The borderline-elite Boston Celtics start their short week with a plane ride down south to take on the Rockets in H-Town, with the game’s official tip-off taking place at 9:30 p.m. ET on TNT.
For the second leg of Tuesday’s TNT doubleheader, Boston looks to test themselves against the two-headed monster that is this Houston Rockets backcourt composed of MVP candidate James Harden and his buddy and second-time-around teammate Russell Westbrook. In what might be the most difficult defensive responsibility asked of these new-look Celtics this year, they’ll be tasked with finding a solution against a guard duo that leads the NBA in backcourt scoring with 62.5 points per game, 14.6 assists per game, and 14.5 rebounds per game.
And of those two guards, just take an educated guess on who garners most of the attention. Harden, the 2018 league’s Most Valuable Player, is on the clear and unparalleled path to clutching his third scoring title. But, even with he and Westbrook’s combined scoring expertise, the Rockets took some serious bumps to both their roster and overall record in losing their only center Clint Capela to the Atlanta Hawks from last Thursday’s trade deadline, and their 1-2 record without him in Rockets head coach Mike D’Antoni’s adapted style of small ball — sliding the team-tallest 6’5 PJ Tucker into the center spot — not working quite in their favor so far.
But that doesn’t make the five Houston defenders on the floor immediate liabilities, of course. In his Rockets debut, Robert Covington was complicit in the second-half defensive demolition of the Los Angeles Lakers last Thursday night while also contributing 14 points in 30 minutes.
But what is to be examined tonight won’t just be Daniel Theis and Enes Kanter’s significant height advantage but the suddenly exuberant two-way proficiency of first-time All-Star Jayson Tatum (22.1 ppg.), or should I say, this week’s Eastern Conference Player of the Week with his 29.8 ppg., the third-highest scoring total in the Eastern Conference. And just last week, his accomplice in the frontcourt, Jaylen Brown (20.3 ppg.), achieved the same accolade. Along with Gordon Hayward (17.2 ppg.) and Kemba Walker (22.0 ppg.), this team has been the talk of the town as a four-man combination that can post double-digits on a scoring sheet on any given night.
And tonight, the Celtics can’t wait to see how their third-ranked defense stacks up against Houston’s offensive blitz from their backcourt.
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