Final: Celtics 109, Nets 102

GAME: No. 15 of 82
WHO: Celtics (12-2) vs. Nets (5-8)
WHEN:  7:30 EST
WHERE:  Barclays Center
RADIO: 98.5 the Sports Hub
TV: NBC Sports Boston
BOX SCORE: NBA.COM

Projected Starting Lineups:

Celtics
PG: Kyrie Irving
SG: Jaylen Brown
SF: Jayson Tatum
PF: Marcus Morris
C: Al Horford

Inactive list:  Gordon Hayward (leg) is out.

Nets:

PG: Spencer Dinwiddle
SG: Allen Crabbe
SF: DeMarre Carroll
PF: Rondae Hollis-Jefferson
C: Trevor Booker

Inactive list: Jeremy Lin and D'Angelo Russell are out

THIRD QUARTER THOUGHTS 

• Nets really pushing the pace in this one, which is no surprise since they play at the second highest pace in the league. It's keeping the C's from getting set too much defensively in the halfcourt and that has boded well through the middle two quarters at getting Brooklyn decent looks at the basket.


• Kyrie Irving really hates that mask. He doesn't warm up with it on before the game or during halftime, waiting until the last possible second to put it on.


• Nets beating the Celtics to a lot of loose balls tonight through the first half of the game.


• Celtics finally stabilized things with a 23-6 run early in the third quarter, featuring some balanced scoring from the C's starting five (four players with 14 or more points). Defense ratcheted up a notch as well.


• Al Horford continues to be on fire since his return from a concussion. He's got 17 points on 8-of-9 shooting through three quarters and is shooting a stellar 88 percent over the last two games.

• Another rough offensive stint from the C's bench unit who shot a collective 2-for-11 in the first half, allowing the Nets to sneak back into the game.


• On the flip side, Brooklyn's bench find some holes in some strangely sloppy Boston defense. Caris LaVert and Joe Harris (17 combined points) got the Nets offense rolling and the starters picked up the energy level where they left off, turning a double-digit deficit until a 43-37 lead at one point


• Kyrie Irving not enjoying mask life early on. 2-of-8 from the field early on.


• Aron Baynes and Daniel Theis got a few minutes together for the first time all season. Don't expect to see much more of that as the offense stalled with them out there together.


• Tatum (only 4 shots in 15 minutes) needs to get more aggressive.


• With the C's defense struggling, Semi Ojeleye provided a nice boost off the bench getting the call late in the quarter. He provided four strong minutes to help erase a six-point deficit and produce a tie at halftime.

• Nets go small to start out game to try to match the C's smallball lineup. Not a good idea defensively, as C's got whatever they wanted against Brooklyn's lack of size, opening the game with a 14-4 run and 75 percent shooting from the field.


• Not sure how Brooklyn is going to score against this C's defense tonight. Without Lin and Russell, there are just not any creators on this team to get something going against a top tier Celtics D.


• Another tremendous stretch from Jayson Tatum (8 points on 3-of-3 shooting) including a pair of 3s. He keeps hovering around the 50 percent mark from 3-point range and that's an absurd number so far into the season. C's need to find a way to get him to shoot more.


• Jaylen Brown showed signs of Dominque Wilkens with his fast break jam midway through the first.


• Early minutes for Daniel Theis off the bench in place of Morris. The German rookie has come a long way in just a couple weeks since he was a DNP-CD just a week ago when the C's had a full healthy roster outside of Hayward. Now, Stevens is making sure he gets some minutes no matter what, separating him a little bit from Aron Baynes in the rotation.

• With the C's back at full strength, Brad Stevens is electing to go back to small ball starting five with a Morris, Tatum and Horford frontcourt. This should create an interesting rotation dilemma for Brad Stevens off the bench as he balances finding playing time for Daniel Theis, Aron Baynes and Semi Ojeleye. Tough to get all three of those guys on the floor together.


• Brad Stevens on the C's strong defensive start: "In the defensive end the thing I thought was that our length and versatility was different than it has been in the past. Something we’ve worked hard on. If you’re going to guard the best in this league, you need multiple, multiple people who can do it. other partartt is how quickly it would come together, and that’s been aided by our older players communicating, including Al, Baynes, Kyrie, Gordon, those first three weeks guys put our young guys in position to be comfortable with what we were trying to do. It was non-stop chatter on the court. Our practices were probably the loudest I’ve been a part of."


• Former Hawks assistant coach Kenny Atkinson on the offensive evolution of Al Horford: “It’s a big credit to him. He’s changed and I think Brad’s open enough to give him even more responsibility. Sometimes as coaches we hold back guys sometimes. I can even see with Brad he’s doing even more things than he did Atlanta. I see him handle the ball a lot more at the top of the key and bringing the ball up sometimes. It’s impressive. I know Al was thirsty and hungry to kind of embrace that new big man role. And he didn’t shy from it. That was the thing that impressed me in Atlanta. When we asked him to do more, get out of his comfort zone, he embraced it, rather than some guys they don’t embrace that role. So that’s a real credit to him, and then, again, for Brad giving him the freedom to do those things.”