Celtics make statement with rout of Rockets for third consecutive win

The toughest month of the Celtics’ schedule is off to a banner start.

Twenty-four hours after outlasting the Timberwolves in Minnesota, Boston manhandled the Houston Rockets on Friday, cruising to a 109-86 demolition of one of the NBA’s best defensive teams.

The Celtics won both games without Jaylen Brown, who sat out for the second straight night with a right shoulder strain. They’ll carry a three-game winning streak into Sunday’s highly anticipated matchup with the Western Conference-leading Oklahoma City Thunder.

Tipoff in OKC is set for 3:30 p.m ET.

Derrick White led all scorers with 23 points on 8-of-16 shooting, including 6-of-12 from 3-point range. Jayson Tatum scored 20 points, and Payton Pritchard added an uber-efficient 20 off the bench, making eight of his 10 field goals and four of his six 3s.

Kristaps Porzingis finished with 11 points, five rebounds and two blocks after missing the previous four games with a sprained ankle, but Luke Kornet was Boston’s biggest frontcourt difference-maker, notching nine points, four assists, a steal and a block while grabbing six of the Celtics’ 12 offensive rebounds.

The Rockets have been one of the NBA’s biggest surprises this season under head coach Ime Udoka, who steered the Celtics to the 2022 NBA Finals before his season-long suspension and ultimate departure from the franchise opened the door for Joe Mazzulla’s promotion.

Houston plays with the same defensive tenacity that defined Udoka’s Boston squad, with only Oklahoma City boasting a better defensive rating. A 41-41 lottery team last season, the Rockets entered Friday with the third-best record in the loaded Western Conference (a half-game behind second-place Memphis) and sixth-best in the NBA despite boasting a roster that’s made a total of one NBA All-Star Game (by point guard Fred VanVleet in 2022).

That roster was substantially diminished Friday night, however. Forward Jabari Smith Jr., who’d started every game for Houston, fractured his hand at morning shootaround, shelving him for the next month-plus. Udoka also was missing his top two bench players — so-called “Terror Twins” Tari Eason and Amen Thompson — who were unavailable due to injury and suspension, respectively.

The Rockets were competitive for three quarters but wilted in the fourth, allowing the Celtics to give their starters some late-game rest in garbage time.

Jrue Holiday, who’s been a difference-maker for Boston since returning from a shoulder injury, scored 12 first-quarter points on 5-of-6 shooting — an unusually hot offensive start for a player known more for his defense and dirty work. The veteran guard has made 53.9% of his 3s over the last three games, far better than his numbers pre-injury.

Pritchard also hit double figures in his first eight minutes of floor time, showing off his underrated three-level scoring ability that Mazzulla has praised multiple times this season. In addition to his pair of first-quarter 3-pointers, Pritchard also had some nice finishes around the rim, including a nifty reverse layup after driving past center Alperen Sengun.

Sengun, an All-Star candidate out West, gave Porzingis problems with his physicality in the opening minutes (eight early points, two drawn fouls), but an adjustment by Mazzulla blunted the big man’s impact. (He scored just six points the rest of the way.) Sengun also was on the wrong end of a rare Kornet poster dunk, with Boston’s backup center flooring him off a lob from Tatum.

Kornet’s slam — the highlight of a very good outing from the 29-year-old — capped a 10-0 Celtics run that put them ahead by 13. Houston recovered, however, eventually cutting Boston’s lead to two with 3:50 left in the first half.

Shortly thereafter, Tatum began to take over. The Celtics superstar capped what had been a relatively nondescript first half by his standards with an excellent closing kick. He scored eight points on three shots in the final 67 seconds before halftime: back-to-back 3-pointers followed by a driving dunk that stretched Boston’s lead to 65-56.

On one of the 3s and the dunk, Tatum sought out and then exploited mismatches with the 6-foot-11 Sengun, who couldn’t keep pace on the perimeter.

The Celtics then held the Rockets to 16 points in the third quarter, during which Houston went more than five minutes without a made field goal. White provided the most impressive individual defensive play, spinning on a dime to block a Dillon Brooks layup in transition.

Boston added just a point to its lead during the third, however, thanks to a sharp uptick in offensive sloppiness. After turning the ball over just once in the first half (and four times against Minnesota a night earlier), the Celtics committed eight in the third quarter alone, letting Houston hang around.

They finally pulled away in the fourth with a flurry of 3s — one by Porzingis, one by White, one by Pritchard — and more stifling defense. The Rockets did not score until the 7:15 mark of the quarter, by which point Boston had stretched its lead to 21 points. Two of the Celtics’ 3s during that game-icing blitz came off Kornet offensive rebounds.

Over Boston’s last three games, its guard trio of White, Holiday and Pritchard are shooting a combined 54.8% from beyond the arc (34 for 62). Pritchard buried another triple with 5:45 to play to put the Celtics ahead 100-79. After an ensuing timeout, both teams emptied their benches.

With back-to-back road wins over talented Western Conference foes, not to mention their 54-point thrashing of the Toronto Raptors on New Year’s Eve, the Celtics have bounced strongly from their less-than-stellar December, during which they went 8-6 despite playing a generally favorable schedule.

They’ll now have a chance to reassert their championship bona fides against the formidable Thunder in what could be an NBA Finals preview. OKC and its NBA MVP candidate, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, are riding a 14-game win streak.

Off the rim

Sam Hauser started in place of Brown but played just 19 minutes and attempted one shot. He had his lower back wrapped on the bench as the second half began, suggesting the injury that’s bothered him since the offseason still is lingering. … After a league review, the NBA rescinded the technical foul called on Tatum during Thursday’s win in Minnesota. Had it stood, it would have been Tatum’s sixth tech of the season; 16 triggers an automatic one-game suspension.