Despite Jaylen Brown’s 43 points, Boston Celtics lose to 15-win Rockets

The Boston Celtics were upset by the Houston Rockets 111-109 on Monday night on their 2nd game of the five-game road trip.

The Celtics had won their last two games against the Trail Blazers and Hawks.

The Houston Rockets previously lost their last three games against the Brooklyn Nets, Indiana Pacers, and Chicago Bulls and are in the middle of a six-game homestand. The Rockets are currently the worst team in the league with a 15-52 record.

The C’s won their previous matchup against the Houston Rockets 126-102 on December 27 as Tatum and Brown combined for 77 points with Brown scoring 39 and Tatum scoring 38.

Boston Celtics fall short of a comeback attempt amid a first half skid

The Green had a lackluster first half from being down 62-55 at the end of the first half. Jayson Tatum only had nine points on 3/12 shooting in the first half, missed a dunk and committed three turnovers.

The Celtics out-rebounded offensively leading to 13 second-chance points for the Rockets while the Celtics only had six. The Rockets had 9 fast-break points while the C’s had three. The Celtics were also 8/25 (32 percent) from beyond the ark.

The struggles in the first half were carried over to the third quarter as the Rockets went on a 9-3 run which extended to a 71-58 lead by the Rockets.

However, the C’s did a lot better at attacking the rim as Brown and Tatum lead the charge. By the 4:45 mark Tatum had 8 points from attacking the rim, as Tatum would go on to score 13 in the third quarter. The Celtics cut their deficit to five points, 85-80 at the end of the third.

At the start of the quarter, Sam Hauser trimmed the deficit to two with a layup after a Brogdon steal off Jae’Sean Tate, but three-straight three pointers led the Rockets to a 11-4 run leading to a 98-89 with less than 7:10 remaining in the game. But Brown had four consecutive points that cut the Rockets lead down to five.

While the C’s fought till the end there were key misses that kept the Boston Celtics from forcing the game to go into overtime. Brown got fouled shooting a three when it was 108-105 with 52.4 seconds left, Brown went 2/3 from the charity stripe.

When the C’s went to fouling with under ten seconds left, Jabari Smith Jr. of the Rockets missed one of his free throws, so the Celtics were down by two when Mazzoulla used his last timeout of the game.

In the final seconds, White hands it off to Tatum, then Tatum drives to the basket but missees the layup which would’ve forced the game into overtime and the Rockets survive the comeback attempt from the Boston Celtics.

Boston Celtics player of the game: Jaylen Brown

The only Celtic that didn’t struggle the entire game was Jaylen Brown because he scored a season-high 43 points in the loss. Brown also had five rebounds, 2 assists, a steal and block.

Look at this flush from Brown in the third quarter…

This is Brown’s 2nd 40+ point game of the season as his first came on January 11 in the win against the New Orleans Pelicans, and his third-highest was 39 against the Rockets as previously mentioned.

The Celtics are 4-4 when Brown has scored 40+ points in his career including the Game 5 loss in last season’s Eastern Conference Finals against the Heat.

The Celtics will continue on their five-game road trip on Wednesday at 8 pm eastern against the Minnesota Timberwolves on NBC Sports Boston.