BROOKLYN — Much like in the first two games of the season, the Brooklyn Nets had the Boston Celtics’ number on Friday night. Or rather, Jordi Fernandez had their number. After three straight games of seeing bigs press up to the level against their ball-handlers, Boston finally saw a different coverage.
Well, they did eventually.
To start Friday night’s contest, the Nets were bringing their bigs up to the three-point line. But as the game went on, they stopped doing it. In its place, the Nets began switching everything, severely disrupting the Celtics’ offense.
One-on-ones dominated Boston’s offensive game plan, and with Jaylen Brown struggling to make his isolation shots, the scoring just wasn’t there on a consistent basis. And to make matters worse, the Nets parlayed their defensive disruption into transition success. In the first half alone, Brooklyn scored eight fastbreak points to Boston’s zero.
But there’s one thing the Nets didn’t account for: Payton Pritchard.
Of all NBA players with at least 75 isolation possessions this season, nobody is more efficient than Pritchard, who sat at 1.23 points per possession heading into Friday night. He put that stat to work in the third quarter, exploding for 12 points in the frame.
Boston carried that energy into the fourth, largely led by Luka Garza, who was a monster down low (on both ends of the court). That said, offensive boards kept Brooklyn in it, and the Celtics' struggles guarding Michael Porter Jr. prevented them from pulling away.
As the fourth quarter slowly wound down, the buckets and stops started flowing for the Celtics. Brooklyn lost its juice, and the Celtics found theirs. But the game wasn't over.
The Nets began double-teaming Brown in the final few minutes, and they snuck all the way back into the game. A wide-open Hauser three, which stemmed from a Brown double-team, didn't fall in the closing 30 seconds, which pried the door open even wider.
By the time the final seconds ticked down, Porter Jr. got up a contested three, which missed, but no one was there to box out Nicolas Claxton. He threw down a put-back slam that sent the Nets to overtime (after the Celtics' play on their final possession broke down).
Boston battled hard in overtime. Garza fouled out within a couple of minutes, and since Neemias Queta had already fouled out in the fourth, Joe Mazzulla had to roll with a small-ball group. Baylor Scheierman and Hugo Gonzalez fought hard, but some gritty Nets defense kept them in control.
Brown got a great look with roughly 10 seconds to go, but it didn't fall. The Nets went to the line, put themselves up by two possessions, and that was that.
Or, was it...
Nolan Traore missed a key free throw, and on the next play, Gonzalez nailed a corner three. The Nets got scrambled on defense, and a cut from Brown sprung Gonzalez wide open. He nailed the triple, and one overtime turned to two. (Note: If Mazzulla hadn't saved a timeout until the very end, the Celtics wouldn't have had the chance to go to double overtime.)
The second overtime period was a wildfire. A Brown and-one here, an Amari Williams (!!!) and-one there, and all the while, the Nets found ways to score.
Offensive rebounding opportunities continued to propel the Nets forward, but some nice passes by Brown helped keep Boston (just barely) ahead.
And when it came time for the Nets to stay alive, Williams helped over at the rim for a monster game-sealing block.
It wasn't pretty, but a win is a win.
Big winner: Pritchard. Without Pritchard, the Celtics don’t get back into this basketball game at all. It’s that simple. Fernandez had the Celtics figured out (as much as anyone can figure out a team with as much talent as Boston). The Nets’ defensive pressure worked.
All the Celtics needed was someone to break it down. Someone to create two-on-ones for himself. Pritchard did that at the end of the third quarter. And it flipped the game from a Nets-controlled night to an even contest (all the way until the bitter end).
Obviously, an honorable mention goes to Gonzalez for an awesome shot to send the game to double overtime. (Williams gets one, too, for stepping up when Boston needed him most.)
Ouch, tough one: Defensive rebounding. It wasn't a huge problem for the entire night, but in the fourth quarter, especially early on, Mazzulla's blood pressure spiked because the Celtics couldn't corral defensive rebounds. He was very animated on the sideline.
At one point, he subbed out Jordan Walsh and Gonzalez, seemingly because they weren't crashing the defensive glass effectively. Offensive rebounding and hard-nosed defense kept the Nets in this basketball game.
The big picture: This game was ugly, and there's an intriguing element that may emerge in the coming weeks: Teams around the league could use the Nets as a learning tool.
Fernandez clearly found a way to disrupt the Celtics' recent offensive flow. Teams had been trying to throw extra pressure at the Celtics, but Brooklyn did it in a different way. Even when they did decide to send multiple bodies at Boston, they did so in a way where the easy pass was closed off.
Any coaching staff around the league watching the Celtics' game on Friday night could, and probably should, take note. (Though Brown probably won't have many nights as cold as this one.)
