NBA on Dec. 27: A humiliating day for Celtics, Warriors

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The two teams expected to meet in the 2018-19 NBA Finals, the Boston Celtics and the Golden State Warriors both suffered humiliating losses on Thursday. The Celtics lost 113-127 to the Houston Rockets and Golden State lost 109-110 to the Portland Trail Blazers.

Celtics 'commit suicide' in loss to Rockets

James Harden of the Houston Rockets reacts to the fans /VCG Photo

Kyrie Irving dropped Boston's high scores of 23 points and 11 assists and was the only player to score over 20 for the team. Marcus Morris and Jaylen Brown respectively put down 19 and 18 points, Jason Tatum and Gordon Hayward both struggled with their shooting and ended with single digits.

James Harden again put on an incredible 45 point performance by making nine of 18 3-pt shots and 14 of 17 free throws. Clint Capela dominated the paint by dropping 24 points and 18 rebounds. Eric Gordon also stood out by scoring 20 points.

Clint Capela #15 of the Rockets shoots the ball in the paint. /VCG Photo

The Celtics made horrible mistakes from the beginning of the game. Usually there're two options for defending Harden: 1. Send a player to take him one-on-one closely to deny three-pointer and put a big man in the restricted area between Harden and the basket. The goal of this option is to cut off connections between Harden and the rest of the team while forcing him to make perimeter shots that he doesn't like.

Option 2: Double team Harden when he calls for a screen to make him pass the ball to his teammates, thus preventing isolated opportunities for him. The goal of this option is to shut Harden out and force the rest of the Rockets to deal with the ball.

P.J. Tucker of the Rockets shoots corner three-pointer. /VCG Photo

However, Boston used neither. The players defending Harden often left a big gap for him. Maybe they were worried too much about Harden's penetration and as a result, he kept shooting his signature step-back 3-pt shots without any fear. What made things worse was that even by leaving one big step, the Celtics were unable to stop Harden's penetration and as the team's wing player returned to help defense, Houston's players left easy, big open three-pointers at the two corners.

Boston defense was so terrible that they didn't even call for help from the two wings. When Harden went through the first-line of defense, the Celtics' big men would come out to stop him, leaving more than enough space for the Rockets to go for offense rebounds. As a result, Boston lost in rebounding 38-54.

When they finally realized their mistakes in the last quarter, there were unable to stop Houston any more because both Harden and his teammates got their hands hot enough from the 3-pt line.

Warriors lose to Trail Blazers due to arrogance

Damian Lillard #0 and Jusuf Nurkic #27 of the Portland Trail Blazers take interview after the game. /VCG Photo

Though GSW's Stephen Curry dropped the court's high of 29 points, he only had seven assists and made seven turnovers, including a deadly one in overtime. Kevin Durant took the 12th triple-double in his career of 26 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists. Klay Thompson continued his season of cold hands by scoring only 15 points that came from his 2/9 three-pointers.

Portland's Jusuf Nurkic was surprisingly successful in destroying Golden State's paint with 27 points and 12 rebounds. Though the team's back-court combination of Damian Lillard and C. J. McCollum only delivered field goal rates of around 30 percent, Lillard brought the victory with a game-winning three-pointer with only six seconds to go.

Lillard #0 of the Trail Blazers makes the game-winning three-pointer in the overtime. /VCG Photo

Despite the improper defense, the Celtics at least lost after a fight, which was not the story of how the Warriors. For as long as 45 minutes of the regular time, the Warriors were so careless in the game that they only made two of their first 11 free throws even with Curry, Durant and Thompson on the free-throw line.

Besides for the disappointing free throw rates, the Warriors' offense seemed to despise the Trail Blazers the whole time. They did not make extra passes like they used to. Instead, Curry, Durant and even Thompson chose to shoot with simple screens, a bad choice especially when they could not even land free throws. The only reason that the game did not become a foregone conclusion was because the Trail Blazers also could not find their targets for most of the time.

Nurkic #27 of the Trail Blazers makes a floater in the paint. /VCG Photo

Though GSW used their most powerful weapon, ball screen between Curry and Durant and managed to tie the score 102-102, in the last three minutes of the regular time Curry lost the ball to Portland's double teaming in OT gave the team last chance in offense, in which Lillard made the three-pointer that sealed the score 110-109.

Other games on Thursday included: (away teams come first)

New York Knicks 96-112 Milwaukee Bucks

Los Angeles Lakers 116-117 Sacramento Kings

Philadelphia 76ers 114-97 Utah Jazz