ESPN reacts to Kristaps Porzingis scoring 32 points, NBA-leading Celtics beat Rockets 116-107

ESPN reacts to Kristaps Porzingis scoring 32 points, NBA-leading Celtics beat Rockets 116-107

Post game live Eddie House Amina Smith here with you the Celtics winning this one against the Houston Rockets 116 to 107 the Celtics leading by as much as 17 points in this game they eventually come away with the win Eddie what was the storyline for this match up for you I

Thought it was a defense from the Celtics and everybody you know chipping in whether it be in the right spot at the right time whether it be getting block shots I mean you in the game when you uh look at it you have 10 Steals and

12 blocks you know though those are big time numbers and you don’t accidentally trip into that you get those numbers because you’re locked in defensively and I think defense is the reason why they won that game you talk about being locked in defensively Chris as porzingis

Was locked in on both ends of the floor 32 points also had five rebounds and five blocks had 20 points at the break what did you see out of Chris porzingis in this win well what he does you know he stretches the floor so he makes it

Almost impossible for some of these bigs in this league to guard him because a lot of bigs are in drop coverages but it all started with his defense rebounding the basketball getting block shots being active and being locked in on the defensive end we know he’s going to get

His opportunities offensively because of the things that I just laid out is he’s going to have chances because he has the ability to stretch the floor to get a lot of easy looks and he’s going to get a lot of easy looks from the place that

He likes and that’s for the most part from elbow to Elbow top of the key area and and you know he knocks him down and you you could live with that but I like the fact that he was locked in from the start defensively and that’s where it

Begins for for me with him and everything else comes after that his fourth 30-point game so far this season and the rockets they had no answer defensively for Chris D porzingis and as you mentioned Eddie I mean with him with that height 74 out there I mean you

Can’t do anything with that I I don’t even think the Rockets had an answer on the floor out there for Chris that’s porzingis no they don’t you you bring bring him away from the basket so now you ask ask the big fella to try to play that drop coverage and then rotate so

Far out there’s just no chance for him to get back and I’m talking about singon getting back to porzingis is uh three then now you want to switch so now you switch and he just rolls down to the post or he rolls into his sweet spot

Right there at the nail or right in between the free throw line and the dotted and you’re able to get him the basketball and he just focuses on shooting over the top of the smaller guy so taking advantage of the mismatches that they had tonight and the mismatch

Was whoever porzingis was guarding or put porzingis in the action and you’ll get the action that you wanted and you’ll find the the exact matchup that you’re looking for and and we were able to take advantage of that all night like over and over and over and over Chris D

Poring is coming up huge for the Celtics in this win with he’s with Abby chin after the game christops you had a game high 32 points but came out super aggressive in that first quarter with 15 was the game plan to use is your size uh

No to be honest uh just knowing the coverage they were going to be in uh they were going to play Drop coverage with Shang so early on I just got a lot of open looks uh missed the first two but I just stayed aggressive stayed shooting and I knew they were going to

Fall sooner or later and and shots feeling better and uh and uh and yeah it was just in a flowa game I was able to get those open looks from my teammates you also had five blocks in this game so do it on both ends this team hasn’t

Dropped consecutive games but once this season and that was back in November what is it about this group that you guys are able to bounce back we know that if we want to be a championship caliber team that we cannot lose multiple games in a row and uh we had a

Tough one the other night and and against Denver at home uh another championship caliber team uh it was a fun game we didn’t we came up a little bit short took some lessons from that one and wanted to bounce back tonight just saw you waving to the fans there

Were let’s go Celtics chance loud in here in the fourth quarter do you know the green traveled this well honestly it’s incredible it’s incredible everywhere we were on the road um we get this support as if we were at home and um uh I cannot uh think of another fan

Base uh in the NBA that is like this and it’s absolutely a blessing to play in front of these fans Kristof thank you congratulations thank you so much all smiles from Chris St poor zingis as he exits the arena right there exits the floor and Celtics fans loud

And proud down there in Houston Drew Carter and scal joining us live right now scal I’ll start with you what was your biggest takeaway after this win yeah we found a different way to win this game after I thought an awful third quarter on our end of just like fumbling

Around not getting to our spaces where we need to and then we find porzingis that could you could go to him not just when he has a mismatch we were just going down and feeding the big fella and he I just thought he delivered for us to

Keep that Gap and for us to eventually secure the win and Drew how would you describe the flow of this game I heard you talk about it being a little hurt jerky in that third quarter how would you describe the flow little little health or Skelter as well um you know we

We mentioned that you said it was going to be on shacked in a fool I said queue up the Yaky saaks music there was a stretch where it was real sloppy for both teams but I think for for the balance of the third quarter and really the start of the fourth quarter there

Was not much flow for the Celtics I mean you said it 35 in the 1 35 in the second just 20 in the third and that’s you know unfortunately sort of been a common threat in losses for the Celtics is struggling in the thir third quarter

Good news is they bounced back in the fourth quarter and it seemed like things kind of changed after that 9-minute Mark so I wonder so you can go one of two ways right and I I think me and Eddie both think like this like okay come out

In the third treat it like it’s game seven of the NBA finals and blow this team out and rest it felt like to me that they came out and said like we’re not going to exert that much energy we’re just going to kind of coast to the

End I know we’re going to win this game we but you know I don’t I don’t think they were thinking let me get ice on my knees in this fourth quarter I just sat there thinking okay I’m going to I’m going to conserve energy and start getting ready for tomorrow that’s just

What it looked like to me all let me let me say this I don’t subscribe to that type of mentality as far as saying let’s just let’s just Coast through it and get it done because if you start subscribing to that eventually you’re not going to be playing the Houston Rockets that’s

Not who you preparing to play against and the third quarters are important quarters if historically you look at championship teams usually win the third quarters not every third quarter but they play extremely well in the third quarter and I and to me it’s it’s just

That that that small lapse and I don’t I don’t know what it is I don’t know if you get too comfortable you get happy with success I i’ I’ve been a victim of it I I’ve been shooting in drills and I started knocking down 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

And it start getting good to me and I change my shot and just you know he about 60 in a row not five not six not seven not eight not and I really mean that too but look though guys what I’m saying is you get comfortable with with with

What you’re doing and you forget about what you did to get there and I think that’s the that that’s some of the the problem that we’re having at times in the third quarter is you’re so good in the first quarter and you feel so good and you know you’re better than this

Other team that you you take a deep breath well you don’t want to get into that habit because eventually you going to be playing a team to Wi you take that breath they going to punch you in your stomach and you going to be looking for

Some more air and it ain’t nowhere to be found Scout 20 points from the Celtics in that third quarter did that have more to do with the Rockets defense or just the Celtics being flat I hate to say it I mean I we were flat okay I don’t think we were I mean

They’re not defensive rating so I’m thinking I’m like maybe they might have you know Tri them up a little bit it did look a little off in that third quarter no I think a that has to do with Van Fleet like he’s really good like

He’s head of the snake on defense but n that’s how we we stopped attacking we just like we were just going I’m I think going through the motions is probably the best way to describe it during that third quarter like not going to drive now listen you got to think about it

From Tatum and brown standpoint every time they had the ball Houston was being super physical and every time they drove they were getting hit so you know it’s different for Eddie and myself who chilling in the corner waiting for the ball to come like those guys are like do

I really want to drive in there and I mean just go watch if you want to watch the game again it’s every single time they drove they got punched when they went to the paint so it was like do I really want to do this when we’re

Sitting up here up 17 up 19 I just think that they decided no and there’s going to be moments where you’re going to have to decide yes whether we’re playing Miami and you know how it’s going to be the other day against Denver it was like that those guys were real physical and

Handy but tonight I just thought you know what I’m not not about this I’ll just save it leave the fight another day that’s kind of what it looked like to me let me just say something real quick on the way out here Amina takes a lot of

Heat right including some I think out ofine comments from people in the last couple days one of the things that he takes heat for is timeouts there were two times tonight where he took a timely timeout and the Celtics came out and scored multiple buckets in a row why

Don’t you just call the man out why don’t you just say say his name I think what Kendrick Perkins said the other day was out of line I’m just I’m going to say I can you up man I’m I well we all know who I’m talking about and look perk

Former Celtic Celtic great champ we get it I thought what he said was out of line and to me Joe moua has earned hold on here hold on hold on like you don’t have to fight his fights he’s good dude he’s I know he is dude does taekwan let

Me just ask you are you ready to go are you ready to go are you ready to go to the mattresses with perk like this is like you got to go all the way in on this they’re do you not agree that that was out of pocket what he said no it was

Out of pocket but I’m not trying to get a Twitter war with per I’m not either I’m just saying that’s out of pocket you want to criticize somebody that’s fine all right man that’s fine go ahead I totally understand this I totally understand what you’re saying

You can criticize but to say that the other day I mean that was crazy and so I just want to I just want to show Missoula some love for taking the timeouts which everyone’s been begging him to do he took the timely timeouts tonight nothing wrong with that nothing

Wrong look Drew Carter he’s standing on business okay just know that Drew Carter is standing on business it’s about to go down take a break here look at that Final Will Spee spee Speech for Spe for for for foreign speech speech speech spee speech speech for foree spee speech speee fore spee I don’t want SW an ally has been de for foree speech fore speech speech spee spee you have been defeated an ally has defeated Spee Fore spech foreign speee foree Tower base is under Attack fore for Foree Your team has destroy

ESPN reacts to Kristaps Porzingis scoring 32 points, NBA-leading Celtics beat Rockets 116-107