It sure looked as if the Celtics came out determined to reverse what they saw as an ugly loss to the Nets in Boston on Saturday. Guard Isaiah Thomas led Boston with 24 points and Celtics guard Avery Bradley left the game in the second quarter with a bruised hip and did not return.
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Brook Lopez torched the Celtics with 30 points and 13 rebounds Saturday, but a group effort locked down the Nets big man Saturday.
It was not quite enough, but the Nets insisted that it was not because of the changing of the point guards – Larkin and Sloan replacing Jack.
The injury occurred during the second half of the Nets’ game at Boston on Saturday.
“The first quarter, we had so many turnovers you can’t even explain how it happened”, Nets Coach Lionel Hollins said. The Celtics and Nets will meet again Monday in the second half of their home-and-home series. Now they just lost their leader, and still have 50 games left to play. In the immediate future, the Nets will likely insert third-year point guard Shane Larkin, who has thus far averaged 6.6 point and 3.8 assists in 29 games, into the starting lineup.
Despite the absence of Bradley, who is averaging 5.9 points in the first quarter this season, the Celtics poured in 37 points on 15 of 27 shooting in the first 12 minutes. Young had double-doubles in all four games against the Celtics.
Boston returned to its running roots against the Nets, racking up 16 fast break points while holding Brooklyn to just eight. He scored 14 points during the opening quarter, when the Celtics (19-15) shot 56 percent and took a 15-point lead and had 17 when Boston led by 14 at halftime. But Brooklyn’s backup didn’t fare much better beyond that, and it was impossible for the Nets to find any offensive rhythm when their defense was all but nonexistent on the other end of the floor. After the C’s erased a 10-point deficit in less than four minutes, Lopez scored nine of Brooklyn’s 19 fourth-quarter points.
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The Magic have dropped consecutive games by double figures for the first time this season. The Nuggets were 3.4 points per 100 better last season when he was on the court than sitting (and he got a lot of run after the Timofey Mozgov trade). He also became the fifth player in the franchise’s National Basketball Association history to reach 24 or more points and 12 or more rebounds in three straight games. The Nets face another Atlantic Division opponent on Wednesday, when they welcome the Toronto Raptors to Barclays Center.
