Celtics hit by Rockets’ fire

The moment seemed critical, but Doc Rivers was barely listening.

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After the Rockets hit shot after shot, the Celtics falling behind by as many as 12 points in the fourth quarter, they made it a two-possession game on a Paul Pierce 3-pointer with 27.2 seconds left, and it looked like the door had cracked open.

Rajon Rondo dug his heels in, trapping Houston’s Aaron Brooks in the backcourt and making it impossible for him to move as much as an inch. Brooks tried to call a timeout, but it seemed too late.

“Eight-second violation,’’ the voice blared through TD Garden. “Celtics ball.’’

Then came the review. Then came the clarification.

“Inadvertent whistle,’’ the voice said.

Rockets’ ball.

Referee Scott Foster tried giving Rivers an explanation. Every syllable zipped from one of Rivers’s ears and out the other.

“I didn’t even pay attention, honestly,’’ Rivers said. “I heard him and it was probably the way I sounded before the game about playing hard. It sounded like blah, blah, blah.’’

After watching the Rockets light it up, putting seven players in double figures and making wild shots look routine in a 108-102 win, Rivers poured the disappointment and frustration in his team into a shot glass and said bottoms up. He could have gone on forever, there were so many things wrong with the Celtics’ defense last night.

“I thought it was probably our worst defensive effort in three, four years as far as overall effort,’’ Rivers said.

Even though the Rockets hadn’t won in 10 days, they still had one of the league’s most potent offenses. And the issue wasn’t just the Celtics’ defense. It was that they didn’t view Houston as a problem to begin with.

But the Rockets were as desperate as they were depleted. They had lost five straight coming in. They also had lost Yao Ming for the year — again. Their best scorer, Kevin Martin, was a scratch with a sprained right wrist. Their best player, Brooks, was just getting back on the floor after spraining his left ankle. They were playing the fourth of their last six on the road, including this single-game trip to Boston that had coach Rick Adelman griping, “I should get the league a geographic map of the United States.’’

Practically at rock bottom when they arrived, Houston shot 50 percent in the first quarter, 57.9 percent in the third, and by the fourth, everything the Rockets attempted — from Patrick Patterson’s unexpected 16-footers to the 25-foot 3-pointer Brooks drained as he splashed back-first to the parquet — went down, no matter how wild the shots seemed.

“It’s our fault; every shot they made looked wild,’’ Rivers said. “It’s funny, at halftime I told our guys, ‘We’re giving them confidence. An offensive team, you’re giving confidence. If you go into the fourth quarter and you give them confidence, they’re going to make shots. They’re going to make shots. That’s what they do, especially now that they see themselves with a chance to win.’ They made some crazy shots, but it was due to our inability to play defense for three quarters.’