BOSTON — For the first time ever, former Celtics coach Ime Udoka beat his former team. It took all 48 minutes, but the Rockets prevailed in a classic finish over the Celtics 114-112 on Monday at TD Garden.
Udoka didn’t overplay the victory, saying they all count one, even if Monday’s win was against his old team. He acknowledged how excited and exhilarated his team was after Amen Thompson hit the game-winning bucket with just 0.7 seconds left on the clock. But it wasn’t just that: it was also about how the Rockets came back in the victory.
”Obviously big for Amen,“ Udoka said. ”But the way we battled back, we had a chance to fold, going down 12 early when they went to zone and kind of erased that pretty quickly and got back in it. More so than anything, just the fact that we battled back and playing against some of the top teams gives us confidence. To see that last shot go in like that, it’s big for Amen and the team celebrated that.”
The Celtics and Rockets met up in what ended up being a great back-and-forth game. The C’s took an early lead in the first quarter only for the Rockets to storm back. As Udoka mentioned, the C’s went up 12 points in the fourth quarter only to give up a 13-0 run immediately afterwards to the Rockets.
The end of the game ended up being the finishing touches on an impressive Rockets win. The Rockets and C’s exchanged buckets inside the final 12 seconds with Thompson getting the last gasp. Houston is now on a three-game winning streak, downing the East’s two best teams in the C’s once and the Cavaliers twice.
Still, there wasn’t anything extra from Udoka beating his old squad. As he mentioned, there was plenty of attention to his Boston return last season. It was more subdued Monday as it wasn’t much of a subplot. Instead, the basketball did the storytelling between two of the current top teams in the league.
“It’s just a game to me,” Udoka said. “We came here last year, so that’s over with. It’s Cleveland and Boston more so than anything about me being back here. It’s playing against the high-tier teams and we’ve played them three in a row now and got three wins. So growth for us regardless, but doesn’t mean anything if we go down to Atlanta and lay an egg tomorrow. So they all count as one.”
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