The Boston Celtics traveled to the Barclays Center on the second night of a back-to-back to face the Brooklyn Nets. Coming off a loss, the Celtics responded with a big 139-114 win. Brooklyn took an early lead, but Boston took over in the second half and didn’t look back. The Celtics were led by great performances from Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Tatum scored 36 points with 9 rebounds and 10 assists. Brown had 24 points and 12 rebounds. For this game, the Celtics were without Al Horford, while the Nets were missing Ben Simmons and Dorian Finney-Smith.
A Back-and-Forth First Half
The Celtics and Nets went to overtime in their last meeting, and this game started in a similar fashion. The Nets took an early lead after Boston came out cold. This has become an unfortunate trend for the Celtics, where they come out flat. Brooklyn took a 19-8 lead, and the Celtics had to battle back from behind. The Celtics were having similar troubles with missed threes and turnovers, preventing them from cutting into the lead. But, toward the end of the quarter, Jayson Tatum began to take over with aggressive drives to the basket. Tatum made a jumper to cut the Nets’ lead to two when it was as large as 13.
At the end of the first quarter, the Brooklyn Nets led 34-32. Tatum led the Boston Celtics with 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting, while Jaylen Brown and Sam Hauser each had 6. For the Nets, Ziare Williams scored 11 in the first quarter on 4-of-6 shooting and Dennis Schroder had 7.
The second quarter was back-and-forth until Cam Thomas began to heat up, hitting back-to-back threes. This gave the Nets another bit of cushion to bolster their lead. But the Celtics fought back again through the efforts of Jaylen Brown and took the lead heading into halftime. The Boston Celtics led 65-60 at the half. Brown led the Celtics after a big second quarter with 19 points. Tatum had 16 and Pritchard put in 13 off the bench. Williams still led Brooklyn with 16 points and Thomas heated up with 12.
The Boston Celtics Pull Away
The Boston Celtics took control in the third quarter, beginning to build on their halftime lead. Tatum, Brown, and crew fueled a 13-2 Celtics run that pushed their lead to double digits. Tatum had an excellent third quarter, getting up to 31 points. The Nets got a bit hot from three, but it was a dominant quarter from the defending champions. They built a 103-89 lead heading into the fourth quarter. Now, they just needed to hold on to it.
The Celtics did just that, extending their lead even further in the fourth. After allowing a comeback to the Atlanta Hawks, the Celtics did not play with their food in this game. Boston shut the door on a Brooklyn comeback and coasted to victory. The Boston Celtics won 139-114. Tatum had a near triple-double with 36 points, 9 rebounds, and 10 assists. Brown had 24 and 12 rebounds, while Pritchard scored 23 off the bench. Williams finished with 23 points for the Nets, leading the team. Thomas had 17 points and Schroder scored 16.
Final Thoughts
With this win, the Boston Celtics improved to 10-3 on the season. This was an important bounce-back win after an embarrassing loss the night before to the Hawks. While they continued to start slow, which is an issue, they responded in this game and won by so much that the cold start did not matter. Meanwhile, the Brooklyn Nets fall to 5-7. They have been competitive in both their games against the Celtics, even if this one got away from them. They are a young, scrappy team who can compete with anyone on the right night.
