Final: Nets 109, Celtics 102 -- C's rally falls short after third quarter collapse

The Brooklyn Nets scored 44 points in the third quarter, doubling up the Celtics (21 points) in the frame and rode that outburst to a 109-102 victory at the Barclays Center over a shorthanded Boston squad on Monday night. Kyrie Irving (quad) and Marcus Smart (illness) both sat out, which opened the door for D'Angelo Russell (34 points, 18 points in third quarter) to have a field day shooting the ball. The hosts led by as many as 26 points in the second half before a late rally by Jayson Tatum (career-high 34 points), Jaylen Brown (22 points) and the deep bench made things respectable in the fourth quarter, running out of time before getting things got too tight. Brad Wanamaker was solid off the bench with a career-high 13 points as well.

The Celtics have now dropped three straight games, all on the road, heading into a showdown with the top-seeded Raptors on Wednesday night back at the Garden. Boston is 1-6 overall in their last seven road games and are now 10-13 on the season. Al Horford, Marcus Morris, Terry Rozier and Gordon Hayward all did not play the fourth quarter as the Celtics made their comeback.

First Half Notes

• A new record for the quickest Mad Brad timeout in Celtics history after an ugly turnover and open Russell 3 (both produced by Rozier), as he tried to prevent a slow start for the shorthanded squad.


• The timeout work, primarily on the defensive end in the early going. The C's played solid D on the Nets wings for the most part and kept Brooklyn's offense to be dependent on the high volume shooting of D'Angelo Russell.


• Celtics backcourt really struggled to score early with Rozier and Brown misfiring, so the offense was heavily dependent on Tatum/Morris in the first quarter to maintain the lead.


• Defense really tightened up for Boston in the second quarter thanks to the presence of Ojeleye/Horford/Wanamaker on the floor, but Boston's offense also disappeared during that spell. They snapped out of a funk thanks to a couple open 3s made by Wanamaker (team-high eight points) but the offense was putrid all half long (31 percent shooting, six turnovers (most of them sloppy).


• Rozier is 1-of-6, but he's definitely showing off more of a pass-first mentality tonight, which is welcome to see. His assist-turnover ratio (3-to-3) could use some work and Boston is going to need a lot more out of him offensively (1-of-6 FG) in the second half.


• Only 11 first half minutes for Al Horford once he got into some foul trouble. Hayward (three points) also picked a bad night to look passive on offense.


• C's defense (seven steals) has kept them in this game so far, so they are going to stay locked in there to squeak out enough offense to win this one.

• Kyrie Irving ruled himself out on Monday morning with a quad contusion. He plans on returning to the lineup for Wednesday's matchup with the Raptors at the TD Garden. Marcus Smart missed the team's shootaround on Monday morning as well with illness and was called doubtful by Brad Stevens for the matchup. A closer look at how the Celtics may match up with the Nets without their starting backcourt.


• The Celtics are 1-5 in their last six road games and have allowed 113 points per 100 possessions in those contests, ten points worse than their season average.


• The Nets will be far healthier than last week's matchup against the Celtics, with Joe Harris and DeMarre Carroll back in the fold. Jared Dudley (hamstring) is out and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson (adductor strain) is questionable.


• Terry Rozier is averaging 17,4 points, 5.3 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game in four starts this season. Boston is 3-1 in those contests but the team is 7-14 on the road without Irving over the past two seasons.