Celtics stomp Rockets, Houston reaches not-so-sweet 16th consecutive loss

Photo courtesy of Troy Taormina/USA TODAY Sports

And just like that, the Rockets are back to square one.

Hoping to build on a positive performance with a short-handed roster in Utah, the Houston Rockets instead decided to reignite the #CadeCampaign against Boston, getting whacked by a score of 134-107 at the Toyota Center on Sunday evening.

Almost everything the Rockets did well on Friday, they abandoned on Sunday. After a somewhat-decent shooting night in Salt Lake City, Houston went on to shoot under 40% from the field. Despite a 34-point first quarter, the Rockets wouldn't even crack more than 20 in the second or third.

A large part of that can be traced to the play of Kevin Porter Jr., who started the game at point guard. After dropping 11 points in the first quarter, he would fail to score any more points for the remaining three quarters.

In fact, there were only two Rockets who could be classified as having a decent game, one of them being Victor Oladipo. Dipo went for 26 points (on less-than-stellar 9-23 shooting), six rebounds, and four assists.

The other Rocket? Rookie K.J. Martin, who came off the bench and was the only Rocket to shoot over 50% on more than seven shots. Martin Jr. excelled in limited minutes, going for 21 points, four rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block.

Against a team like the Celtics, though, two guys having good games isn't close to enough. Especially when they were clicking like they were last night--the C's shot over 55% from the field, including a scorching 18-37 from three.

The Rockets also got clobbered on the boards. After managing to go toe-to-toe with the likes of Rudy Gobert and the Jazz, the Celtics ate Houston alive on the glass, out-rebounding the Rockets by a 55-37 margin.

"We had something to build on," Coach Stephen Silas said after the loss, referring to the Utah game. "After the game my message to the group was we gotta be better."

As of now, the only thing the Rockets are building on right now is their case to tank the season.

However, help might be on the way. Houston's next game will come against the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday night, and that game might feature the return of John Wall, and--perhaps even more importantly--the return of Christian Wood, who hasn't played in more than a month. His return might signal a change in the slumping Rockets, who had won six straight games before Wood's injury.

His return still remains to be seen, though he very well could return against Houston's game against the Hawks, which is scheduled for 7 PM CT.