The Brooklyn Nets also lost Game 3 of the first round series to the Boston Celtics and are close to the playoffs. At 109:103, Jayson Tatum was the man of the game on the visitors’ side, while the Nets duo Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving remained largely pale. In addition, Brooklyn made far too many mistakes.
Brooklyn Nets (7) – Boston Celtics (2) 103:109 (BOXSCORE), Serie: 0-3
Tatum finished the game with 39 points (13/29 FG, 4/13 3FG), 6 assists, 5 rebounds and 6 steals. He is the second Celtic with a 35/5/5/5 game in the playoffs following Dave Cowens in 1976. Head coach Ime Udoka then praised his star primarily for his defense: “Due to his scoring performance, he often doesn’t get it enough credit. He took on the challenge once morest Durant and allowed us to play defensively the way we do. He’s been great in this series, but he’s been all year.”
Tatum received support, especially in the final section, from Jaylen Brown (23, 9/16 FG), Marcus Smart also made an offensive contribution (14) and defended outstandingly as usual. Daniel Theis scored 9 points (4/6 FG) and 6 rebounds in 17 minutes.
Both teams hit 12 threes, but Boston needed ten more throws for this. The Nets had a glaring disadvantage in terms of ball control: They allowed themselves 21 turnovers, which Boston used to score 37 points (Brooklyn also had 25). Durant and the otherwise strong Bruce Brown (26, 10/19 FG) threw the ball away five times. Star duo Durant (6/11 FG, 8 rebounds, 8 assists) and Irving (6/17 FG, 0/7 3FG) mightn’t get past 16 points, with KD just taking a single shot in the fourth quarter. Otherwise Seth Curry (10), Patty Mills (12) and Nic Claxton (13) scored double digits. Game 4 on Tuesday night is already an elimination game.
Although Robert Williams was available once more following his knee injury, Theis remained in the Celtics’ starting five and formed the frontcourt together with Al Horford. The Nets also started unchanged in such an important game. And Brooklyn came into the game excellently, Bruce Brown put his stamp on the start with a steal including a layup, a three-pointer and a tip-in. Theis put the Celtics on the scoreboard.
But the Celtics’ intense defense quickly yielded results, resulting in open throws at the other end. Tatum shot Boston in front from long range and blew kisses to the crowd. Theis completed a 10:0 run with a powerful dunk. The lead had already switched back and forth more than ten times. Thanks to 12 points from Tatum, the guests were ahead following the first quarter: 30:25.
Tatum shoots down Nets – KD and Irving before the end
Williams signed up with a block once morest Andre Drummond in the encounter and grabbed his opponent on the other side of the poster. While the Nets didn’t get much off the bench for the time being, Payton Pritchard provided a push with 4/4 and 10 points. Irving picked up his third foul, Bruce Brown was already at 16 points. As a result, Claxton, a Nets reservist, also managed to influence the game. He grabbed an offensive rebound three times and made 5 throws in the immediate vicinity of the basket. Thanks to a 7-0 run, Brooklyn was back at the break. 53:50 Celtics. Durant had only taken five throws at this point.
Theis opened the second half with a three from the corner, following just 70 seconds a dissatisfied Steve Nash called a time-out. The game of both teams was flawed, the Nets became a bit more compelling in the offensive and scored 8 points in a row. But almost every ball loss by the hosts – in the middle of the third quarter there were already 15 – led to free throws or simple points. Two Tatum three-pointers put him back up to +9, and following a fantastic full-court pass from Derrick White, he followed up with a three-point play. The Celtics responded to 7 points from the Nets with 6 of their own Fastbreak-Dunk von Brown and took a 9-point cushion into the final quarter.
Losing turnovers continued to be a problem for the Nets, but they fought back. Even Blake Griffin hit two straight threes, though Brown attacked him mercilessly on the defensive and was almost always successful. Tatum also delivered. After a timeout, Brooklyn threw the ball away once more – another three-point play for the highest lead of the game for the guests. Irving returned with five fouls and cut to -8. The Celtics didn’t allow a sufficient run and countered with a Horford three and a Tatum drive. Threes by Curry and Mills made it unnecessarily exciting from the Celtics’ point of view, but the Nets mightn’t come closer than 5 points.
(2) Boston Celtics vs. (7) Brooklyn Nets (3-0)
| Spiel | Datum | time | Heim | away | result |
| 1 | 17. April | 9:30 p.m | Boston Celtics | Brooklyn Nets | 115:114 |
| 2 | 21. April | 1 O ‘clock | Boston Celtics | Brooklyn Nets | 114:107 |
| 3 | 24. April | 1:30 | Brooklyn Nets | Boston Celtics | 103:109 |
| 4 | 26. April | 1 O ‘clock | Brooklyn Nets | Boston Celtics | – |
| 5* | 28. April | TBD | Boston Celtics | Brooklyn Nets | – |
| 6* | 30. April | TBD | Brooklyn Nets | Boston Celtics | – |
| 7* | 1st May | TBD | Boston Celtics | Brooklyn Nets | – |
*if necessary