HOUSTON – Before meeting with the Boston Celtics on Friday night, Ime Udoka discussed how the team has evolved since his time with the organization. He said he was not surprised his former club won the league last season.

“It came anyway,” said Udoka.

Udoka says the Celtics made a breakthrough because they were able to increase their IQ and gain valuable experience. Beyond the personnel changes, the team has evolved in many ways since its first season in Boston. As much as the group has changed since he was fired after the franchise deemed an inappropriate relationship with a female employee, he certainly recognized the defensive style the Celtics used to stifle the Rockets’ offense during a 109-86 victory .

Under Udoka, the Celtics often used Robert Williams as a roamer while Al Horford served as the primary defender for opposing centers. On Friday, Boston returned to the double-big look, albeit with Kristaps Porziņģis lurking at the utility position while Luke Kornet took on the challenge of guarding Alperen Şengün. After the Rockets’ big man hurt them in the first quarter, the Celtics used the bigger lineups to shut him down the rest of the way – dismantling the rest of the Houston offense. Boston held the Rockets to just 14 points in the third quarter, 16 points in the fourth and 26.3 percent in the second half.

“Şengün is one of the better big men in the league,” Joe Mazzulla said. “And it helps when you have help behind you and you can just get him to see bodies. You first have to be able to defend the point of attack. And so Luke could do that. And our guards did a great job of eliminating the seam snag on the pick-and-roll, and when they did, KP was there to overpower him. So it was a team effort. Defensively it was a good thing.”

Sam Hauser started the first half, but the Celtics replaced him with Kornet early in the third quarter. This allowed them to assign Porziņģis to defend the Rockets’ wings instead of Şengün. With Porziņģis lurking near the basket and the 7-foot-2 Kornet his primary defender, Şengün was unable to achieve the same success he had earlier in the game. The Celtics went hard against Houston’s offense, which, according to Cleaning the Glass, ranked a respectable 13th in overall efficiency early in the game but a weak 26th in the halfcourt, according to Cleaning the Glass.

“Of course, part of it is also luck, for example that they don’t take shots and stuff like that,” Porziņģis said. “But I think that we forced them to have people that we wanted to shoot, they took those shots and they didn’t take them. We have made some adjustments. I don’t want to tell you all the little things we do, but we do some things differently and we think we just wanted to find a different way to improve. As I said, given the small sample size, things are looking good so far.”

Houston coach Ime Udoka (center) watched his team shoot 5-for-19 in the third quarter. (Erik Williams/Imagn Images)

The Celtics are committed to showing greatness in Shengün. They only switched to a smaller lineup when he left the game with less than five minutes left in the third quarter. They returned to the Porziņģis-Kornet duo when Şengün came on again at the start of the fourth period. After just three minutes of the final period, Houston pulled ahead of Şengün and Boston was ahead 93-72. The Celtics outscored the Rockets by 28 points in the center’s 29 minutes. He scored 14 points on 6-for-11 shooting in the first half, but was scoreless after halftime on four shot attempts with two turnovers and zero assists.

On the second night of a difficult encounter, Boston managed to assert itself defensively. After leaving Minnesota late Thursday night after a narrow win against the Timberwolves, the Celtics arrived at their hotel in Houston around 2 a.m. They played against the Rockets without two key pieces in Jaylen Brown (shoulder) and Horford (rest), but still combined to have one of their best defensive halves of the season.

“I thought they beat us physically early in the game,” Mazzulla said. “And then I thought we did a great job of responding defensively on both ends of the field. Just the ball pressure from the guards. Plays double size, has great rim protection and defends without fouls. I think they had 11 second-chance points in the first quarter, three in the second, and we did a great job from there. So I just thought we were physical at the point of attack, had great ball pressure and then I thought our bigs gave us great rim protection. I thought Luke was fantastic on both ends of the floor. His rim protection against Şengün and then his offensive rebound. So that’s the defensive standard that we all know and it was nice to see the guys do that.”

The offense was flowing before halftime

Before their defense dominated the second half, the Celtics built a lead on offense. While they built a 65-56 halftime lead, they shot 53.2 percent from the field, including 52.2 percent on 3-point attempts, while only committing one turnover.

Jrue Holiday got them moving in the right direction. He established himself early on with an aggressive mix of drives and long three-point throws. He overwhelmed the defenders from deep. He made an ambitious stepback 3-pointer. He intercepted a Rockets outlet pass and gave Porziņģis an alley-oop. Holiday scored 12 points on 5-for-6 shooting in the first 8:16 minutes. He had only scored that many points in 15 of his 28 previous appearances this season.

“I think Houston’s defense is physical and aggressive, so you have to respond to that,” Mazzulla said. “First of all, Jrue’s aggressiveness was great. For us to be dynamic, Jrue has to be dynamic and aggressive on offense, so I thought it was great that he came out that way.”

Holiday’s early surge sparked a dominant start for the Celtics. They built an 11-point lead before ending the first quarter with a 37-31 lead. Given the extent of their good shooting (15 of 24 from the field, including 7 of 12 from behind the arc), the lead could easily have been even larger, but the Rockets put up 11 second-chance points in the period. Aside from the defensive rebounding issues, the only Celtics issue early on was a rocky start from Porziņģis in his return from a four-game absence (ankle). The Rockets scored several baskets against him, with Şengün being particularly effective early against the Boston center, but the Celtics solved that problem later in the game.

“It’s tough for (Porziņģis) because he’s going through a transition where he’s coming (back) into the lineup,” Mazzulla said. “But I thought his defense was great in the second half. I thought we did a few things to get him going a little bit on a few pindowns and get him comfortable. I thought he was great in his first game back. He helped us a lot in the second half, especially defensively.”

Jayson Tatum expresses his affection for Udoka

After the first game of this season against Udoka’s Rockets, Jayson Tatum suggested that the coach gave the Celtics the edge they needed in his only season with the organization. When Boston hired the coach in 2021 after Brad Stevens moved to the front office, Tatum said it was a good time to make a move.

“Brad has done a great job for 10 years or whatever,” Tatum said. “Sometimes you just need a different voice and a different coaching style. I think he puts a lot of emphasis on toughness and physicality, taking on challenges and going after people. And that’s exactly what we did this year, right? We had a difficult start. But as our head coach, he never let up and we turned our season around. We were hungry. And got to the final and failed. We loved having him with us. He’s a great person, a great coach.”

Tatum said he was fortunate to play under Stevens, Udoka and Mazzulla.

“I dare say I’ve been very lucky with the organization I’ve been with, with all the teammates I’ve had, and I’ve had three of the best coaches I could have ever had, especially at that time in my life,” Tatum said. “Brad believes in being a 19-year-old kid and teaching me everything about the NBA and what makes it special. There were times when I got frustrated with Brad and wanted a bigger role or whatever, but I appreciate the relationship that me and Brad have and how he allowed me to grow in the process. Always, this one year was special. When I first made the All-NBA first team and made the Finals, at that point it was the best season I’d ever had. And he gave the organization something that was needed at the time. Obviously, Joe, with what he’s done with this group and led us to a championship, I’ve been very fortunate to have three of the best coaches, these are three of the best people I could have had and that’s up to me have helped my journey.”

(Top photo of Neemias Queta dunking past Jeff Green and Alperen. Source: Alex Slitz / Getty Images)