The Celtics came into Friday night’s NBA Cup game against the Brooklyn Nets with some swagger. They had won 3 in a row and looked like they were ready to turn a corner. Then the 2-win Nets came in and beat Boston 113-105 in a very frustrating loss.
The Celtics were only missing Jayson Tatum yet again and started Payton Pritchard, Derrick White, Jaylen Brown, Jordan Walsh and Neemias Queta. Brooklyn was missing Cam Thomas, Haywood Highsmith and Ben Saraf. As a result, they started Egor Demin, Terrence Mann, Micheal Porter Jr., Noah Clowney and Nic Claxton.
Since it was an NBA Cup game, the court was green… very green.
The Celtics started the game off cold, hitting just 3/11 from the field and 1/5 from three. Brooklyn led the game 14-7 at the first Joe Mazzulla timeout.
However, Payton Pritchard got it going, hitting a couple of threes as the Celtics battled back into the game.
The Celtics held Brooklyn scoreless over the last 2:39 of the quarter and led the game 28-22. Pritchard and Brown led the team in scoring with 9 points each.
Then the 2nd quarter started with an 10-2 Brooklyn run, which led to another Mazzulla timeout. Four points from Porter Jr. and Noah Clowney got Brooklyn going. Neemias Queta then had a thunderous dunk over Clowney.
The Celtics closed out the 2nd quarter very poorly. Brooklyn ended the half on a 14-5 run and led at halftime 62-53. Brown and Pritchard had 11 points each while Simons had 10 points off of the bench in the first half.
The 2nd quarter probably made Joe Mazzulla upset because Brooklyn opened it on a 10-2 run and closed it on a 14-5 run. Mazzulla often talks about how important it is to start and close quarters well and they didn’t do either of those things before halftime.
With 5:52 left in the 3rd quarter, Jaylen Brown, who had 20 points on 50% shooting at the time, was called for his 5th foul. Joe Mazzulla challenged the call but it was an unsuccessful challenge so Brown had to sit with the Celtics down 3.
After Brown sat, the Nets outscored the Celtics 21-9 for the rest of the quarter and took a 92-77 lead into the 4th. Nic Claxton had 18 points and Michael Porter Jr. had 17 points but it was Noah Clowney who stood out the most for Brooklyn. His 19 points on 7/13 from the field through three quarters is what hurt the Celtics the most to that point.
Hugo Gonzalez finally checked in to start the 4th quarter and provided a good stretch for the Celtics. Boston outscored Brooklyn 9-2 during Hugo’s 4:13 played to start the quarter. Gonzalez also recorded a steal.
The Celtics cut the Nets lead to 4, but Brooklyn put together another run to stretch it back to 9 with 2:37 to go in the game.
It was Michael Porter Jr. that made sure there would be no comeback for the Celtics, his 16 points in the 4th quarter and 33 points for the game were what put the game out of reach for Boston.
Jaylen Brown’s 25, Anfernee Simons’ 23 and Neemias Queta’s 16 points were not enough for Boston. The Celtics shot 47% from the field and 32% from three while the Nets shot 52% from the field and 39% from three. The C’s next game is on Sunday at 6:00 EST against the Orlando Magic at TD Garden.
