Brad Stevens' opening remarks in his postgame press conference on Christmas night kind of says it all about where the Celtics stand in relation to the Nets at the moment.
"I thought we competed way better today than we did last week,” Stevens said. “I thought that we had the right frame of mind.”
Last Friday, the Celtics lost to the Nets in a preseason game by 24. On Friday they lost by 28 yet Stevens was encouraged by the performance. That's not exactly a great sign for a team that has championship aspirations this season and will likely need to beat Brooklyn to get there.
To be fair to Stevens, he’s right about his team’s effort. The Celtics led the Nets after halftime despite an ugly shooting start and hung tough for the first eight minutes of the second half even as Kevin Durant (16 points in third quarter) caught fire, trailing by only four points with four minutes remaining in the third quarter.
From there, everything went haywire for the C’s. Outside of Jaylen Brown (27 points) and Jayson Tatum (20 points), the offense disappeared (C’s shot 32 percent in the second half). Kyrie Irving (20 points) and Durant (20 points) found their grooves in the second half, nearly outscoring the Celtics all by themselves (C’s had 41 second half points), showing why that duo was originally Plan A for the C's back in 2019. Not only did the Nets have the two best players on the floor but their second unit completely outclassed Boston’s bench even while the stars rested, extending a double-digit lead as the C’s tried to sneak in rest for their core players in the fourth quarter. When all was said and done, the Nets closed out the game with a 50-25 run, turning an encouraging C’s performance over 30 minutes into a laugher in the blink of an eye.
“The game got away from us there in the start of the fourth and they poured it on,” Stevens said. “That’s the thing: They’re very capable of pouring it on. I think it’s the deepest team in the NBA and quite possibly -- certainly in the conversation for the best. We know that we have a lot of work to do, that’s very clear. And we know what we have to shoot for. Good to know. I thought our guys gave a good effort at the start and then we just, again, it got away from us in the fourth.”
“There was no adjustment,” Nets coach Steve Nash said of his team's outburst. “It was just be more diligent, be earlier, tuck, battle, those things. I thought maybe we got a little outplayed in the first half on the hustle, energy, physicality meter. Our guys are a proud group, and for such an early stage they had that resolve, stuck with it and just picked up their intensity and desire. The guys were hungry and fought. It was beautiful to watch.”
Some of the damage was self inflicted by Boston. Missed layups turned into transition 3s. Jarrett Allen won the big man battle against Tristan Thompson. However, even when the C's played strong defense on a possession for 18 seconds, it all went for naught due to plays like this.
KEVIIIIIIIINNNNN!!! pic.twitter.com/Q9VgMlf2pw
— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) December 25, 2020
