BOSTON - Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers watched his team lose to the undermanned Houston Rockets and saw trouble coming from far down the road.Playing without leading scorer Kevin Martin, the Rockets beat Boston 108-102 on Monday night to shoot a five-game losing streak. Afterward, Rivers lamented his players' lack of movement and warned them to accept these regular season games more seriously or risk having a long summer to think about them.I've got to somehow figure out a way of acquiring them to see the urging of the whole season, and not the 1 game," Rivers told reporters. "Playing Game 7 on the road . and not simply in the finals, if you have it there, but in the playoffs, in the East, which is passing to be difficult."With the loss, Boston (28-9) fell behind the Miami Heat (30-9) for the best record in the Eastern League and the potential home-court advantage in the playoffs.Home-court was important in Boston's 2008 championship, but last year the aging Celtics opted to ease up for the postseason instead of chasing the better record. They overcame the disadvantage in beating Cleveland and Orlando in the playoffs before losing Game 7 of the NBA Finals to the Lakers in Los Angeles.With LeBron James and Chris Bosh joining Dwyane Wade in Miami, this season the Celtics can depend on more of a fight inside the conference."This year's not like last year, where you can coast," Rivers said. "If you don't have home court this year, you could go home."Aaron Brooks returned from an ankle injury to make 24 points for Houston, hitting a couple of free throws with 18 seconds remaining after Boston cut a 12-point deficit to four. Kyle Lowry had 17 with eight assists, Luis Scola scored 12 with nine rebounds and Jordan Hill had 12 points and eight rebounds for the Rockets."The guys never folded, never gave them an inch," coach Rick Adelman said. "Every sentence we get up here we hold people out and we end up taking the game. It's nice to see. It simply goes to show what you can do when you go out there and break your tail."It was the third consecutive year the Rockets have won in Boston and the 3rd time they have been missing key players: Tracy McGrady in 2009; Yao Ming, Trevor Ariza and Martin last year; and Yao, Martin and Miller this time."The more people we sit out, the best we play," Brooks said with a laugh.Ray Allen scored 19 for Boston, Marquis Daniels had season highs of 19 points and 7 rebounds and Rajon Rondo had 12 assists. Paul Pierce, who scored 16, sat at his locker after the game, still in his game shorts, staring at a stat sheet before crumpling it up and tossing it on the floor."These games mean a lot. We get to put our hard hats on and take vantage of it," he said. "It has to come from everybody. They get to appear at themselves and ask themselves, 'Are we giving enough as a team?'"The Celtics have trust that things will improve: Kevin Garnett, who has lost the final seven games with a calf injury, could take as shortly as Wednesday night's game against Sacramento."This stake had aught to do with Kevin Garnett," Rivers said. "It's a mental mindset, and it starts with me."Brooks missed 20 games before the temper with sprained left ankle, then aggravated the injury earlier this month and lost three more games before coming back on Monday night.The Rockets led by one item at the half and by six after 3 quarters before scoring six of the first eight points of the fourth. They were up 106-94 with 3:13 left before Daniels made a pinafore and then Allen and Pierce followed with 3-pointers to realize it a four-point game.With 19 seconds left, Houston needed three tries to inbound the ball - one was tipped away, one was an emergency timeout - before they got it to Brooks. He was immediately fouled, and he hit both free throws to clench it.Game notes: New England Patriots defensive back Devin McCourty was sitting courtside. . The Celtics fell to 16-3 at home. It was their first release in Boston since Nov. 19, when they lost to Oklahoma City in a game Kevin Durant didn't play. . The Rockets' five-game losing streak matched its longest of the season; they open the season 0-5. . Daniels had seven points in the 2nd quarter as Boston cut a nine-point deficit to one point.ongamez.co.tv/"; var maxNumberOfPostsPerLabel = 4; var maxNumberOfLabels = 10; maxNumberOfPostsPerLabel = 100; maxNumberOfLabels = 3; function listEntries10(json) { var ul = document.createElement('ul'); var maxPosts = (json.feed.entry.length
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