Celtics rolled in Brooklyn, 130-108

There were two ways to interpret the Celtics’ loss in Game 1 — either it was a sign of better things to come, or the 11-point margin was as good as it was going to get.

By the end of Game 2’s first quarter, after an open Joe Harris buried six 3-pointers in their collective visages, the Celtics had their answer. With Harris’ celebrated wingmen each checking in from time to time, the Celtics fell into an 0-2 first-round series hole with their 130-108 loss to Brooklyn on Tuesday night.

For now, anyway, they stand as a testament for the rest of the league to what Brooklyn’s full lineup — the one that played all of eight games together during the regular season — can exact on the competition, such as it has been thus far.

The scoring was expected, and the Nets didn’t disappoint with a 17-for-38 3-point performance that finished with Kevin Durant (26 points), Harris and James Harden all scoring 20 points or more. What wasn’t so predictable was how well the Nets defended the Celtics for the second straight night.

Jayson Tatum, poked in the eye by Durant in the third quarter, left for good after the play. After going 0-for-6 in the second half of Game 1, the 23-year-old star never found a rhythm in Game 2, either, finishing the night with nine points on 3-for-12 shooting, including only one 3-pointer.

And the Celtics, led by Marcus Smart’s 19 points, including four 3-pointers in the third when the game was out of hand, sank into another offensive quagmire.

The Celtics hit five 3-pointers — four of them from Smart — in the last 4:47 of the third. And all it did was stake the Nets, who almost matched them point for point on the way to a 109-82 lead.

Brad Stevens started the fourth with a lineup of reserves around Tristan Thompson

With Tatum’s 2-for-10, 1-for-3 from 3 first half the symbolic stat line, the Celtics went into halftime trailing, 71-47, a confused mess. Harris knocked them on their backs with a 22-point half that included 6-for-8 3-point shooting, and the Nets’ larger stars were able to check in from time to time, like Harden’s ability to score 10 points over the first four minutes of the second quarter.

The Celtics surprisingly only trained by 14 after the first quarter, by 21 with 10:31 left in the half, and the Nets at their peak led by 27.

Tatum left the game early in the third after getting poked in the eye by Durant, as the Nets were putting together their first strong move of the quarter with an 11-0 run for an 87-55 lead. Smart and Evan Fournier answered with consecutive 3-pointers, only for the Nets to lower the boom with a 7-0 run for a 94-61 lead that included two thunderous Blake Griffin dunks — one converted into a three-point play.

The Celtics suddenly found their range, with Smart burying four of the team’s five 3-pointers in the last 4:47 of the third. The problem? The Nets, with Irving getting back into the scoring flow, matched most of those points for a 109-82 lead.

The Celtics certainly couldn’t have counted on two straight slow starts by the Nets, and the early going bore that out.

Harris, the Net most likely to get an open shot, buried four 3-pointers in just under two minutes, including three straight, to fuel up a 19-1 run for a 30-13 lead. He also scored off the break after stealing the ball from Tatum.

The Celtics gamely hit back with an 11-2 run, cutting the Brooklyn lead to seven points, briefly. But the Nets closed out strong, shooting 16-for-26 in the quarter (61%) and taking a 40-26 lead.

It was Harden’s turn, with the “other” Nets star opening the second with a 3-pointer and then, interspersed with a Landry Shamet three, Harden added a four-point play and a three-point play to his slate — the latter for a 53-30 lead in the midst of an 11-2 Nets burst that included Harris’ fifth trey of the night.

No. 6 was just around the corner for Harris, and with Tatum again struggling against coverage — he was 2-for-8 heading into the last minute — the Nets danced into halftime with a 71-47 lead.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3oPRLHS