Things I like about Houston: UGK, Beyonce, Scarface, the influence of the chopped/screwed sound on modern hip-hop production. Things I don’t like: The Celtics facing a squad in Houston led by two superstars who excel at getting to the line, both legitimately and illegitimately. Let’s look at key aspects of what went wrong:
Officiating hellworld & the double-foul jamboree
The Rockets shot 42 free-throw attempts by comparison to the Celtics’ 25. Marcus Smart addressed it angrily in postgame comments (and may end up fined as a result; we’ll see). Now, I’m not here to litigate James Harden’s gangly, flailing Eurostep for the gazillionth time and claim it invalidates his greatness (it doesn’t), or argue against Russell Westbrook’s more restrained version of the same tactic.