Udoka set to make return to Boston
BOSTON — The Rockets are closer to getting healthier, but they might need to check the injury report for whiplash.
Their road trip will take them from playing the league’s worst team, the Detroit Pistons, to the NBA’s best team this season, the Boston Celtics, in a span of less than 24 hours.
The Celtics (29-9) did not look the part Thursday when they trailed the Bucks by as much as 43 in Milwaukee with the Celtics losing 135-102 and allowing the most points that they have in a game this season.
In TD Garden, however, they have been invincible, winning all 18 games they have played this season, a franchise record for consecutive home wins to start a season.
The blowout in Milwaukee did, however, allow the Celtics to rest their starters for the entire second half while playing their second game in as many nights and sent them to Saturday’s game looking to bounce back. The Rockets will be playing the second half of a back-toback, having gone 2-4 in their previous second games when playing on consecutive nights.
The Celtics have won five of the past six meetings with the Rockets, including the past three games between the teams in Boston.
Welcome back
The game will be the first in Boston for Rockets coach Ime Udoka since he was suspended and eventually dismissed for having an improper relationship with a staff member that was considered to be a violation of team rules.
Udoka this season had downplayed returns to the cities where he played and previously coached, saying that he went back there before as the Celtics’ coach and that those games were significant to him. But his first time in TD Garden since 2021-22, when he led Boston to the NBA Finals in his first season as an NBA head coach, could be an especially noteworthy given his success in his lone year as the Celtics’ coach and the circumstances of his departure.
The Celtics went 18-21 to start Udoka’s lone season in Boston but went 33-10 the rest of the season.
Dual threat
The Celtics are the only team ranked in the top five in offense and defensive rating. Prior to the dud in Milwaukee, they were second in both. After that game, they slipped behind the Bucks to third offensively and fourth defensively.
The Celtics went just 9 of 35 on 3s against the Bucks, but no team averages more 3-pointers per game than the Celtics’ 16 on 37.4% shooting. No team grabs more than the Celtics’ 47.2 rebounds per game. They are especially dangerous with ball movement leading to catch-and-shoot attempts, averaging a league-high 11 3-pointers per game in catch-and shoot situations.
The Rockets’ switch heavy defense tends to keep defenders on shooters, but the Celtics also go one-on-one, running the fourth-most isolation and scoring the fifthmost points in isolation in the NBA.
The Rockets lead the NBA in 3-point defense, allowing 33.4% shooting going into Friday’s game in Detroit. The Rockets are second in the NBA in defense against iso, with only the Celtics allowing fewer points (just .01 per possession) than the Rockets.
The Jay team
As much as has been made of the Celtics’ Jays, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, they have been even better against the Rockets. The Rockets’ Jalen Green has played well against the Celtics, averaging 28 points against Boston last season.
Tatum and Brown average a combined 50.5 points per game with Brown making 49.1% of his shots and Tatum averaging 47.9%. But they scored much more than that against the Rockets last season, averaging 71 points in the teams’ two games. Tatum averaged 41 on 58.8% shooting.
Prior to the loss to the Bucks, Tatum and Green combined for 80 points — their most combined points ever — in the Celtics’ win on Wednesday against the Timberwolves, who have the league’s top defense.
The Celtics’ have become more balanced, with their starting lineup of Kristaps Porzingis, Jrue Holiday, Derrick White, Tatum and Brown outscoring opponents by 15.9 points per 100 possessions.
Help on the way?
The Rockets have not put a timetable on Dillon Brooks’ return from a strained oblique, but on Friday, Brooks said he expects to return on the road trip. He was out in Detroit, and the Rockets were unlikely to have him play both games in a back-to-back.
If he is ready, there could be few games more valuable to have Brooks’ defense than against either Tatum or Brown. Jabari Smith Jr. has been increasingly effective when switching onto wings, showing an ability to defend on the perimeter, as he would against Tatum.
The bigger question if Brooks does not return is whether the Rockets would have Jae’Sean Tate start (pitting a Jae against one of the Jays), as he had when Brooks went out and with Tari Eason also unavailable, or whether the Rockets would start rookie Cam Whitmore, as they did in overtime in Chicago.
Happy Holidays
For the third time this season, Rockets guard Aaron Holiday will match up with one of his brothers, this time against the Celtics’ Jrue Holiday.
Aaron Holiday’s playing time shrunk Wednesday, when he played just 11 minutes in an overtime game, as Whitmore’s role increased. In three games in which Aaron (then with the Hawks) and Jrue (then and the Bucks) faced one another last season, Aaron Holiday made 3 of his 10 shots, scoring 11 points, Jru made 30 of his 57 attempts, averaging 25.7 points.
The Hawks won the one game when they had two Holiday brothers against one, with Justin Holiday starting that night for the Hawks.