Final: Celtics 103, Nets 92 - Brown's 34 powers Celtics

Game 24: Celtics (-2.5) at Brooklyn Nets, 6:00 p.m., Barclays Center, NBCS Boston

Injuries: 

Boston: Danilo Gallinari, Robert Williams, Marcus Smart (hip)Brooklyn: Ben Simmons (calf), Yuta Watanabe (hamstring), Edmond Sumner (glute)

Nets probable starters: Kyrie Irving, Joe Harris, Kevin Durant, Royce O’Neale, Nic Claxton

Refs: Zach Zarba (#15), Michael Smith (#38), Andy Nagy (#83)

A little something about this game: The Nets are starting to figure themselves out a bit. They’ve won four straight games, six straight at home, and seven of their last 10. However, the current streak of wins have come over Toronto, Washington, Orlando, and Portland, so the competition hasn’t exactly been the NBA’s cream of the crop. Over the course of their streak, the Nets have the league’s fifth-best net rating (Boston is first). Brooklyn has moved up to sixth in the East at 13-11, 5.5 games behind the Celtics. This is the first game of a six-game road trip for Boston.

How Boston wins: The Nets do not have a great transition defense, nor are they a great offensive rebounding team, so the Celtics should be looking to leak out when Brooklyn settles for jumpers. Someone on the weak side should just make a break for it on every pull up and see if the Celtics can pile up some easy transition buckets. 

Defensively, they should be switching everything versus dropping in pick and roll coverage. The Nets looooooove the mid-range shot, so don’t let them walk into easy ones. 

How Brooklyn wins: Durant exploits mismatches to pile up a bunch of easy 15 footers and the Celtics overreact, giving the Nets easy 3-point looks. Brooklyn has the ninth-highest 3-point percentage in the league, but their 19th in attempts. If the Celtics aren’t careful, Durant and Irving can start piling up assists. 

Things I’m looking for:

- Half court execution: The Celtics are the league’s best half court team, averaging 109.3 points per 100 possessions according to CleaningTheGlass.com. Brooklyn is the league’s second-best half court defense, only allowing 92 points per 100 possessions. Brooklyn will do a lot of what Miami did, which is bait the Celtics into hunting a mismatch and then helping behind it to force a turnover or bad shot that could get blocked. Boston needs to move the ball like they do at their best and not worry about individual mismatches. The ball movement will create plenty of those, and with a defense that's in rotation behind it. Move. The. Ball. 

- Jayson Tatum bounce back: Tatum is coming off his worst game of the season. He’s playing against his buddy Kevin Durant. This feels like a game where Tatum and Durant can have a little bit of a duel. 

- Payton Pritchard spark: With Smart out, Pritchard will likely get the call to fill the gap. He needs to be in the right place to be an outlet for the Celtics as they drive and get swallowed up by help defense. Pritchard could find himself staring at a bunch of open looks.

Follow along below or in the comments during the game, chime in, and let’s have fun.