TIP OFF: 7:00 p.m. @ TD Garden
RADIO: 98.5 The Sports Hub
TV: TNT, NBC Sports Boston
Predicted Starting Lineups
Celtics
G: Marcus Smart
G: Evan Fournier
SF: Romeo Langford
PF: Jayson Tatum
C: Tristan Thompson
Nets
G: Kyrie Irving
G: James Harden
SF: Joe Harris
PF: Kevin Durant
C: Blake Griffin
LIVE COVERAGE, by John Karalis
Fourth quarter
- Irving is on a mission. He's up to 37 points and he's glaring at the crowd.
- Tatum sits down with 9:30 left having scored 32 points on 50% shooting and 100% (11-11) from the line. H also has 7 rebounds and 5 assists
- Kevin Durant is unfair. Romeo Langford is actually playing fairly good defense but Durant is just shooting over him and draining 3's
- The crowd is still into this game. The Celtics are fighting and that's really only keeping it at 20, but the team and the crowd is sticking with it
- Aaron Nesmith has had a nice explosion here late. 3-5 from 3 so far. Has to be a big confidence boost.
Third quarter
- There's a real feeling that this game is starting to slip away. The Celtics are struggling to get good looks and it's just coming a little easier for the Nets.
- Smart is starting to force things a little. He made a nice pass to a cutting Tatum for a dunk but his next two shots were rushed.
- The Celtics have begun turning the ball over a bunch, too. It's a 21 point game with 4:40 to go in the 3rd
- Kyrie is certainly playing better than Game 3. 31 points now and we might be almost done here.
- Tatum is trying ... he's up to 32 points. He and Aaron Nesmith hit 3's to end the quarter. It's still 21, but the crowd is at least enjoying it
- The Celtics have gotten it down to 15, but they never really threatened to make it a game.
Second quarter
- The Celtics rolled the dice with a Fournier/Ojeleye/Pritchard/Williams/Langford lineup against Brooklyn's Harden/Harris/Tyler Johnson/Nic Claxton/Landry Shamet group but they were outscored 9-3. Smart was reinserted with his two fouls.
- Thompson was getting torched on pick and rolls so Boston went to a zone, but Brooklyn has been scoring pretty easily on those too and opened a 10 point lead
- Langford has done a nice job attacking and getting to the line after his catches in the corner
- The Celtics are really struggling to score right now and everything seems to be falling for Brooklyn. The lead grew to 13 before a Grant Williams 3 cut it back to 10 with just under 3 to go
- Brooklyn is really flexing their muscles now. Their Big 3 has 59 of their 73 points.
- A Fournier buzzer beater cut the halftime lead to 13, but Boston is in a tough position. They need to come out strong to start the second half.
First quarter
- The energy is off the charts and Boston opens on an 8-3 run. After a Tatum corner 3, he turned to the crowd and had a massive smile on his face
- Tatum and Smart both had it going early, combining for 15 of Boston's first 17 points. The other two were a Romeo Langford follow dunk
- The Nets weathered the early storm by getting to the line, They were 7-7 over the first 4:30 of the game.
- Irving has not historically been a big free throw taker but he's gotten to the line 7 times and is perfect. He and Durant have combined for 25 of the 29 Nets points at the 2:26 mark
- Fournier is 1-5, but he's attacking well and has taken 3 free throws
- Marcus Smart and Tristan Thompson have two fouls each. With Walker and Robert Williams already out, this is putting a big strain on Boston's bench.
- The Celtics have Tatum, Pritchard, Ojeleye, Parker, and Grant Williams on the floor and it's been OK. They were a +1
Preview by Jack Simone, CLNS Media
The Celtics (36-36, 34-38 ATS) bounced back in Game 3, earning a 125-119 victory over the Brooklyn Nets (48-24, 38-34 ATS) at TD Garden. The two teams face off in Game 4 tonight, with over triple the amount of fans in the building as there were in Game 3.
According to the online sports book Betonline.ag, the Nets are 8.5 point favorites.
Point Spread: Nets -8.5
Over-Under: 228.5 points
Money line: Celtics +260, Nets -310
Jeff Green remains out for the Nets as he deals with a strained plantar fascia. According to the team, he will be re-evaluated in a little over a week.
Boston’s injury report grew larger after the last game. Alongside Jaylen Brown, both Kemba Walker and Robert Williams are listed on the injury report. Walker continues to deal with a left knee medial bone bruise and is listed as questionable. Meanwhile, Williams left Game 3 after suffering a sprained ankle and did not return. Brad Stevens says both are unlikely to play.
Player Stats
Kevin Durant and James Harden both put on a show in Game 3. The duo combined to score 80 of the team’s 119 points on 24-42 (57.1%) shooting from the field. Harden filled up the stat sheet, adding seven rebounds and 10 assists to his totals as well. Kyrie Irving scored 16 points of his own, but could not find a rhythm all throughout the game. He shot 6-16 (35.3%) from the field and 2-6 (33.3%) from deep. While he denied that the crowd got in his head in his postgame interview, he was met with loud boos every time he touched the ball.
As for the rest of Brooklyn, no one else contributed much. Joe Harris finished fourth on the team. in scoring, but only had eight points in the game. Outside of the big three, Brooklyn shot 8-25 (32.0%) from the field and 3-11 (27.3%) from three. With Green missing serious time, the Nets struggled to find production from their deeper rotational players. For the Celtics, Jayson Tatum stole the show. He scored 50 points, grabbed six rebounds, and dished out seven dimes in Game 3. After being unable to find a rhythm throughout the first two games, the two-time All-Star finally came to life on Friday night. Tatum has now scored 50 points in each of his last two performances at TD Garden.
Boston got solid contributions from Marcus Smart, Evan Fournier, and Tristan Thompson as well. Smart ended the night with 23 points and six assists, Fournier finished with 17 points and five rebounds, and Thompson notched a 19-point, 13-rebound double-double. Both Smart and Fournier shot above 50% from the field and from deep. Although it won’t show up in the stats, Romeo Langford and Grant Williams both put in solid shifts, too. Kemba Walker once again struggled to get things going. He only managed to scrape together six points on 3-14 (21.4%) shooting from the field. This included an 0-7 performance from three-point range. He did manage to snag eight rebounds, including a clutch one near the end of the game, however.
Team Stats
The Nets put up 119 points, and despite the loss, remained fairly efficient on the offensive end. They shot 38-84 (45.2%) from the field and 16-38 (42.21%) from deep as a team. The issue with these stats, however, is that the majority of that production came from Durant and Harden alone. Factoring out those two players, Brooklyn shot 14-42 (33.3%) from the field and 5-17 (29.4%) from three.
As evidenced by Tatum’s monster night, the Nets struggled on the defensive end of the floor. Boston put up 125 points, nearly 25 points more than what they averaged through the first two games (110.5 PPG). The Nets only contested nine of Boston’s 39 three-point attempts and left them wide open on 19 of them. Boston’s offensive finally clicked in Game 3. Though the Nets’ defense tailed off a bit, Boston deserves credit for attacking their weaknesses. Brooklyn decided to switch everything against Tatum, meaning Irving and Bruce Brown ended up guarding Tatum on a lot of possessions. Every time that matchup occurred, Boston made sure to take full advantage of it.
The Celtics’ defense did not dominate as much as their offense did. Boston still left Brooklyn open or wide open on 30 of their 38 three-point looks. However, the Celtics did earn an advantage with their two-point defense. They contested 37 of the Nets’ 46 two-point looks and held them to only 47.8% shooting on two-pointers. For reference, the Nets shot 67.5% and 72.5% from two-point range in Games 1 and 2, respectively.
Summary
The Celtics’ embraced the energy of 5,000 fans in Game 3 and walked away with a crucial win. With the series sitting at 2-1 in favor of the Nets, tonight’s game acts as a major turning point. If the Celtics can come away with a win, the series is tied at 2-2, but a loss sends them down 3-1, a tough hole to climb out of. The upside of tonight’s game, however, is that instead of 5,000 Boston faithful cheering them on, they’ll have over 17,000. Brooklyn will certainly make plenty of adjustments ahead of Game 4 after their sloppy defense allowed Jayson Tatum to dominate in the manner that he did. Tatum’s energy in Game 3 acted as the driving force behind Boston’s gutsy win. If he can reproduce that same success, and the Celtics get even an average night from Walker, Boston could have a real chance to steal another game tonight.
Celtics 118, Nets 116