The Brooklyn Nets overrun the Boston Celtics with fast team basketball and are in first place in the Eastern Conference after a 109-104 victory. Jayson Tatum finished his little form slump with a strong performance, but the Celtics made too many mistakes in crucial situations. Here are the highlights of the game.
Brooklyn Nets (40-20) – Boston Celtics (32-28) 109:104 (BOXSCORE)
After two games with a field throw rate of 3 out of 17 each, Tatum reported back with a strong 38 points and 10 rebounds at 14/27 FG and 6/12 threesomes, but the Celtics had no chance against Brooklyn without Jaylen Brown, Kemba Walker and Robert Williams . The Nets caught the failures of Kevin Durant, James Harden and Nicolas Claxton well, although Kyrie Irving did not have much success as a scorer.
For 15 points he needed 19 field throws (0/6 3P), but scratched a triple-double with 11 assists and 9 rebounds. He also made one of his best games of the season defensively (4 steals, 2 blocks) and helped the Nets to consistently get into fast breaks. The Nets dominated the Celtics in this category with 32: 0 points!
Joe Harris advanced to the top scorer of the Nets with 20 points in 4/7 triples, and Jeff Green made a good game (19, 3/5 3P). Bruce Brown (15, 7/8 FG, 8 rebounds) and Blake Griffin (13, 1/5 3P) scored double-digit points for Brooklyn, Mike James had 8 points (3/8 FG) and 2 assists in his Nets debut almost 21 minutes.
Payton Pritchard (22) hit 6 of his 7 triples, Marcus Smart (19, 2/10 3P) also had good phases. For Boston, in addition to the starters Romeo Langford (0) and Semi Ojeleye (3), Evan Fournier was a total failure. For the first time since April 4th, he was back on the floor, with 2 points (0/7 FG) and 5 assists as well as some inexplicable mistakes primarily caused desperation for Brad Stevens.
Nets dominate Celtics in the fast break
Both teams needed a few minutes to find their rhythm offensively, so that the first quarter (21:25) was characterized by bumpy actions and turnover. Brooklyn found their game quicker early in the second section and started rolling with a 12-0 run before Jayson Tatum responded with his third successful triple on the fourth try.
With Tatum on the bench, the Nets settled down by up to +14, although the youngster already marked 25 points before the break. Brooklyn collected 17 points after fast breaks in the first round, while the Celtics were completely unsuccessful in this category and generally took the much more difficult throws. The second quarter clearly went to the hosts with 39:26.
In the third quarter, Boston managed to slow down the pace of the game significantly better and thus deny the Nets the many easy deals. During this phase, Marcus Smart drove the Boston offense with his constant pull to the basket. On the other hand, he followed suit with Joe Harris, a player who is otherwise better known as a sniper. Harris rotated the defense several times with drives or went to the free throw line (4/4). The good approaches from Celtics’ point of view collapsed again at the end of the quarter when Harris netted two transition threes in a row to complete a 10-0 run.
Brooklyn also had problems in the half-field offense in the final section and after a 17-point lead, Boston came back to -3 with over 3 minutes to play. However, the Nets quickly moved back to +8 after a break, also because Fournier Griffin doubled and thus allowed Harris a free threesome. Tatum then made two turnovers against a strong defense by Irving, Smart fit in a corner where he mistook his teammates on the bench for an open shooter. The Nets converted all their free throws in the final minute and thus secured the narrow victory.
– .
