Brooklyn Nets 96 vs. 139 Boston Celtics summary: stats and highlights | NBA
The Boston Celtics asserted their dominance and flexed their muscles on the Eastern Conference in a wire-to-wire blowout victory from the TD Garden. Jayson Tatum led Boston with 31 points in the 139-96 victory on Wednesday night.
It was raining threes in Boston
The Celtics came in as the top team in the league, and were looking to start a winning streak after a three game slump to end January. They went up against a wounded Nets team with Kevin Durant on the sideline for the 11th straight game.
Robert Williams III got the first bucket of the game on a baseline slam, and the Celtics didn’t look back from there. They jumped out to a 21-3 lead in the first six minutes of the opening quarter, and the Boston went on to hit their first eight 3 pointers of the game. They stretched the lead to 30 in the first quarter while holding the Nets to just 16 points and basically kept that lead until the finish line.
Jayson Tatum kicked off the game with 18 first quarter points, and went to half with 23 only because he was on the bench for the majority of the second quarter. He finished the game with 31 points and sat the final 12 minutes.
Kyrie’s bitter Boston homecoming
Jaylen Brown had 11 points out of the halftime break and ended his night with 26, while role players like Robert Williams and Derrick White joined the feast at TD Garden. White had a double double with 14 and 10 rebounds while Williams just missed out with 16 points and 9 rebounds.
Not even MVP candidate Kyrie Irving could spare his team from the beatdown in Boston. The former Celtic had 20 points as the Nets shot just 23.1% from downtown, and were out rebounded 57-32.
The Celtics extend their lead over the Milwaukee Bucks to 2.5 games with the win while one time conference leaders have dropped to 5.5 games back of the Celtics without Kevin Durant.
Tatum knew he was getting the fourth quarter off, so he dropped this triple to cap his 31 pont night in the Celtics 43 point blow out.
Jayson Tatum could not be stopped in the first quarter. He had 18 after the first 12 minutes and went to halftime with 23 only because he sat for half of the second quarter.
Jaylen Brown and the Celtics came out red hot from the perimeter, going 8-8 to start the game.
Robert Williams got the night going with a baseline slam, and that was a glimpse of what was to come for the rest of the night. Boston got easy buckets from start to finish.
IT'S ALL OVER HERE FROM BOSTON!
THE CELTICS WIN IT IN A BLOW OUT AND KEEP THEIR SPOT ON TOP OF THE EASTERN CONFERNCE.
Kornet on the easy lay up and then Hauser gets a reverse and the Nets are biggin for this game to end.
Thomas drops the pull up jumper from a step inside the arc.
Hauser drops a three ball from the corner!
Thomas under the bucket and gets it to go, and the foul. FT is good for the three point play.
MIlls gets another mid range jumper to go.
Jackson streaking to the bucket and gets an easy lay up.
Watanbe gets fouled by Pritchard and hits 2 of 2.
Thomas drops the pull up shot from the mid range.
After the timeout with under 7 on the clock and MIlls gets the layup to go.
Kornet on the slash to the bucket and he gets the jam.
Hauser drops the three ball off the dish from Griffin.
Williams in transition and he hits the step back three ball and that's the 23rd three pointer of the game!!!
Watanbe to the line after the Griffin foul and he hits two of two FTs.
Brogdon with the spot up three ball after the give away from the Nets.
Kornet gets hacked by Mills and makes one of two FTs.
Sharpe with a second straight slam. If only it came that easy all night....
Kornet with a slam off the Pritchard assist.
Sharpe with the jam and it's face saving time right now.
Williams starts the quarter with a thre ball, the 21st of the Celtics night.
TATUM WITH THE THREE BALL AND HE'S OVER 30 POINTS ON THE NIGHT!!!
That brings up to the end of the third quarter!!!
Thomas to the line after getting fouled on the three and he hits 2 of 3.
Brown to the line after getting fouled in transition and he hits both FTs.
Tatum drops the three ball from the top of the key and he's got 28!
Sharpe with the slam after the feed by Thomas.
Claxton showing his agility and gets the bucket to go after dancing around a couple bodies.
TO Brooklyn with 3:17 to go in the third quarter.
Brogdon gets the floater to go.
Irving with an off balance floater on the baseline.
Three ball from White and the Cs have made 18 threes!
Iriving with the floater in the lane with 5:00 in the third left.
Williams to the line after getting the offensive board and he hits two of two.
Celtics take a timeout with 6:31 to go in the 3rd quarter.
Horford on the three ball in the corner and everyone is hitting from DT tonight in Boston.
Allen oop to Claxton from Iving
Tatum on the offensive glass and slams it home
Irving on the drive takes the hit and gets the lay up to go! FT is goo after the fould on Tatum.
Brown with another three ball!!! He's got 24 and he's 7/9 from DT.
O'Neale goes to the line after the R. Williams fould and he hits both from the stripe.
Curry on the three ball and they can make as many threes as they want but if they don't get stops they have no shot of getting back in this game.
Brown with another three ball! He's got 21 on the night.
Claxton gets fouled by Horford and he hits both at the line.
Willimas muscling up and hitting the short fade away after the contact.
Irving on the steal and score after the bad pass from Brown.
Harris answers with a corner three ball.
Three ball from Brown to start the quarter on the pull up from the top of the key.
WE ARE BACK IN PLAY FROM BOSTON!!
Let's see if the Nets can mount a little comeback.
There has been no answer to Jayson Tatum tonight. The only reason he has 23 points is becuase he sat the first 8 minutes of the second quarter.
Williams got things started with a jam on the baseline and that was a preview of what was to come.
The Nets have struggled all around. They are shooting just 6-22 from downtown and they can't do anything on the defensive end to stop the Celtics.
Irving lead BKN with 11 points and Thomas has 10 off the bench.
The Celtics jumped out to a huge 21-3 lead and it only got worse from there.
They started the game 8-8 from downtown and stretched the lead to 30 points before the end of the first quarter.
Tatum leads all scorers with 23 points, 18 of those were in the first quarter.
Brown has 15, and White has 11, seven of which came in the first two minutes of the second quarter.
We are at halftime and to say the Celtics are dominating would be a drastic understatement!
This game is over, even though 24 minutes are left in Boston.
TATUM WITH ANOTHER THREE BALL AND HE'S GOT 23 ON THE NIGHT!
Out of the out of bounds play Horford was wide open for the three ball in the corner!
Tatum running the break and just tossed it up to R. Williams and he finishes with the alley oop!
The Nets need a timeout with 2:42 to go in the half looking to cut into the lead before the break.
O'Neale on the drive getting the contact and finishing off the glass.
White again, and he's got 7 points in this second quarter already.
Tatum with an off balanced lay up and he's got 20 already.
Harris drops a triple try, and he's got two tonight.
White again, this time off the dribble and to the rack for a lay up.
White comes out of the timeout with a pull up three ball!
Curry hits a mid range jumper and Harris drops a three to provoke a Celtics timeout with 5:19 to go in the half.
Brogdon answers right back with a deep ball!
Irving with a lay up around the rim and the team are trading buckets. Not much defense being played right now.
Harris drops a triple try!
Brown with another three ball and he's got four from DT.
Irving looking to get into this game and he gets a lay up. He's going to need to wake his team up and carry them on his shoulders until the halftime break.
Williams gets another easy lay up and the Nets defense looks defeated.
Curry on the pull up jumper and he is on the board for the first time tonight.
Thomas back to work with a jumper and he's the only thing working for Brooklyn right now.
Brogdon on the mid range jumper to stop the run from Thomas.
Thomas again! This time from downtown!!!
Thomas with back to back buckets for Brooklyn this time with a lay up at the rim.
White was wide open on his slash to the dish and he gets an easy lay up
Williams on the follow up and getting the second chance points.
Thomas hits the floater and the Nets need much more of that.
Boston isn't slowing down in the second quarter Pritchard hits a jumper to open his account off the bench.
We are at the end of the first quarter and the Celtics jump all over the Nets in the opening 12 minutes! The lead is 30, and Tatum has 18 points already! Boston started the game 8-8 from downtown and are in complete control of this one.
Kornet with 5 quick points off the bench after a slam.
Sharpe goes to the line after the Williams foul and hits one of two.
Kornet gets the bucket to go and goes to the line and hits the and one after the foul on Sharpe.
Irving gets a lay up to go and the Nets take a timeout with 2:27 to go.
Tatum drills another three ball and he's got 18 first quarter points!!! The Cs have started this game 8-8 from downtown!!
After the Brown three point play, Irving hit a mid range jumper to finally put the Nets in double digits.
These guys are scoring so fast I'm getting lost!!!
Brown getting to the basket this time and the lead is almost to 20.
Claxton gets the alley oop from Irving and finally the Nets get an easy slam.
Tatum driving down the lane, absorbs the contact and gets the floater to go.
TATUM AND BROWN GO BACK-TO-BACK FORM DOWNTOWN AND THE CELTICS ARE 7/7 FROM DOWNTOWN!!!
Iriving finally puts a field goal on the board with a three ball!
Tatum drops another triple try and the Celtics are 5/5 from DT to start the game!
Horford bangs home a three ball and this could get ugly early!
Claxton to the line after a Williams foul on the shot and he hits one of two.
Tatum from downtown and the Celtics start the game on a 21-3 run!
Williams follows up the Tatum miss off the top of the backboard and the onslot continues.
White dashing right down main street going coast to coast for the slam!!!
Brown with his second three ball in the first three and a half minutes of the game and the Nets need an early timeout with 8:38 to go in the first quarter.
Tatum doubles his tally and it's all Boston out of the gate!!
Williams following his own shot and gets the tip in
O'Neale finally puts the Nets on the board with a three ball from the corner!!!
Brown from downtown to open his account!!
Tatum on the board for the first time tonight with a dash to the rack.
WE ARE UNDERWAY FROM TD GARDEN!!!!
Williams with a streak to the bucket on the baseline for the game's first bucket!!
Nets Starters
With no KD, Kyrie is going to have to come up huge tonight, but O'Neale and company are going to have to show up if the Nets want to take down the Celtics on thier home floor.
Celtics starters
Joe Mazzula is starting the usual cast of characters, headlined as always by Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. This is could be the best starting five in the entire league.
Refs apologize for Lakers loss
The Lakers were not shy to make their feelings known immediately after the no call in Boston. LeBron was pounding his fists on the floor, Patrick Beverly was showing the refs picture evidence on a courtside camera and Dennis Schroder went to social media to express his dismay. The league finally admitted to their mistake in a statement on their Twitter page.
Durant still out
Kevin Durant sprained his knee earlier this month, and has missed the last 10 games. Last week doctors said they were pleased with how his recovery is coming along, but there is still a ways to go before he can come back to the Nets. Before his injury he was averaging 29.7 points, 6.7 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game.
Eastern Conference standings
Taking a looking at the standings coming into the the first day of February, it’s the Boston Celtics who top the table in the East with a record of 36-15 despite there recent three game losing streak. The Nets sit 4.5 games back of the Celtics at 31-19, but Brooklyn can cut into that lead with a win from TD Garden.
Tatum on MVP pace
Jayson Tatum has been on a tear this year, and it’s no surprise that he is one of the favorites to win his first MVP award. Tonight he knows the spotlight will be focused on him and Kyrie, and who ever comes out on top in the head-to-head may be the one walking off the court with the win tonight.
Kyrie doing his thing
Kyrie is without Kevin Durant yet again, but he has been getting some valuable help from the roll players, especially in the last game. Last game he snapped his streak of 30+ point games, but tonight he will most likely need 30+ and some help from his teammates on the road against the top team in the East.
Boston wins with a bit of controversy
It was the no call heard ‘round the world the last time the Celtics took the floor. Los Angeles visited town and the game came down to the wire, and LeBron James had the ball in his hands with a chance to take the lead on the final play of the fourth quarter. Jayson Tatum smacked LeBron on the hand but the refs didn’t blow the whistle and the game went to overtime where the Celtics pulled ahead and closed the Lakers out.
Kyrie leads Brooklyn
The KD-less Nets hosted a Los Angeles Lakers team that was without LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Royce O’Neale got the Nets started off on the right foot, and the Brooklyn D held the Lakers to just 16 points in the first quarter. They controlled the game for almost the entire 48 minutes, except for a moment when the Russell Westbrook and the Lakers took the lead in the third quarter, but a 10-0 run led by Kyrie Iriving at the end of the third quarter buried the Lakers as Irving put up 26 points and while Patty Mills and Cam Thomas had another 21 points.
We are live from Boston
Hello everyone and welcome TD Garden where the Boston Celtics come into tonight last the top team in the Eastern Conference, despite having lost three of their last four games. They are coming off of controversial win against the Lakers over the weekend, and looking to put together another win streak like the nine in a row they strung together at the begging of this month. The Nets are trying to keep their head above water with Kevin Durant sidelined with a knee injury. Brooklyn dipped down the standings over the last month, but are still hanging tight with the top teams in the conference.
Nets vs. Celtics
It’s been one of the hottest rivalries in the Eastern Conference for the last the few years, and tonight another chapter will be written from Boston. The Brooklyn Nets head to New England to take on the Celtics and AS English will have you covered with live stats, scores, highlights and analysis of tonight’s spotlight showdown in the East.