BOSTON -- Just 24 hours removed from a blowout win over the Chicago Bulls, the Boston Celtics were thrown into the fire. Well, perhaps thrown into isn't a fair analysis. They ignited the flame, and their coattails got stuck in the coals. They did it to themselves.
Jordi Fernandez coaches the Brooklyn Nets well. They've been one of the worst teams in the league for the past few years, but they rarely play like it. The results just end a certain way (and in the past, that may have been for lottery balls' sake).
Brooklyn plays hard. It pressures the ball. It forces offenses to divert from their initial game plan. The Nets deserve credit for how they played, but on the second night of a back-to-back, Boston just didn't live up to its standards.
"We were giving it what we had, but it just wasn't good enough," Joe Mazzulla said post-game. "But it wasn't as if we weren't trying. We just weren't sharp. But second night of a back-to-back against a good team like that, you're really looking to just stay in it. And we were making plays to stay in it. We were connected, we were trying to make plays, we just weren't sharp."
They weren't sharp. It wasn't good enough. Boston was turning the ball over too often, getting outhustled on the glass, and failing to execute its defensive game plan.
Taking risks is part of the Celtics' new-look defense. Leaving guys open, knowing your teammate has your back. That a late close-out will happen so the other team doesn't get easy looks.
Yet on Tuesday night, those little details failed to live up to expectations. Boston's close-outs to 3-point shooters weren't there. The frenetic on-ball defense left something to be desired.
"I thought defensively, on the ball, we could have been better," Paul George said. "I thought our backside-help defense could have been better. We just allowed a lot of layups, a lot of rim attacks. Again, them rebounding, getting extra possessions, still an area of improvement for us. But we definitely could have been a lot better there."
The Nets shot 17-of-50 (34.0%) from beyond the arc. But in the fourth quarter, that number clocked in at 8-of-17 (47.1%). It helped the Nets stay alive.
Michael Porter Jr., in particular, was an impossible cover, it seemed. He's been a thorn in Boston's side for the past year. Brooklyn does a phenomenal job of setting him up.
If you stay attached at the hip, you run the risk of fouling him when he rises up to shoot coming off a screen. If you hedge, you give up a roll to the rim. If you contest straight up, he's probably going to shoot from too high a release for it to make a difference. Boston didn't find the solution.
"He's just that good," Mazzulla said. "And you have to be able to defend without fouling. A couple of them -- we had a couple loose-ball rebounds, then he kicked out on a couple. They just do a great job on their DHOs. He's just a hell of a player, and Jordi's a great coach to where they just put him in the exact spots to where he just creates good separation. So, we got to be better on the ones where we lost him kind of off the ball, but on the ball ones, you want to defend without fouling, and it's a tough cover. He made a lot of tough shots."
Porter finished the night with 27 points, 12 rebounds, two assists, and two blocks. He shot an incredible 8-of-16 from the field, 6-of-12 from beyond the 3-point arc, and 5-of-6 from the free-throw line.
Combined with Mo Wagner's 2-of-3 from deep, Chaney Johnson's 3-of-6, and Mikel Brown Jr.'s 4-of-11, the Nets made just enough shots to battle for all 53 minutes of action.
Boston got its best boost at the end of the third quarter. Baylor Scheierman, Sam Hauser, and Luka Garza put in a shift. They changed the entire energy of the game.
Huge 3-point buckets from Hauser snapped a major Celtics drought. Scheierman was diving for loose balls and playing elite hustle defense. Garza stayed solid on both ends and gave the other bigs a breather.
"I knew, at some point, there'd be one lineup, a group of guys that would just get us going, and those three guys did, and then we kind of went from there," Mazzulla said.
It was in those final few minutes of the third that the Celtics regained control of the game. But Brooklyn didn't back down. And that stretch of play wasn't enough to flip an otherwise stagnant offense on its head.
Payton Pritchard couldn't find a real offensive rhythm. Outside of some big buckets in the fourth, neither could Paul George. Derrick White wasn't very efficient, either.
The Celtics needed someone to give them life. To lift them through what had become a complete slog of a back-to-back. A dogfight. Enter, Jayson Tatum.
Tatum may have Brown to thank for his game-winner. If he didn't miss a layup instead of waiting for an intentional foul at the end of OT, Tatum never gets a chance to win it.
Or perhaps Neemias Queta, whose foul on Julius Randle put the Nets in position to send the game to overtime in the first place.
"I told him to thank Neemi for fouling at the end, so that he had a position to be able to hit the game-winner," Mazzulla said sarcastically. "So, to me, it's just great teamwork and caring about the guy next to you and wanting the other guy to really succeed. So I thought it was a very unselfish backcourt foul by Nimi, so that JT could be in the position to make the game-winner."
But Tatum's performance wasn't just about the game-winner. It was about the