Collapsible Nets at Garden
C’s erase 17-point deficit to take 2-0 series lead
The Celtics crowd, much like their team, showed up Wednesday night feeling good about themselves, maybe even vanquished in light of Kyrie Irving’s $50,000 fine.
So they increased the volume of those chants, got a little quiet when Brooklyn took an early lead and held it for three quarters, and erupted when the Celtics, by virtue of a 20-4 fourth quarter run, walked off with a 114107 Game 2 win over Brooklyn.
The result is a 2-0 lead in their first round series, this time overcoming a 17-point second quarter deficit.
The Celtics started the night anticipating a rebound performance by Kevin Durant, and instead got Bruce Brown, Goran Dragic, and Seth Curry hitting most of the big early shots. But Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, each struggling with 12 points after three quarters, both had a big hand in the aforementioned run.
Brown finished with 22 points (10 in the fourth), Tatum 19, and were both part of a defensive clamp-down that held Durant scoreless in the fourth quarter until the last 1:53. The Nets star finished with 27 points on another rough shooting night -4-for-17. Irving was quiet most of the night with 10 points on 4-for-13 shooting, and was targeted repeatedly by the Celtics wings for a big change from his 39-point Game 1 performance.
“We want to make him work defensively, offensively we want to have bodies on him at all times,” Udoka said of Irving. “Like I said, taking up that air space or you can’t get too comfortable and try to speed him up a little bit and throw some good looks at him. That’s what it’s going to take against a high-level scorer like him. I think it takes the effort of everybody switching onto him, knowing the game plan and, like I said, getting him inside the 3-point line and make him take some tough, contested pull-up twos.”
Brooklyn had led by as many as 17 points in the second quarter, mainly on the power of their supporting cast, and watched as the Celtics also turned to their depth to pull this one out. Grant Williams (17 points, 3-for-3 from deep) kept his team within reach early, and Payton Pritchard, with a big fourth quarter trey as the centerpiece of his nine-point quarter, filled the gaps late.
Williams provided one of the game’s biggest individual flurries at the end of the first, with two 3-pointers and a block on Brown in the last 38.9 seconds, cutting the Nets lead to 33-24. It was moments like this that kept the Celtics fighting to stay close.
“I remember JB just saying stay the course,” said Williams. “Be who we are, simple words like that, and we don’t have to say much. We knew what to take away, and what we had to do. Bruce had made a lot of tough shots and so had Goran, so we knew we were going to do a good job of taking those guys out of it. There was no real like pressure or stress. We were talking to each other like, be who we are, and we just started the third quarter strong.”
By the end of the third the Celtics had chopped the margin to five points on a Brown drive. And then they took off in the fourth.
Prichard’s foul line jumper with 9:57 left triggered the aforementioned 20-4 knockout punch, with Brown following up with five straight points before Pritchard stepped back in with a 3-pointer.
Brown, now in a flow for the first time all night, drove again, this time set up when Irving lost the ball. Irving scored, and Brown hit a 20footer. Tatum ultimately finished off the run with seven straight points, including a deep 3-pointer over Dragic for a 108-96 lead with 2:02 left.
Durant was 0-for-5 in the fourth when he finally scored from the line. He had six straight Nets points, all on free throws, and continued his struggles against Celtics coverage.
Durant and Irving shot a combined 1-for-9 in the fourth. Overall, Durant has shot 13-for-31 over the first two games of this series.
“For us, we knew after that first 9-0 run, we played them pretty evenly for the rest of the half,” Williams said of Brown’s 9-0 opening to the game. “For us it was about getting to it - did a good job of locking in. They were up by 10 at the start of the third, cut it down to five, then one point, and it kind of rode it through all of the ups and downs and persevered. For us it was just who we are, locking down on defense because our offense will always come back. We have our opportunities, have our moments and have our guys that we trust. Make the right play and do the right thing.”
And, as the Celtics have proven in two games now, increase the physicality.
“For a guy like me it helps,” said Williams. “I know the past couple of years they always say the playoffs get more physical. It helps players like myself because you not only get to play a little more physical, but I can use my aggression and strength to my advantage, whereas the regular season it’s just a different game. For us, we know we have a tough physical team. I know that Theis, Al, JT, JB, all those guys aren’t soft guys. We’re going to take advantage of that physicality and really enjoy it.”