Houston Rockets defeat Boston Celtics, 119-114

The absence of defense didn’t bother Doc Rivers the most.

For the second straight game, his Celtics chose to shoot it out with an opponent rather than stop them. They used a proven formula for stopping the Rockets a month ago in Houston — smother them around the free throw line, especially Aaron Brooks — but last night in a 119-114 loss at TD Garden they abandoned the strategy.

They let the Rockets shoot 50.6 percent — the 16th team this season to shoot better than 5...

Source: By Julian Benbow Added by: Boston.com