Joe Mazzulla took the blame for the late-game miscues, saying he put his players in poor position but it was evident that Horford’s absence proved costly in that spot since Kornet has not played in crunch time for much of the season.

Horford (toe) has been listed as questionable for Wednesday's game against the Bulls, Justin Turpin of WEEI.com reports. Horford missed Monday's loss to the Rockets and could miss a second straight Wednesday when the defending NBA champions take on the Bulls in Boston.

The Celtics expected to be down two rotation players in their matchup with the Rockets. Minutes before tipoff, they learned they’d actually be missing three.

Before meeting James for the first time this season, with the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers set to clash Thursday, Horford shared the lessons he learned from the superstar, his perspective on James’ remarkable longevity and his thoughts on James’ longtime domination of the Eastern Conference.

In the NBA's free-agency period of 2016, as Kevin Durant left the Oklahoma City Thunder for the team that had beaten them in the Western Conference finals, selecting the Golden State Warriors over the Boston Celtics and other suitors,

Will the reigning champion Boston Celtics make a deal to shore up their frontcourt depth, with just a week remaining before this year's February 6 trade deadlin

The Celtics played without Derrick White, Sam Hauser and Al Horford, giving an opportunity for players deeper on Boston’s bench to shore up the rotation. Despite plenty of mixing and matching by Mazzulla against an elite opponent, the results were largely underwhelming.

The Rockets ruled out wing Cam Whitmore (illness) and have been without starting forward Jabari Smith Jr. since Smith fractured his hand earlier this month. Amen Thompson and Tari Eason, who both missed the first Celtics-Rockets game on Jan. 3, both were available for Houston.

Hauser would have been an option to start for the Celtics on Monday in ... Payton Pritchard and Al Horford are in line to handle expanded roles in Boston's rotation against Houston.

Horford (toe) is listed as questionable for Wednesday's game versus the Clippers, Taylor Snow of the Celtics' official site reports. Horford has consistently sat out one of leg of Boston's back-to-backs this seasons.

The Boston Celtics have now blown a fourth-quarter lead nine times this season. Nine times in 47 games. They blew nine games in the fourth quarter all of last season. Monday night was the seventh time this season the Celtics have lost a game they led by 10 points.