For the second time in three games, the Boston Celtics put on a defensive masterclass when they blew the Houston Rockets out of their own building, 109-86.
It wasn’t always a blowout. The first half was pretty back and forth, actually. Houston got a nice scoring punch from Jalen Green and cleaned up on the offensive glass.
They managed to close an 11-point gap with 14 second-chance points against the Celtics on just six offensive rebounds (insane to think they scored more than two points on each of those extra possessions).
“I thought they got the better of us to start the game from a physical standpoint, and then I thought they did a great job responding,” said head coach Joe Mazzulla.