark Murphy, Boston Herald – “The Celtics captain, coming off a 29-point performance in Wednesday’s win against the Knicks that essentially filled two quarters of work, is now certifiably hot. He’s had double-digit quarters of 15, 16 and 13 points in the last two games. Like the Celtics’ overall ball movement – they won for the second straight game with Rajon Rondo taking a negligible amount of shots (five) – Pierce’s game may be close to his November form. He hasn’t talked to the media since the Celtics’ March 12 win against Indiana, but again his associates were more than willing to supply the words. ‘He’s getting there,’ coach Doc Rivers said. ‘There are still things that he’s working on. His endurance and his timing still have to get better. But he’s starting to get his step back down. He’s starting to get more out of his isolations.’”

Jonathan Feigen, Houston Chronicle – “Aaron Brooks darted around the half court, unencumbered by the ball or other responsibilities. He needed only to get free of the Boston defense. But at every turn, another Celtics defender popped out to impede him or cut off the passing lane, until Brooks covered a lot of ground, but he and the Rockets’ offense could go nowhere. With that, the Rockets’ offensive roll and winning streak were over, with the Celtics taking a 94-87 win Friday night at Toyota Center. The Celtics so thoroughly bottled up Brooks, he could take just one 3-pointer, missing to end his streak of games with at least one 3-pointer made at 39, holding him to 10 points, as few as he has scored in a game since Dec. 22.”

Mark Murphy, Boston Herald – “The C’s have two more wins on the road than they do at home, where they’ve gone 21-12. Doc Rivers doesn’t want to question the numbers, at least not too much. ‘We expected to be good on the road,’ the coach said. ‘We didn’t expect to be that bad at home. But nothing means nothing. It’s good that we have a veteran group. With all of that crowd noise, maybe they’re so old they can’t hear it.’”

A. Sherrod Blakely, CSNNE – “Boston finished with 25 assists on 37 field goals, and Allen said the smooth offense fed into the stingy defense on Friday. ‘Executing offensively, that’s been our Achilles’ heel, when we’ve been bad,’ Allen said. ‘With bad offense, you put teams in transition, and we don’t give our defense a chance.’”

Mark Murphy, Boston Herald – “He has struggled at both ends of the floor, though Perkins believes he knows the reason for his slippage. Defense may be his calling card, but Perkins has spent too much time ruminating about offense. He entered last night narrowly behind Orlando’s Dwight Howard for the league lead in field goal percentage. ‘I was playing pretty well after the All-Star break, but then I kind of got beat down,’ said Perkins, who had eight points (3-of-6 from the floor) last night, along with five rebounds and two blocks. ‘Then I got back to thinking about blocking shots and not thinking about the offensive end. Sometimes I let the offensive end dictate my defense, and that’s not a good thing.’”

Have a link I might want to look at? Send it my way by email (jayking@celticstown.com) or Twitter.

I wrote my picks for Eastern Conference All-Star reserves yesterday. Today, I give my choices for the West. Read more »