With both teams missing significant stars in Brooklyn, it was the Nets (40-20) who had the better supporting cast and ultimately came away with a 109-104 win.
With no James Harden and Kevin Durant for Brooklyn and no Kemba Walker and Jaylen Brown for Boston (32-28), the game was missing some of its star power. Jayson Tatum certainly made his presence known, finishing with 38 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Celtics.
After torching his former team in the first two meetings, Kyrie Irving had an unusually cold shooting night, but made up for it in other areas. The Nets star fell just one rebound shy of a triple-double and finished off the Celtics with free throws to seal the win.
There aren’t many nights where Irving goes 4-19 from the field yet deserves praise for changing the game, but his coach Steve Nash felt that he turned in an excellent overall effort:
“He didn’t have his typical scoring night, but it’s few and far between that he doesn’t score the ball at a prolific rate,” Nets coach Steve Nash said in the postgame presser. ”He didn’t, but he definitely disrupted the basketball defensively and overall he draws a lot of attention, so I thought he was great in a lot of different ways than we’re accustomed to.”
Off the bench, it was Payton Pritchard and Marcus Smart leading the way. Outside of Pritchard, Smart, and Tatum, offense was few and far between. Boston turned it over 19 times, as Brooklyn converted on a number of Celtic miscues.
Boston now gets ready for a Sunday matinee at Charlotte.