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Celtics Wrap: Boston Buries Young Rockets Behind Star Duo
Tatum and Brown combined for 77


NESN by Keagan Stiefel

The Boston Celtics defeated the Houston Rockets, 126-102, on Tuesday at TD Garden.

The C’s improved to 24-10 while the Rockets fell to 10-23.

ONE BIG TAKEAWAY
Riding high on their Christmas Day victory over the Milwaukee Bucks, it took the Celtics a while to get into this one. Then they straight up buried the inexperienced Rockets.

The first three quarters of this one were a story of Boston riding its stars, as Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown did pretty much everything for the Celtics. The star duo combined for 59 points through 36 minutes, playing a more physical game than Green Teamers are used to seeing.

Against the Rockets, that physicality was extremely evident.

The second half was an opportunity for Boston to try new things, where Brown and Tatum set up Robert Williams III to put together his best performance since returning Dec. 16.

In a game where the bench looked sluggish, the Celtics stars put everything together to defeat a far-inferior opponent.

STARS OF THE GAME
— Brown scored 10 of Boston’s first 15 points and finished the night with 39 — a new season high. He also had three steals on the defensive end.

— Tatum scored 38 points of his own, adding eight rebounds, four assists, one steal and a block on the night.

— Williams finished with 11 points and 15 rebounds in 21 minutes in his fifth game back from knee surgery. If he wasn’t before, Williams appears to be ready for more minutes.

WAGER WATCH
Brown blew past his total points/rebounds/assists prop in this one. DraftKings Sportsbook set his PRA total at 37.5, giving him -105 odds of surpassing the number. He hit it with his points alone, meaning a $100 bet would have netted a total payout of $195.24.


UP NEXT
The Celtics will be back at TD Garden on Thursday, welcoming the Los Angeles Clippers to town for the first time in 2022. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET.

112288

Nice win for the Celtics to keep the momentum going. The first three quarters were not pretty. This is the first time I have watched the Rockets this year and I thought both Jalen Green and Kevin Porter Jr are really tough to contain off the dribble. Anyone not named Smart had trouble staying in front of them. I am hoping its their talent and not our defenders. The threes finally started to fall in the second half. Grant's back to back threes finally broke the dam. However, the Celtics had a lot of good looks throughout the game.

The J's are just amazing. They put up 39 (Jaylen) and 38 (JT) and I didn't think they were really clicking. Trying to think back in Celtics history and I don't remember ever a better one, two punch. The Russell teams had a slew of weapons. The great teams of the 70's were really a three headed monster with Hondo, Cowens and JoJo. The great 80's teams were led by Bird, but he was surrounded by all stars like McHale, Parrish and DJ. The awesome teams from 2008-2012 had an array of stars in PP, KG, Rondo and Ray. Am I missing something ???

Houston was not a far inferior team. Green, Martin and Porter can really play.

It is so much fun to watch this style of Celtics basketball. RWill...rebounding like Russell...tipping the ball to Smart was a joy to behold.

I hate to bitch after a win.  But I am going to do just that.

The Jays were pretty amazing  but there was something wrong with them last night.

The overall shot distribution was poor.   The Jays took 51 out of 91 FG.    They put up a ridiculous 31 (3) point attempts between them.  Robert Williams was the only other player in double digits and not because he got a lot of looks.  He is just a very efficient scorer  (4-4)

That was not a quality game for Boston.  Wouldn't give the win back but just a little disappointed that the jays were in stat stuffing mode all night.

dboss wrote:I hate to bitch after a win.  But I am going to do just that.

The Jays were pretty amazing  but there was something wrong with them last night.

The overall shot distribution was poor.   The Jays took 51 out of 91 FG.    They put up a ridiculous 31 (3) point attempts between them.  Robert Williams was the only other player in double digits and not because he got a lot of looks.  He is just a very efficient scorer  (4-4)

That was not a quality game for Boston.  Wouldn't give the win back but just a little disappointed that the jays were in stat stuffing mode all night.

dBoss,

You beat me to the punch. I was about to say the same thing in my next post. It is great to see players dominate a game, but when the majority of scoring and shots are between 2 players, that is not good for the rest of the team. Yes, Brown and Tatum were groving their their rythem but that has a negative affect on the rest of the team where they become bystanders and not participants!

112288

dboss and 112288 - Just be glad you're not Dallas Maverick fans!

Cow

Not looking to give the win back as I said.

I think they were both trying to drop at least 40.

That is what it looked like to me.  Other teammates were playing well enough to get more shots.

I sure hope this was an anomaly for the sake of the team.

Having the J's both sniff 40 and Williams next at 11/16 is just another way to cross the finish line. I'll take it as well. It's just a weird way to win but still a win!

db

dboss wrote:I hate to bitch after a win.  But I am going to do just that.

The Jays were pretty amazing  but there was something wrong with them last night.

The overall shot distribution was poor.   The Jays took 51 out of 91 FG.    They put up a ridiculous 31 (3) point attempts between them.  Robert Williams was the only other player in double digits and not because he got a lot of looks.  He is just a very efficient scorer  (4-4)

That was not a quality game for Boston.  Wouldn't give the win back but just a little disappointed that the jays were in stat stuffing mode all night.

dboss

Statistically speaking yes they took a large percentage of the teams field goal attempts, but I really didn't think they were forcing shots or taking bad ones. Most of the threes they took were open (not wide open, but with space). I don't mind them taking those shots as opposed to D White, Al or Marcus. Yes, I would rather see a more proportional distribution, but these guys are so good that sometimes you have to let them do their thing. When they are forcing shots, dribbling in traffic and making bad decisions that's when I have a problem, but this game I don't think they did that.

Celtics17 wrote:

dboss wrote:I hate to bitch after a win.  But I am going to do just that.

The Jays were pretty amazing  but there was something wrong with them last night.

The overall shot distribution was poor.   The Jays took 51 out of 91 FG.    They put up a ridiculous 31 (3) point attempts between them.  Robert Williams was the only other player in double digits and not because he got a lot of looks.  He is just a very efficient scorer  (4-4)

That was not a quality game for Boston.  Wouldn't give the win back but just a little disappointed that the jays were in stat stuffing mode all night.

dboss

Statistically speaking yes they took a large percentage of the teams field goal attempts, but I really didn't think they were forcing shots or taking bad ones. Most of the threes they took were open (not wide open, but with space). I don't mind them taking those shots as opposed to D White, Al or Marcus. Yes, I would rather see a more proportional distribution, but these guys are so good that sometimes you have to let them do their thing. When they are forcing shots, dribbling in traffic and making bad decisions that's when I have a problem, but this game I don't think they did that.

celtics17

To me this was one of those games where the Jay's knew that a couple of young studs were in the mix and they wanted to teach them a lesson.  

Yes a lot of their shots were open but I always look at when those shots are taken.  I thought they settled early for some of their shots and at times they ignored open teammates.  

Game in and game out the Celtics are not going to win against good teams when the shot distribution is unbalanced.

The Rockets are a bad team so they were able to get whatever they wanted against them.

Again, I ain't giving the win back!