BSJ Game Report: Celtics 124, Nets 114 - Nothing pretty, but Tatum, Holiday come through in 5th straight win

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

IN A NUTSHELL

Boston came out strong behind Jayson Tatum to take a nine-point lead but Lonnie Walker led a fast-paced Nets attack that saw them hit some tough shots to tie the game after 1. The Nets rode the momentum into the second to take a lead, but a 12-4 closing run by Boston put them up 12 at half. Brooklyn answered that to start the third, and rode a sloppy quarter by Boston to keep things close. It stayed close but mid-way through the fourth, the Celtics got some separation with a run that didn’t quite salt the game away, but Brooklyn never truly challenged after that. 

Box Score

HEADLINES

Finding a way: The Nets put up 100 shots, 52 from 3, and for a while those shots were keeping the Nets in it. The Celtics fouled a bunch, turned it over too much, and made some tough decisions at times, but they did what they had to do at the end of each half to close things out. 

Tatum is on a heater: 32 points on 50/60/100 splits and 11 rebounds. He’s up to 30.2 ppg to start the season. He had one bad shooting night against Miami, but has shot no worse than 50% in every other game. 

A true team effort: I’ll get more into this later, but the Celtics really got something meaningful from everyone who played. Sure, some more than others, but this wasn’t just Tatum bailing them out. 

TURNING POINT

After a Dennis Smith Jr. 3-pointer cut it to one with 7:47 to go, Boston whipped off a 14-4 run to open up an 11 point lead and never look back. 

THINGS I LIKED

First half offense: They hit 70 first-half points for the third time this season in this game. They are truly on a roll to start games. 

Sticking with it: They had every reason to expect the Nets to crumble on the back-to-back but Brooklyn hung in there throughout the game. The Celtics did too.

“I think it's important for us that our bench came through tonight,” Joe Mazzulla said after the game. “I thought Payton (Pritchard), Sam (Hauser), Luke (Kornet), Oshae (Brissett), I thought those guys competed. They played hard. I thought Luke gave us great, great minutes.”

The other guys: Since we’re here, let’s back up Joe’s words. Kornet was great in this game, 11 points on a perfect 5-5 night to go along with 7 rebounds and a steal. He protected the rim well and hit some key buckets to keep the Nets at arm’s length in the second half. Hauser’s biggest contribution might have been the two third-quarter steals, one of them leading to a breakaway dunk. And even Pritchard, who was 0-4 but he had a couple of nice plays in the fourth quarter, including a beauty of an assist. 

Jrue Holiday: He was one rebound shy of a triple double (18 pts, 10 ast, 9 reb), but he was a monster for Boston in so many ways. The 10 assists were huge. Six of them came in the second half. 

Jaylen Brown’s passing: The four assists don’t do him justice, though his two alley oops to Porzingis and Horford were nice. The one to Porzingis had an added degree of difficulty because it was straight on, which is hard to pull off. I think overall, Brown was making good reads, even on plays that didn’t amount to an official stat to prove it. 

Al Horford: A team-high +29. It’s so difficult to do what he does at his age. I’m certainly impressed. 

Kristaps Porzingis: Did you know he hasn’t shot better than 50% in his career? He’s also never taken fewer than 12.3 shots per game. 

Well, this season he’s taking just 10.6 shots per game so far, he’s shooting 60.4%, and he’s averaging 19.4 points per game, just below his career average of 19.6. He’s sacrificing shots but his efficiency is through the roof, so he’s barely feeling the impact on his averages. 

Jayson Tatum: The youngest Celtic to reach 10,000 points, a milestone he hit on an MVP move in this game: 

Okay, he actually hit the milestone on the free throw after that move, but it was such a good move that I like it the way I said it better. 

Tatum struggled early in this game against the most double teaming he’s seen all season long. But he stuck with it and finished the game with incredible percentages. 

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE

Letting down: I wasn’t thrilled with how easily the Nets were getting to the rim and how easily they scored in general for a lot of this game. It did feel like the Celtics were more hopeful the Nets would back off than making them back off. 

41 minutes for Tatum: There are going to have to be some games where Tatum’s minutes are kept relatively low despite the game being in the balance. To be fair, he was just able to skip two straight fourth quarters, so a 41 minute night isn’t the worst thing in the world. 

HIGHLIGHTS

TAKES KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

Derrick White is super-important: I won’t actually regret this take later. 

This matchup might have been the worst for White to miss. The Nets push the pace and shoot a ton of 3-pointers, so not having White’s defense was really noticeable. Maybe some of the things I didn’t like in the game (that all fell under the all-encompassing “letting down”) don’t happen with White and his trademark effort and execution. 

Winning isn’t the only thing, but it sure is nice: The two blowouts aside, the Celtic now have three wins that could easily have been losses last season. 

This one was definitely in that mix after Boston gave up a huge run to start the third. That could have gotten ugly in a hurry, but the bench settled things down in the third before Tatum and the rest of the fellas closed things out. 

A year ago, I’d bet that Nets run extends and then the Celtics trip all over themselves trying to do too much individually. This time around, everyone had a chance to make a play, and all of the starters made a positive impact to contribute to this win. 

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: These guys are learning and growing.

Next up: Boston continues the road trip in Minnesota Monday night