Four Studs, Two Duds As Rising Rockets Defeat Celtics In Thriller

The Boston Celtics and Houston Rockets faced off for the second and final time this season at TD Garden on Monday night.

This time, the C’s and Rockets treated everyone watching to an electric preview of what the NBA Finals could look like four months from now. It wasn’t pretty as Jayson Tatum’s performance suggested or easy as Dillon Brooks’ ascendance proved and as a result, Boston paid the ultimate price.

The Celtics dropped to 32-15 while Ime Udoka snagged his first win against his former team as head coach of the Rockets.

Here are three studs and three duds from Boston’s 114-112 loss:

STUDS
Kristaps Porzingis
Once again, Porzingis filled the role of the tone-setter.

Porzingis provided an all-time moment after Boston’s 7-footer slammed a putback dunk off his own miss and chest-bumped Rockets guard — and trash talker — Brooks. That move, which earned Porzingis a technical foul, erupted TD Garden’s crowd and energized the Celtics before ending the night with 17 points, eight rebounds and two assists.

Dillon Brooks
Boston got a first-hand look at what the worst of Brooks looks like.

Brooks drained a career-high 10 3-pointers and led the way for Houston with a game-high 36 points on 13-for-23 shooting. The 29-year-old was nearly automatic from beyond the arc from start to finish, taught Boston’s defense a lesson and was the game-changer of the night.

Luke Kornet
Another night, another poster dunk from Kornet.

Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla inserted Kornet into the starting lineup and that move paid off quickly. Kornet dunked on Houston’s Amen Thompson in the first quarter, three weeks after Boston’s backup center put Houston’s Alperen Şengün on a poster. Whatever the reason is, playing the Rockets seems to unleash some beast from within Kornet.

The 29-year-old finished with 18 points, seven rebounds and a block before being removed with an injury in the fourth quarter.

Amen Thompson
Houston received a critical performance from Thompson as the 21-year-old played Robin to Brooks’ Batman.

Thompson scored a career-high 33 points with nine rebounds and four assists and added the game-deciding finishing touch with the go-ahead floating jumper that buried the Celtics. Thompson exploited a miscommunication between Kornet and Jaylen Brown to score the game-winner with 1.1 seconds remaining on the clock.

DUDS
Jayson Tatum’s first-half disappearance
The Celtics could’ve used something, anything from Tatum in the first half.

Instead, the team received nothing.

Boston’s six-time All-Star was held scoreless in the first half as Tatum shot 0-of-5 from the field — albeit with three rebounds and five assists. Houston took a 54-52 advantage into halftime and capitalized on Tatum’s early no-show and although it didn’t harm the Celtics enough, Boston can’t afford a repeat showing from Tatum — especially against top-notch contenders like the Rockets.

Jrue Holiday
The struggles continued for Holiday.

With no Derrick White available (right shin contusion), the opportunity for Holiday to break out of his ongoing slump was provided. Holiday failed to capitalize and still looked nothing like the lethal corner 3-point specialist that helped Boston raise Banner 18 last season.

Holiday scored eight points on 3-of-9 shooting with two turnovers.