Boston: Red Auerbach would not like this.

As legend goes, Auerbach never wanted his Boston Celtics to play a Christmas home game because team staff and arena workers would lose family time on the holiday. The Celtics often played on Christmas, but never at home. A “home” game on December 25, 1964 against Detroit was played at Madison Square Garden in New York as part of a double-header.

Celtics history changes on Monday.

For the first time, they’ll be playing at home on Christmas.

It’s part of the NBA’s holiday five-gamer. The day’s line-up: Philadelphia 76ers play their first Christmas game since 2001 when they visit New York Knicks, followed by the NBA Finals rematch with Cleveland Cavaliers at Golden State Warriors. Boston host Washington Wizards in the third game, followed by Houston Rockets visiting Oklahoma City Thunder, and the nightcap has Minnesota Timberwolves facing the Los Angeles Lakers.

Cleveland’s Dwyane Wade will aim to win on Christmas for the 11th time, which would extend his NBA record. Wade and LeBron James each have exactly 301 points and 76 assists on Christmas, the active leaders in both.

Rockets rolling

Tilman Fertitta spent $2.2 billion to buy the Houston Rockets this autumn, a record purchase price for any NBA team.

Worth every penny.

The Rockets’ numbers are just staggering. They’re an NBA-best 25-4, winners of 14 straight games, are 15-0 with Chris Paul in the line-up and on pace to obliterate the league’s 3-point record for the second straight season.

“It’s cool. We just hoop,” Paul said, in a late entry for understatement of the year. “We get stops, we play in transition. Yeah, we just set screens and we move it, trying to find the open man.”

Houston make it look that easy.

They beat Utah 120-99 on Monday night, despite trailing by five points going into the fourth quarter. Houston outscored the Jazz by 26 from there, the biggest such margin over the final 12 minutes by any team this season.

They’re on pace to make 1,300 3-pointers. The NBA record for that, set by Houston last season, is 1,181.

And Houston’s 29-game start is tied for the 11th-best in NBA history. The Warriors started 28-1 two seasons ago, Boston started 27-2 in 2008-09 and eight teams (most recently the 2007-08 Celtics) started 26-3.