The Celtics turned up the defensive intensity in the second half and held off a feisty Nets squad down the stretch to pull off their third straight win on Sunday evening, a 108-105 victory at TD Garden.
Brooklyn cut a 13-point second half to just three with 14 seconds remaining in the game, which gave Spencer Dinwiddle a chance to tie the game on a long 3-point attempt from the wing. The point guard bricked the shot though, which allowed the Celtics to seal the game with free throws over the closing eight seconds.
Kyrie Irving had a game-high 28 points for the hosts and added a season-high eight rebounds, while Al Horford posted a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Jaylen Brown also looked sharp in his return to the court from a knee injury, scoring 13 points in 34 minutes.
Rondae Hollis-Jefferson led the visitors with a double-double (22 points, 12 points) as the Nets had a balanced scoring night with six players finishing in double figures.
GAME: No. 40 of 82
WHO: Celtics (29-10) vs. Nets (13-22)
WHEN: 5:30 EST
WHERE: TD Garden
RADIO: 100.7 WZLX
TV: NBC Sports Boston
BOX SCORE: NBA.COM
Projected Starting Lineups:
Celtics
PG: Kyrie Irving
SG: Jaylen Brown
SF: Jayson Tatum
PF: Al Horford
C: Aron Baynes
Inactive list: Gordon Hayward (leg) and Semi Ojeleye (back) are out.
Nets:
PG: Spencer Dinwiddle
SG: Allen Crabbe
SF: DeMarre Carroll
PF: Rondae Hollis-Jefferson
C: Tyler Zeller
Inactive list: Jeremy Lin and D'Angelo Russell are out.
Third Quarter Notes
- Like against Houston Thursday night, the Celtics woke up defensively during this frame. They limited the Nets to just 17 points and forced seven turnovers after just one over the first 24 minutes.
- Some nice interior defense from Aron Baynes helped stabilize the Celtics' D on the whole, while guards like Kyrie Irving and Jaylen Brown were active on the perimeter in forcing miscues.
- Offense slowed down a bit overall due to poor shooting but the C's wisely got the ball in the hands of Al Horford early. He got switches out of the pick-and-roll and took advantage of Spencer Dinwiddle in the posto n multiple occassions.
- A rare disappointing game from Jayson Tatum thus far, who hasn't been involved offensively and looks less than great defensively.
- Marcus Morris loves playing the Nets. His hot shooting from the first half carried over and he's shooting 66 percent against them for the season.
- The Celtics squandered away the better part of a 13-point first quarter lead with some lazy defense and careless ballhandling. They shot 61 percent on a whole in the first half but only managed to lead 61-59.
- Nets turned the ball over just once over the first 24 minutes compared to 10 for the Celtics and those miscues translated to 13 points for Brooklyn.
- Kyrie Irving got whatever he wants against the Nets defense for most of the quarter (10 of 17 points) on 7-of-10 shooting. He also got a tech for arguing a non-call on a shot, but that seemed to motivate him as he scored on his next three possessions.
- Terry Rozier already has his fourth straight game with 10+ points with another big scoring effort off the Celtics pine.
- Stevens went small for much of the second quarter with three guards, giving extra rest to Jayson Tatum and Al Horford.
- Game has been going similar to the Bulls-Celtics matchup last Saturday. C's defense hasn't been great but Nets are executing at a high level offensively, led by Caris LaVert (12 points, 4 assists).
- Two days of rest did the Celtics a world of good apparently. The hosts came out red-hot on New Year's Eve, jumping out to a 16-5 lead to start the game behind 69 percent shooting in the first quarter.
- Jaylen Brown was moving quite well after returning to the lineup following his knee injury. He was a perfect 3-of-3 in the first quarter with seven points on a mix of jumpers and drives.
- Kyrie Irving got into constant mismatches off of pick-and-rolls that ended up with Tyler Zeller guarding him. It didn't end well for the big man.
- Aron Baynes and Al Horford were really having their way with Zeller down low.
- Marcus Morris looks about ten times better physically than he did against the Wizards on Christmas day. Moving around quite well, including a small rim run in transition. He scored seven points in the first quarter.
- Eight of the nine Celtics that saw the floor scored in the first half.
- The Nets made things a little bit interesting in the middle of the quarter when they went to their bench unit (who started to get things going offensively). The Celtics' hot shooting kept the deficit in double digits for most of the frame though.
- Jaylen Brown is expected to make his return to the lineup after a two-game absence with some protection on his knee to guard against re-injuring ligaments. "I don't want to play in a brace but something restrictive to keep it stable," he said. "I don't want to reinjure it or if something were to happen, I want something to be there to catch it."
- The Celtics will be playing a game with two days of rest for the first time in more than a month on Sunday evening.
- The Nets have lost seven of their last nine games overall but are coming off a blowout road win against the Miami Heat on Friday night.
- Semi Ojeleye will miss his fourth straight game with a back injury but is getting closer to making his return to the court. "He’s still pretty sore," Brad Stevens said yesterday. "Getting better. But the timeline is probably a little more like Shane’s earlier this year where Shane missed about 12 days. He might have played a couple minutes in that Indiana game and just couldn’t do it. But he’s probably—we’re nearing the end of it, but probably err on the side of caution with him tomorrow."