BOSTON — Friday night was a homecoming for the Boston Celtics. After a week-long All-Star break, they went out west for a four-game road trip. But Friday brought them back to TD Garden for a date with the Brooklyn Nets.
The Celtics started the first quarter red-hot from deep, going 5-of-5 before a second Jordi Fernandez timeout stopped their run. Derrick White made three of the five, and Baylor Scheierman made the other two.
But Brooklyn wasn’t going anywhere. As the first wound down, they found scrappy buckets. Their physical defense forced some turnovers, and, combined with missed layups by the Celtics, the Nets turned those into transition opportunities.
Nikola Vucevic was a force on the offensive end. Brooklyn had trouble dealing with the mismatches he created on the block, but on the other end, they had no problem finishing through him at the rim. Neemias Queta fared much better on the defensive end.
Still, the Nets managed to hang in with Boston. A late Jaylen Brown push gave the Celtics a 66-57 halftime lead, but Brooklyn was right there.
Boston did its best to force Michael Porter Jr. inside, but he was converting well around the hoop.
But once the third quarter opened, Brown was a man on a mission. He scored on seven of the Celtics’ first 11 points in the second half, and he assisted on the other four (two Queta buckets inside). It was as if something lit a fire under him at the half. (Maybe it was frustration over a lack of foul calls.)
Brooklyn hung around for most of the third. They scratched and clawed their way to points while using their physicality to annoy Boston on the other end.
Then, the offense started to flow for the Celtics. Vucevic’s three-point spacing paid off, as Boston’s ball-handlers drove into the paint and kicked out to the big man. Ball movement quickly became the Celtics’ best way to get easy buckets as the Nets’ defense swarmed.
A lead that was kept in the single digits for most of the game quickly ballooned into a 26-point Boston advantage heading into the fourth, with Brown, Vucevic, and beautiful ball movement leading the charge.
As the fourth got underway, that lead grew and grew, and both teams eventually put in their benches. Spearheaded by a dominant third quarter, Boston cruised to victory on Friday night.
Big winner: The Celtics had been
