Houston Rockets (1-15) vs. Boston Celtics (9-8) November 22, 2021, 4:30 p.m. CT

Location: TD Garden, Boston MA. Tickets as low as $27. Even the Rockets can’t depress prices into the single digits in Boston. Respect.

TV: AT&T SportsNet

Radio: SportsTalk790

Online: Rockets App

Boston SBN Nation Blog: The Nomatively Kind of On The Nose CelticsBlog

Projected Starting Lineups

Rockets: Eric Gordon, Jalen Green, Jae’Sean Tate, Christian Wood, Daniel Theis

Celtics: Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, Jason Tatum, Al Horford, Robert Williams III

Out: Kevin Porter Jr, John Wall, Josh Richardson

Well, the Rockets road trip rolls onwards. The team put up a good effort, and if not for an Alex Burks explosion, coupled with an Eric Gordon clankfest, the Rockets might have had their second win of the season.

The Rockets seem to be a team that injured players return against. I get it. They’re not exactly the toughest challenge the team will face. That said, the Rockets played a decent game against Boston on their first meeting. But Boston has a players only meeting/dinner/speed dating event that apparently fixed everything.

Everything except that it’s looking like Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown are the Eastern Conference version of Damien Lillard and CJ McCollum. That is to say, two sets of very fine players who basically do the same thing. Now, that thing is probably better when the doubled players are big wings who can play defense. But are the results any better?

Granted, Tatum and Brown remain young players, but how much more growth do you expect from them? The problem might really come down to skills overlap - one that’s perhaps not as true of say, the Clippers, as Paul George and Kawhi Leonard’s offensive games are pretty different. Or maybe George and Lenny are players in their late primes, and that’s the reason.

Anyway, the Celtics seem a bit stuck in neutral. The Vast Haul of Aingey Assets seems to have resulted in exactly two player any other team would truly covet. A lesson for Rockets fans? We’ll see.