HOUSTON — The Celtics have started out 2025 on a high note, kicking off their four-game road trip with two impressive wins without All-Star Jaylen Brown.
Friday’s victory over the Rockets featured the return of Kristaps Porzingis to the floor after a four-game absence from an ankle injury. The big man was a major weapon for Boston in the second half playing alongside Luke Kornet as the Celtics limited the Rockets to just 30 second half points in a 109-86 blowout win.
The impressive back-to-back road wins come on the heels of an uneven 8-6 December for the defending champions. After Friday’s win, Porzingis revealed how the team got together to ensure January would have a different feel than an inconsistent past month.
“We had a good meeting before this trip just a little bit like looking in the mirror type of meeting and see where we can improve and what we can do better,” Porzingis explained. “Teams are obviously coming for us and some of them are playing their best basketball against us. So some small adjustments we want to make and try to keep improving as a team and keep playing the same way.
“Minnesota was a tough game but we came out with a win, and tonight I felt like that second half really like, stuff was like clicking for us. So far from the small sample size we have, we’re looking pretty good.”
The Celtics improved to an NBA-best 13-3 record on the road with the victory, drawing plenty of praise from Jayson Tatum for how Boston has responded to the tough stretch.
“I think just the approach that we’ve kind of taken to start the New Year,” Tatum said when asked about the key to the 2-0 road trip. “I said it the other day. December didn’t go the way we wanted to. We trying to get back to our identity of who we are on both ends of the floor. Just trying to play a better brand of basketball coming up in January. Knowing that we have a bunch of road games, we have a bunch of tough ones. Last two games without JB or KP, just trying to figure out ways to win. Those ones feel a little bit — they’re special.”
The Celtics have also seen the return of strong play from some of their role players in the past week as Derrick White had his second straight 25-plus point performance on Friday night. With Joe Mazzulla leaning into more defensive-minded lineups with double bigs, it’s helped the defending champs get back on track while facing a pair of top-tier Western Conference squads.
“I don’t think it’s an easy back to back,” White said of the Rockets win. “I did not know the flight was as long as it was, but, I mean, we’re out here competing against another really good team. We just wanna continue to play the right way and just build the habits that we talk about. Every game is gonna have different challenges and I think we did a good job of starting well, probably because we made shots, but then we kind of imposed our will throughout the game.”
The biggest test of the year now comes for the Celtics on Sunday afternoon as they try to slow down Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder amid a 14-game winning streak.
“It presents obviously some challenges, and we want to try to limit him at the rim as much as we can and try to make it as grinding as possible to try to wear him down,” Porzingis said. “But big challenge. They have great guys that can support him also, so we can’t just focus on him alone. But we’ll see. It’ll be a fun matchup for sure.”
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