Jayson Tatum scored 30 points, Jaylen Brown had 19 on his return from missing eight games with injury and the Boston Celtics beat Houston 108-90 on Monday night, sending the Rockets to their 15th straight loss.
Dennis Schroder added 18 points for Boston, which won three in a row and eight of 11. Al Horford had 11 points and 11 rebounds. It was Tatum’s fourth straight game with 30 or more points.
“We love what the young guys and the other guys have done in those roles, but obviously we want to be whole,” Boston coach Ime Udoka said. “It’s good to have some continuity there to see where we’re going to be eventually when we recover.”
Armoni Brooks scored 17 points for Houston (1-16). No starter reached the double digit score. The Rockets’ only win was at home against Oklahoma City in their second game.
“We need everyone,” Rockets coach Stephen Silas said. “We need all of our incumbents, for sure. We need to be better.”
Starting center Robert Williams III also returned for Boston after missing the last three games with a sore left knee. He had 15 rebounds and two points.
The Celtics (10-8) opened it with a 17-0 run midway through the third quarter, keeping the Rockets without a point for 6 minutes.
Brown, sidelined with a right hamstring injury, put fans on their feet by scoring 10 straight points.
He fired in the lane after two free throws and capped his flurry with consecutive 3s 24 seconds apart, the first in transition from above and the second on the left wing. That made it 72-50 with 6:43 remaining in the third.
“The most important thing for him was getting his legs under him and feeling confident moving on the court,” Horford said of Brown. “Once he was able to put in a couple of baskets, you could see that he felt more comfortable with everything … That third quarter was a very nice stretch, watching him move well.”
Rockets center and former Celt Daniel Theis knows how difficult it is to contain Tatum and Brown when they hit the groove.
“It’s almost impossible,” Theis said. “You saw when Jaylen did it, a couple layups, free throws and two 3-pointers in transition, it’s tough. You have to stop them as a team. You can’t stop him or Jayson one on one.”
Boston led 86-63 after three quarters.
Tatum had 22 points in the first half.
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