CHAMPIONSHIP FORM
Durant leads way as Nets cool off Celtics in Boston romp
BOSTON —The concrete walls lining the TD Garden corridors can block sound, but the fiber division between the visiting media room and visitor’s locker room cannot.
After the Nets posted their most impressive victory of the season, a landslide 123-104 win over the Celtics, a typically quiet Nets locker room made some commotion.
“Quiet down over there!” James Harden yelled into the division, with a smile, before fielding questions. “I’m about to do media!”
The moment encapsulated what’s been missing for the Nets this season to date: This is what a win is supposed to feel like for a championship contender.
It was dominant. It was indisputable. It was merciless, with little hope of a comeback, save for a lastditch Celtics effort easily categorized as too little, too late.
The Nets’ win was all that and a bag of chips — or a side of mac-andcheese, plus a dollop of mashed potatoes and a forkful of stuffing.
“It’s a quality road win for sure,” head coach Steve Nash said postgame. “I think our team is on this journey, this path to find an identity and tonight was a step in that direction. We executed.”
Brooklyn’s landslide victory left no doubt in the minds of any of the rabid fans who packed the TD Garden on Wednesday night.
The Nets are in a different stratosphere than their Atlantic Division counterpart Celtics.
It’s not even close.
Call it another year for the Celtics knocking on a championship door the Nets have slammed shut. Brooklyn didn’t need Kyrie Irving (unvaccinated), Joe Harris (left ankle sprain), Bruce Brown (hamstring), or Nic Claxton (conditioning) to take care of business in Boston on Wednesday. And if they’re at full strength in the playoffs, or whatever full strength is without Irving, the Celtics will be the least of Brooklyn’s worries.
This, of course, is how it’s supposed to be for a team with the Eastern Conference’s best record, a team with tangible dreams of winning a championship, regardless of whether or not Irving is able to suit up in a Nets jersey this season.
The Celtics had won eight of their last 11 games before welcoming the Nets onto the parquet floors. Yet Kevin Durant set the tone before the opening tip, when he pointed at and trash talked former Nets assistant and current Celtics head coach Ime Udoka from midcourt.
Udoka said he would lean on what he learned from helping coach the Nets on the sidelines last season for a competitive advantage Wednesday night. All that knowledge went out the window once his Celtics found themselves down 29 and subject to boos from their own faithful fans.
That’s because the Nets played their most complete basketball game of the season, a sentiment Durant, Harden, Nash and Patty Mills echoed in light-hearted post-game pressers.
The Nets defended well, limited their turnovers and both out-rebounded and out-assisted the Celtics on their own home floor.
“I feel like we have our identity,” said Durant. “We know what type of team we want to be. We know the formula for us to play well, and really, that’s what it is for us. We know we have to guard, we have to box out and rebound and limit our turnovers. I mean that’s pretty much every team in the league, you get what I’m saying?”
Durant led the charge with 21 points on 8-of-16 shooting, but Mills’ hot hand lifted the Nets early and helped keep them afloat. The Australian point guard shot 7-of-10 from three-point range for 23 points on a variety of catch-and-shoot threes coming off pindown screens. He has become a natural replacement for Harris, who is out likely a few more games with a sprained left ankle.