Three games into their season, defensive rebounding looked like a potentially fatal flaw for the Celtics.

But since being manhandled on the glass in consecutive late-October losses to New York and Detroit, Boston has gone from wretched to respectable in that important area.

The Celtics enter Friday night’s matchup with the Nets ranked an uninspiring 27th in the NBA in defensive rebounding rate — but over the 12 games since their 0-3 start, they’re 13th. They’re also fourth in offensive rebounding percentage and ninth in overall rebounding rate during that span.

“Obviously, we’ve got a long way to go,” guard Derrick White said Thursday. “But at the beginning of the year, it seemed like we had a lot longer than we do now. So I’ll say that.”

Boston was expected to struggle on the boards t

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