HOUSTON — The Boston Celtics (26-9) won the second straight game of their road trip Friday night after defeating the Houston Rockets (22-12), final score 109-86.

Though Jaylen Brown was out another game with a shoulder injury, Kristaps Porzingis (11 points) retuned to the lineup from his ankle injury. Al Horford was out of the lineup (rest) which meant Neemias Queta who played well with 5 points, and Luke Kornet was solid with nine points and 10 rebounds.

Going up against the young guns in the Rockets, the game felt evenly matched for most of the first half. The tightly-contested game soon began to open up when Jayson Tatum came alive in the final two minutes of the second quarter. Back-to-back 3’s and a drive to the basket had the Celtics go into halftime leading 65-56. From then on, the Celtics began to get stops and hit three-pointers.

Payton Pritchard came off the bench and gave 20 points, he was taking defenders off the dribble, making step back three-pointers and defending the perimeter well. Derrick White led the team with 23 points. Once the C’s started finding their rhythm from deep, it wasn’t long before the game got out of hand.

Jalen Green led the Rockets with 27 points, he also had a nice poster dunk over Kornet in the second half. Houston just didn’t have enough firepower to keep up with Boston. And their front court was still no match for the Celtics despite playing mostly bench guys.

Next, the Celtics will go into the third game of their road trip agains the Oklahoma Thunder who sit at the top of the west. That game will be on Sunday at 3:30 p.m.