As a Celtics (32-28 overall, 13-17 away) fan, if you weren't already scared to death of the Nets (40-20 overall, 24-7 home), you should be now because no matter who is playing for Brooklyn this season, Boston has proven over and over again that they have no clue how to beat them. With tonight's 109-104 victory by the Nets at the Barclays Center, they earned the four-game season sweep over the Celtics. Yes, Jaylen Brown (shoulder), Robert Williams (knee) and Kemba Walker (load management) were all out for Boston but Brooklyn was missing two future Hall of Famers in Kevin Durant and James Harden (and yes it makes me sick that Harden will be a Hall of Famer but get over it). The good news is that the C's would not see the Nets again until the playoffs but on the off chance that they do meet this postseason, how could you have any confidence that Boston will turn this one-sided matchup around?
Five different Nets scored at least 13 points, led by sharpshooting small forward Joe Harris (20 points, 2 blocks). You would have figured that point guard Kyrie Irving (15 points, 11 assists, 4 steals) must have carried Brooklyn but he was awful in terms of shooting: 4-for-19 from the field including 0-of-6 on 3-pointers. Former Celtics great Jeff Green added 19 points and two steals while Boston native Bruce Brown notched 15 points and eight rebounds off the bench plus the ghost of Blake Griffin posted 13 points, five rebounds and two steals off the bench as well. The Celtics' lack of depth has been a major issue all season and it really comes to the forefront against a top team like the Nets.
There was basically three Celtics that decided to show up for this game: swingman Jayson Tatum (38 points, 10 rebounds) was unstoppable except for the fact that he had five costly turnovers. Point guard Marcus Smart had 19 points, five rebounds and two steals while rookie guard Payton Pritchard added 22 points (in 24 minutes!) off the bench. With the aforementioned injuries, head coach Brad Stevens chose to start Semi Ojeleye (3 points) and Romeo Langford (0 points). I get that neither guy is expected to put up a ton of points but you can't have two black holes like that offensively in the lineup against a quality opponent.
Boston played well in the first quarter and great in the fourth quarter but they were awful in the second quarter and bad in the third quarter which was enough to cost them the game. The C's were up 25-21 after the first quarter but the Nets ran circles around them in the second quarter (39-26) for a 60-51 halftime lead. Things didn't get better for the visitors in the third quarter (Nets outscored them 28-22) and they responded in the fourth quarter (31-21) but it was too late, no matter how many shots Kyrie missed. The Celts were also playing in the second game of a back-to-back which is not an excuse but just a fact in this crazy condensed schedule.
Some of these numbers were eye-opening as the Nets made 13 more free throws (24-11), dished out five more assists (26-21), had twice as many steals (12-6) and eight less turnovers than the Celtics. Brooklyn scored 10 more points in the paint (48-38) than them but the true nightmare fuel that will probably keep Stevens and his coaching staff up for days is the fact that the Nets somehow outscored them by 29 in fastbreak points (32-3). Haha have you ever heard something like that in an NBA game (that wasn't a 40-point blowout)? That's absurd.
Boston doesn't have much time to feel sorry for themselves as they go to Charlotte (29-30 overall, 15-12 home) on Sunday afternoon (1, NBC Sports Boston). The Hornets and Terry Rozier are clinging to eighth-place in the Eastern Conference but they are only two and a half games behind the sixth-place Celtics. You'll remember that when we last saw Charlotte, Boston embarrassed them 116-86 on Easter at the TD Garden. The two teams are about to meet twice in four days for a home-and-home set with Rookie of the Year favorite LaMelo Ball expected to return very soon from his wrist injury, in fact he could possibly play this weekend.
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