Jaylen Brown had 22 points and Jayson Tatum added 19 for Boston, but both players were mostly quiet until their strong fourth quarter. The Celtics stayed afloat thanks to important contributions elsewhere. Grant Williams poured in 17 points, Daniel Theis added 15 and Payton Pritchard helped spark the comeback in the fourth quarter.
Get Court Awareness
Jump through the NBA with our Celtics-centric look at the latest happenings on and off the court.
Nets stars Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving have been mostly silenced. The duo only made 8 of 30 shots combined, although Durant finished with 27 points after hitting 18 of 20 free throws. Still, his shooting battles have become a problem for the Nets in the first two games.
The Celtics were 10 points down at halftime and hit back early in the third as they have done so many times this season. They twice leveled the score but failed to push forward and the Nets took a 90-85 lead.
The Celtics were down 92-85 in the fourth quarter with 10 minutes to go and have never had a lead in the game. They then took control with a 14-2 run set off by Brown, who drilled two 3-pointers and had two strong finishes inside. His 6:03 left arrow extended Boston’s lead to 99-94.
Tatum struggled for most of the evening, but he helped close that win by putting up a 7-0 run himself and capping it with a 3-pointer that extended Boston’s lead to 108-96. The Nets scored just 4 points over the first 8:14 of the fourth.
Observations from the game:
▪ A loud “Kyrie sucks” chant erupted on the Nets’ first possession, and there were a few more as the crowd boiled just before kick-off, including one that included an expletive. But during the first quarter there was mostly booing. However, Irving, who had 39 points in Game 1, didn’t make much of an impact in the first half, scoring 6 points on 3-of-6 shooting.
▪ Dorchester native Bruce Brown, who had a brief and, frankly, undeserved stint as the series’ villain when he basically said the Celtics’ central defense wasn’t as good without Robert Williams up the middle, dominated early on. Brown scored the first 9 points of the game and finished the first quarter on 12 after drilling his two 3-pointers. ESPN reported earlier Wednesday that Nets guard Ben Simmons could make his season debut as early as Game 3 and affect Brown’s game time. However, Brown’s game will make this a difficult decision.
▪ The Celtics’ offensive seemed incoherent at first. Boston went almost three minutes without a point, and seven minutes went by before anyone other than Al Horford or Theis converted a field goal. Tatum’s struggles were the most pronounced. Sometimes he spent too much time complaining to the officials again. He was held without a field goal before scoring an easy dunk after a turnover with just over a minute left in the second quarter, and he followed up with a 3-pointer that perhaps gave him some momentum going into the second half.
▪ Brooklyn came close to ruining the game late in the first quarter before Grant Williams pulled off the bench. He drilled three consecutive 3-pointers and also had a nice block from Bruce Brown on the Nets’ last possession of the first. The Celtics will need outside scoring boosts like this if they plan on making a sustained run in these playoffs.
▪ The first half actually belonged mainly to the role players. Bruce Brown and Grant Williams shone for their respective teams, and Nets veteran Goran Dragic dominated the second quarter as he scored 13 of his 16 first-half points. Dragic, who turns 36 next month, remains a savvy finisher.
▪ For the second year in a row, the first quarter was deadlocked due to too many fouls. There were 18 fouls in the first quarter in Game 1, the most in a first quarter in the NBA this season. It was 4pm on Wednesday. It’s a tough clock. The third quarter was similar. There were a total of 44 fouls at the start of the fourth game.
Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @adamhimmelsbach.