For nine seasons, Marcus Smart made winning plays for the Boston Celtics. On Monday night he made them for the other side. Smart hit two big fourth-quarter 3-pointers and Alperen Sengun had 26 points and 10 assists as the Houston Rockets beat Boston 109-93, ending the Celtics’ five-game winning streak, The Associated Press reported.
The Rockets improved to 7-1 and moved into first place in the Western Conference. It was Boston’s first loss since its season opener at Detroit.
Smart’s night
Smart missed his first five 3-point attempts. Then, with Houston up seven early in the fourth quarter, he buried back-to-back 3s to make it 90-79, according to the Celtics’ game recap. The Rockets’ lead grew to 18 from there.
“You always wanna do good against your former team,” Smart told reporters, according to CelticsBlog. “They know what I can do, and I reminded them again tonight.” He finished with eight points, four rebounds and four assists.
Boston’s cold shooting
The Celtics shot 38.6% from the field, compared with 54.4% for Houston, and made 11 fewer field goals despite taking four more shots, according to the team. Houston outscored Boston 50-34 in the paint and 18-2 on the fast break, the AP reported. The Rockets never trailed. The game was tied at 29 after one quarter, and Houston led 57-50 at halftime.
Tatum scored 19 points on 5-of-16 shooting, including 1 of 7 from 3-point range, and went 8-for-8 at the free-throw line. He also had nine assists, his eighth straight game with at least six. Neemias Queta added 16 points on 6-of-7 shooting with six rebounds, and Luka Garza made four 3-pointers off the bench for 14 points.
“Everybody plays back-to-backs,” Tatum said, per NBC Sports Boston as quoted by CelticsBlog. “There were moments where we cut it to six or seven (points) and couldn’t get a rebound, and they hit a three. It’s moments like that where we gotta dig deeper a little bit.”
Who sat
Paul George rested on the second night of the back-to-back, his first missed game of the season. He had scored 17 points in Boston’s 108-97 win at Orlando on Sunday. Houston was without center Clint Capela, who has a sprained right ankle. Jabari Smith Jr. and Amen Thompson scored 14 points each for the Rockets, and Kevin Durant added 12 on 5-of-6 shooting.