BOSTON — Jayson Tatum hung up on a pass from Marcus Smart on the buzzer to give the Boston Celtics a dramatic 115-114 win over the Brooklyn Nets in Game 1 of their first round playoff series on Sunday.
Tatum scored 16 of his 31 points in the second half, the last two after Boston leveled possession in the frantic final seconds. Jaylen Brown dribbled down the middle and swung the ball to Smart, who fired it at a slicing Tatum, who spun and folded his layup just before time was up.
Dating back to last postseason, Tatum has four straight games with 30 points in the playoffs, giving Larry Bird in 1987 the longest streak in Celtics history. His buzzer beater was also the first in the playoffs for the Celtics since Paul Pierce’s 2010 win against the Miami Heat.
Brown added 23 points. Al Horford had 20 points and 15 rebounds and Smart finished with 20 points, including four 3-pointers.
Kyrie Irving finished with 39 points, 18 of them in the fourth quarter. But the Celtics forced the ball out of Brooklyn’s hands for the final time and Kevin Durant missed a jumper by a point that gave the Celtics final possession.
Durant added 23 points but only shot 9 out of 24.
Boston stormed out of halftime with a 23-8 run to open an 82-69 lead set off by Smart’s dead-eye shooting from beyond the arc.
The Celtics also appeared to tweak their approach to guarding Durant at half-court, confronting him and sending help over the top to limit his driving abilities.
Durant and Irving still found opportunities to score sometimes, but they had to muster more energy to finish their attempts.
It didn’t last.
With Boston leading early in the fourth, Irving brought back Brooklyn with two straight 3-pointers and a layup to reduce Boston’s lead to 98-97 by just over 9 minutes. Then, after an empty trip from Boston that didn’t see Brown and Horford convert from close, Durant calmly blew a 3 down the other end to put the Nets ahead.
Brooklyn had extended their lead to 107-102 when Durant went long with a knight. Brown found space on the Celtics’ next possession and finished with a 3 from the wing. The Nets turned it back on an offensive foul on Durant. Smart slipped under Irving on Boston’s safe trip and tied him with a layup.
The score was tied again at 109 with less than 2 minutes remaining when Durant got a friendly jump on a knight to put Brooklyn back on its feet. Horford’s follow-up shot tied it again. But Irving was good from deep the next time he hit the ground giving the Nets a 114-111 cushion.
Brown made a layup coming out of a time-out with 38 seconds left.
On his most recent trip to his former Boston teammates, Irving received the loudest jeers during the pregame introduction and was booed when he touched the ball the rest of the way.
Fans also showered much contempt on Bruce Brown, who made headlines last week after he suggested Celtics tall men Horford and Daniel Theis could be vulnerable without injured center Robert Williams III to defend the rim.
Horford played the first 12 minutes as if on a one-man mission to erase that notion.
Boston came out with the best defensive rating in the league since the All-Star break and put pressure on Durant early on. He tried to establish himself on the post in the first quarter, but the Celtics blitzed him with the help of defenders at back and pulled him out three times.
Brooklyn ended the quarter with seven turnovers, but that only gave Boston a 29-28 lead.
Horford was active throughout, walking off the field with 10 points, two rebounds and a 3-on-4 steal.
Boston had to adjust early in the second quarter after Theis picked up his third foul. But things evened out when Drummond was called for his fourth foul with 4:58 left in the period.
The Celtics started immediately with a 9-2 run before the Nets came back to level the game at halftime with 61.
ESPN Stats & Information and The Associated Press contributed to this report.