Boston falls to Thompson game winner, Celtics lose 114-112 to Rockets

Coming off of a 3-1 west coast road trip and win over the Dallas Mavericks, the Celtics came back home to face off against the Houston Rockets. After a dogfight of a game, Boston came up short, as the Rockets won 114-112 giving Ime Udoka his first win against the Celtics as a head coach.

Jaylen Brown led the way for the Celtics in this game with 28 points but Dillion Brooks played the game of his life, scoring 36 points on a career high 10 threes. Amen Thompson was just as good, scoring a career high 33 points including the game winner.

Jaylen Brown and Kristaps Porzingis opened the game on fire as the cookies and cream duo started the first quarter with 15 of the Celtics first 17 points. Luke Kornet was a late addition to the starting lineup for the Celtics but it didn’t take long for him to make an impact as he threw down a monster slam over the Rockets Amen Thompson.

Al Horford was questionable leading up to the game and was reported as available, however Neemias Queta and Xavier Tillman were a part of the first bench substitution in the first quarter.

Although the Celtics got off to a quick start, the Rockets caught fire, going on a 20-5 run dominated by Amen Thompson and Dillon Brooks. Brooks was the more surprising part of Houston’s run, scoring 12 points on 4-4 shooting from three in the quarter.

Jordan Walsh checked in for the Celtics with under two minutes to go in the first quarter but it couldn’t slow down the Rockets’ high flying offense as Houston ended the quarter with a 31-27 lead. Amen Thompson was a problem for Boston, scoring 14 points on 5-6 shooting and was a blur when it came to attacking the basket.

Jaden Springer checked in for the Celtics to start the second quarter and immediately got a steal on Steven Adams as Joe Mazzulla continued to mix and match with the lineups.

Kristaps Porzingis continued his hot shooting, splashing a three and going up for a nasty put back dunk. He made sure to stare down Dillion Brooks after, resulting in a technical foul but Porzingis was too busy hyping up the ruckus TD Garden crowd.

Houston was not phased by the theatrics as they went on another long 15-4 run to open up a double digit lead on Boston. The Celtics offense responded with a 12-4 run of their own but still went into halftime trailing the Rockets 54-52.

Boston’s offense was great in the first quarter shooting 46% from the field and 38% from three. All of this with Jayson Tatum scoring 0 points, the first time he went scoreless in the first half since November 4th, 2021 against the Miami Heat.

The cookies and cream duo were able to pick Tatum up in the first half, as Jaylen Brown finished with 16 points on 6-12 shooting and Kristaps Porzingis finished 15 points on 5-7 shooting (3-4 from three). Dillion Brooks led the Rockets with 17 points on 5-9 shooting from three at the half and Amen Thompson was right behind him with 16 points.

The third quarter started with Jayson Tatum hitting his first shot of the game with a fadeaway jumper. Dillon Brooks continued to torment the Celtics, hitting two more threes to start the quarter for a career high of 7.

Boston was able to keep the game close however they were without Kristaps Porzingis after he picked up his 5th foul with 4:34 left in the third quarter.

After Dillon Brooks hit his 8th three, Drew Peterson checked in with with three and a half minutes to go in the quarter. Jaden Springer checked in alongside him and hit a big three, continuing his impressive play as of late.

The story of the third quarter for the Celtics however was Jayson Tatum, as after a scoreless first half, he scored 15 points on 3-6 shooting and 8-8 at the free throw line.

After a Luke Kornet put back layup at the buzzer and Tatum’s big quarter the Celtics took an 89-85 lead going into the fourth quarter.

The fourth quarter started with Payton Pritchard putting on a show. He found Luke Kornet on an incredible pass for a layup and then hit a fadeaway corner three. A Jaylen Brown midrange jumper forced Ime Udoka to call a timeout as Boston started the quarter on a 7-0 run.

Dillon Brooks’ 9th three got the Rockets offense going again as they rattled off an 13-0 run to retake the lead with 5:23 to go. Amen Thompson continued to get to the paint at will but Jrue Holiday answered with a corner three as the lead changed again. After a three second violation, Luke Kornet left the game with an injury with 3:36 left.

The cookies and cream connection continued to help the Celtics as Brown threw an ally-oop to Porzingis with 3:08 left.

However Dillon Brooks responded with his 10th three of the night to give the Rockets the lead with 1:39 left. Tatum responded with a layup but Thompson answered again with a fadeaway jumper.

After trading missed shots, Brown got fouled with 15.5 seconds to go. Out of the inbound pass, Tatum found Brown who cut to the rim to draw another foul and get free throws. Brown hit both free throws and the game was tied with 11.8 seconds to go.

Out of the Rockets timeout, Fred VanVleet inbounded to Alperen Sengun who got a free trip to the basket for a lead taking dunk, forcing Joe Mazzulla to call his last timeout with 10 seconds to go.

Out of the Celtics timeout, Holiday inbounded the ball to Porzinigs who found Tatum at the three point line. Tatum drove to rim and scored to tie the game again and Houston called their last timeout with 5.3 seconds to go.

Vanvleet found Amen Thompson who got wide open to hit an easy floater, winning the game for the Rockets after Payton Prichard’s half court shot attempt came up short.

The next game for the Celtics is on Wednesday January 29th against the Chicago Bulls at 7:30pm.