Rockets top Celtics in OT thriller
The Houston Rockets beat the Boston Celtics in overtime 111-110, riding on the back of a 41-point game by Russell Westbrook.
The first half was all Celtics. They got to the rim through Houston’s stifling defense and jumped out to a 9-point lead in the first quarter. Jayson Tatum who had 3 straight games with 30+ plus points in each, didn’t convert a single field goal but went 4-4 from the line in the first. Houston was cold on offense with only Westbrook making his shots. The Rockets also airballed a total of 4 threes in the first quarter.
In the second quarter, Jayson Tatum came to life and the Boston Celtics were dominating, increasing their lead to 17 at one point. However, the Rockets started to show everyone how they actually played late in the second quarter and started to hit their shots.
The Celtics lead 56-45 at the half.
The Rockets roared back in the second and started draining their shots as they started to out-hustle the Celtics, with PJ Tucker grabbing numerous offensive boards, leading to second-chance attempts. Houston limited Boston to only 22 points in the third quarter. James Harden and the rest of the team started hitting their shots and they actually went into the 4th with a 3 point lead.
The fourth quarter was very evenly fought, but PJ Tucker and Russell Westbrook both made huge plays for the Rockets while Jayson Tatum kept the Celtics in it by continuing his superstar form from his past few games.
The Celtics were then down by 3 points with only 5.1 seconds remaining and with Tatum at the line. He missed his first and intentionally missed the second to allow Jaylen Brown to hit a miraculous buzzer-beating three to tie the game and send it to overtime.
The game was just as even in overtime. PJ Tucker came away with a few huge offensive boards and gave tremendous effort in diving for every loose ball and overall out-hustling the Celtics.
The Rockets came away with a 111-110 victory.
Russell Westbrook led the team with 41 points as James Harden was limited to only 21. Robert Covington also played a great game leading the Rockets with 16 rebounds.
Jayson Tatum led the Celtics with his 4th straight game with 30+ points, scoring 32. Marcus Smart led the team in assists (7) and steals (4)
