BSJ Game Report: Boston Celtics 126, Brooklyn Nets 91 - Relentless C's cruise to sixth straight win

Everything you need to know about the Boston Celtics' win over the Brooklyn Nets with BSJ insight and analysis. 

IN A NUTSHELL

The Celtics absolutely dominated the opening minutes of the game, immediately building a 26-point lead halfway through the first. Brooklyn went on a run after that, but Boston answered and carried that momentum through the second and third quarters, building a lead as high as 35. The entire fourth quarter was garbage time.

Box Score

HEADLINES

A relentless attack to start: The 28-2 Celtics run to start the game was the most dominant, relentless thing I’ve seen this Celtics team do to anyone. This was different than whatever they did to the Kings. They had everything working and they hit Brooklyn with six minutes of fury. It was everything we could have wanted in a start to this game.

“We were locked in defensively, obviously, to hold them to two (points),” Ime Udoka said. “But also offensively, them going after Jayson, opening up some things for other guys.” 

Passing on point: The Celtics had another 32 assists in this game, but more than that, it was the passing out of double teams by Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, especially early on by Tatum, that unlocked everything. 

“Seemed like that was the plan to take it out of his hands,” Udoka said. “We got numbers on the backside. We got other guys that can obviously score when you have Jaylen out there to double off of Jayson is going to leave him wide open and he's making plays for everybody else. Jayson took the bait and got everybody else free buckets tonight."

Free buckets like this: 

More on this later.

C’s climb above play-in: The win keeps Boston 4.5 games out of first place in the East and in a virtual tie with Toronto (who is ahead by slight percentage points). They're just two games behind Philadelphia, who lost tonight. Asking Boston to win four more games and 10 in a row is too much, but if they beat Denver and Atlanta at home on Friday and Sunday, it’s possible next Tuesday’s game in Philadelphia could be for fifth in the East. 

TURNING POINT

The Nets got it down to 13 at the 9:37 mark in the second quarter, but Boston went on an 18-8 run to nip that run in the bud and cruise from there. 

FOUR UP

Marcus Smart: He had not been taking a lot of shots lately, focusing more on moving the ball during this winning streak. However, he was feeling it early and he let 13 3-pointers fly. He hit 6 of them, and I’d say maybe one of them was forced. He also did a tremendous job guarding Patty Mills, who finished the night with 5 points on 2-8 shooting. 

“I knew today for me, once I got the call to guard him, that it was gonna be a track meet,” Smart said. “I can't really relax, so I took that head on, that challenge, and just tried to do everything I could to make sure he didn't get hot from the start like last game and tear us up. Whatever that means, if I have to fight over screens, trial him everywhere, not help as much, just try my best not to lose him.”

Jaylen Brown: He was in the middle of everything in that first-quarter run. He scored 12 points and dished out two assists in that opening 28-2 massacre. 

“I don’t know how often or if we’ve ever been to a good start like that before, but it felt good,” Brown said. “But we knew that some of those guys were out. We wanted to take care of business early. We didn’t want to play around, give them confidence and let them linger into the game. We just wanted to come out, do our job, get on up outta here, and move on.”

Jayson Tatum: A pedestrian 19 point, 5 rebound, 4 assist game for Tatum, however it was his ball movement attracting double teams that stood out. More on that in a minute. 

Robert Williams: He was a catalyst for a lot early on. He took full advantage of the attention being paid to other Celtics to catch a bunch of lobs. He also blocked three shots and did a very good job of moving the ball and drawing the attention of defenders to open up the floor for others.

TWO DOWN

Dennis Schröder: The offense stalled when he got into the game in the second quarter. The ball movement completely stopped, and it became a game of isolation that erased a lot of Boston’s huge early lead. He was one of two players who were -13 in a 35 point win. There's a strong chance he’s traded by Thursday, so if this was his last game, let me be the first to say so long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, good night.

Josh Richardson: He was the other -13. I don’t know if he got caught up in the iso ball, if he was worried about trade rumors, or if he just had a bad game. Well, I do know that he had a bad game, but the why is the question. 

TOP PLAYS

ONE TAKE KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

- We’re seeing the flashes of Tatum and Brown at their full potential.

This is still the early stages, but this is some of what the Celtics have been waiting for when it comes to Tatum and Brown being on the floor together. When the strategy is to double one of them, in this case Tatum, the other is supposed to make them pay. 

We saw it when he gave the ball up to Al Horford, and Brown operated in space left by scrambling Nets defenders to get to the rim.

Or, more directly, when Tatum just invited the blitz to step further out and get it to Brown who stepped into a 3-pointer against a tentative defender who didn’t know if a drive or shot was coming. 

An important element to giving the ball up is trusting that it can come back to you at some point if that ends up being the right play. 

Here, Brown got blitzed and he made the simple play to give it up to Josh Richardson. The ball was passed a couple of more times, the Nets defense overreacted, and there was Jaylen Brown all alone at the top for an even more open 3-pointer. 

The Celtics offense is well behind its defense, but Tatum and Brown fully realizing their offensive potential like this will help the overall offense reach its peak. There will be a time and place for isolating and trying to score one-on-one, but this kind of ball movement, especially against bad teams like this specific version of the Nets, can make life easier for everyone. 

“We've had quite a bit of practice, those guys have seen it,” Udoka said. “When you know they're coming at you every time, it's obviously easier to prepare for. Like I said, the willingness has been there. Those are two unselfish guys and outcomes of some of those games might be different if we make a few shots. I always think they're making the right play for the most part."