BOSTON — After a tough four-game road trip, the Boston Celtics came home to a surprise on Monday night. Houston Rockets forward Dillon Brooks drained a career-high 10 3s, which tied a franchise record and helped H-Town prevail 114-112. Although Brooks is having a solid season from 3-point land, Celtics stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown didn't expect him to notch a game-high 36 points and make more shots from deep than all of Boston's starters combined.

“You want to adjust and try to make things tough on them, but I don't know. He hit 10 3s tonight,” Tatum said of Brooks' hot shooting night. “It's tough. Didn't account for that at all.”

Despite Brooks' barrage, the C's led by as many as 12 points in the fourth quarter. However, as soon as they reached that lead, the Rockets went on a 13-0 run to go up 102-101 with 5:23 left in regulation. From there, it was back and forth, but Rockets guard Amen Thompson broke the stalemate with a clutch floater that gave his squad a 114-112 lead with just 0.7 seconds remaining. Thompson and Brooks combined for 18 of the Rockets' 29 points in the fourth quarter, and Brooks' two 3s were Houston's only 3-point makes in the final frame.

“Give credit to Houston: the people we wanted to make beat us, beat us tonight,” Brown complimented. “We wanted to take Jalen [Green], Fred [VanVleet], and [Alperen] Sengun away. And we kind of accomplished that. But Dillon Brooks and Amen Thompson made us pay.”

Thompson scored a career-high 33 points to go along with ten rebounds. Meanwhile, Brooks was one point away from his career-high, with Monday marking his first time surpassing 30 points in a single game all season. Brown had 28 points of his own for the C's, and even though he was disappointed with the outcome, he acknowledged that Brooks' incredible outing was out of the ordinary and not easy to prepare for when game-planning.

“We live with the results,” he stated. “Going forward, it's something we take into account. I mean, nobody would've expected Dillon Brooks to hit 10 threes, and that happened tonight. So, you know, I think you live with it.”

How else did the Celtics struggle against the Rockets?

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Brooks and Thompson aside, the Celtics faltered in other areas while falling to 32-15 on the season. Boston had twice as many turnovers as Houston and got beat on the offensive boards, 12-7. Tatum also went scoreless in the first half for the first time in four years, and center Kristaps Porzingis was whistled for five fouls in the third quarter, preventing him from playing the entirety of the next quarter.

And, perhaps most importantly, Boston tied the game three times in the final two minutes of the contest, yet allowed Houston to score following every draw. Miscommunication on defense and the Rockets' impressive shotmaking proved to be too much down the stretch, and Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla wanted to take responsibility for that.

“[The players] are the ones out there battling, and they put you in a position to win, and you don't help that; it's a tough one,” he admitted. “That's something I gotta get better at.”

Despite the late-game struggles and a disappointing finish versus the Rockets, the C's are still in second place in the Eastern Conference. But they're just one game ahead of the third-place New York Knicks and play every other day until All-Star Weekend in mid-February.

Up next for the Green Team are the 20-27 Chicago Bulls, who they're 2-1 against during the 2024-25 campaign. Boston will host Chicago on Wednesday night and hope to get Derrick White back into the starting lineup, as the 2024 Olympic gold medalist was sidelined on Monday with a shin injury. Whether or not he plays, the Celtics must prepare to guard the 3-point line better than they did against Brooks. The Bulls average more 3-point makes than every team besides the C's and the Cleveland Cavaliers.