The Boston Celtics suffered their first home loss of the 2024-25 season on Wednesday night, and returned to the court on Friday looking for a chance at redemption against the Brooklyn Nets. Though it didn’t look quite as nice as they might have liked, they got the job done; they survived a poor offensive night to outlast the Nets in overtime, 108-104.
With Jaylen Brown again sidelined due to injury, Jayson Tatum once again carried a heavy load. He led the Celtics with 33 points on 11-of-25 shooting for the night, and with the Boston offense otherwise suffering through an uncharacteristically quiet night, the Celtics needed every point. Jrue Holiday was his most reliable co-star, scoring 17 points, but as a team, the Celtics shot just 26% from three-point range.
Payton Pritchard was the only other Celtic who seemed like he could make a shot, scoring 20 on 6-of-11 shooting from the field. For the Nets, Cam Thomas led the way with 31 points on 11-of-22 shooting. Cam Johnson added 18 points, and an elusive appearance from Ben Simmons yielded 8 points, 7 rebounds and 8 assists.
It was an exceptionally hot start for the surprisingly competitive Nets, as they raced out to an early 12-0 lead in the opening minutes and prompted a timeout from a consternated Joe Mazzulla. Three full minutes passed before the Celtics recorded their first made field goal, and the opportunistic Brooklyn defense forced them into a multitude of mistakes. It was another three minutes before the Celtics scored their second basket, after the Nets had run their advantage up to 14 points. Thankfully, Holiday’s second layup seemed to put a pep in the Celtics’ step; he recorded seven first quarter points and Tatum connected on a trio of three-pointers, and Boston escaped the quarter trailing by just four points, 28-24.
Tatum ended the first quarter on a personal 8-0 run to drag the Celtics back into this game, but the momentum he created offensively didn’t appear to carry over into his customary rest minutes at the start of the second quarter. The Boston offense again went quiet, but this time, the defense held the Nets in check as well. It was enough to keep things steady until Tatum returned, maintaining the deficit in the single digits. Upon Tatum’s return, he promptly cashed in on his fourth triple of the night, and Pritchard added a flurry of scoring (14 first-half points). Ultimately, the Celtics trimmed two points off the Brooklyn lead in the quarter, entering the halftime break behind 51-49.
As play resumed in the second half, the Celtics finally managed to tie the game for the first time of the evening, knotting up the score at 54 just a couple minutes into the third quarter. They claimed their first lead just moments later, as Al Horford cashed in a three-pointer to put them ahead by one. The Nets quickly responded, in what was one of the most high-octane sequences of basketball of the night — high-level shot-making on display from both teams.
Tatum continued to be the tide that raised all ships as the third quarter wore on. He followed up his 8-0 run from the first quarter with a 10-2 personal run in the third, dragging the Celtics within one point of the lead once again. The Nets continued to find answers, however. They answered Boston’s threats at every opportunity, managing to play them to a stalemate in the third quarter despite Tatum’s best efforts. The deficit remained at two points entering the final quarter of regulation, 78-76.
The fourth quarter got off to an ignominious start, as the shot-making the two teams showed off in the third was largely absent in the first six minutes. The Celtics again struggled to find points with Tatum on the bench, but they again managed to put the clamps on Brooklyn’s offense, as well. Both teams plummeted below the 30% mark from the behind the three-point line — Tatum, Pritchard and Thomas seemed to be the only players who could find anything resembling a rhythm from distance.
White recorded perhaps the play of the night as the clock ticked under six minutes to play in regulation, swatting a Dennis Schroder layup off of the backboard to keep the deficit at three. After a Brooklyn timeout, consecutive finishes in the paint from Tatum and Holiday bought the Celtics a one-point lead. The back-and-forth continued, though, with Schroder drilling a pull-up three over Tatum to bring the Nets ahead by two with just under three minutes to play.
Amidst a disastrous night from three-point range, Sam Hauser cashed in on one of the most important shots of the game from Boston. His second made triple in 10 attempts found the bottom of the net, earning the Celtics a one-point lead as the clock approached the two-minute warning. A split pair of free throws from Thomas set up a tie game at 92 apiece entering the final minute. The two teams came up empty on the next several possessions, setting up a tie game with 32 seconds to play, Celtics with the ball.
Mazzulla dialed up a brilliant inbounds play on the ensuing possession, springing Tatum free for an assertive dunk to put the Celtics ahead by two. Just two seconds ticked off the clock, but the Nets elected not to call timeout. They came up empty on their next possession — a Cam Johnson three-pointer — but Johnson was able to corral his own rebound and draw a foul on Tatum to put himself on the free throw line. He converted both free throws, and the ball went back to Boston with just 7.1 seconds on the game clock. Tatum’s iso jumper failed to find paydirt as time expired, and it was time for five minutes of free basketball in TD Garden with the game tied at 94 apiece.
Overtime began in unique fashion, with Tatum taking (and missing) a technical free throw after Brooklyn’s Keon Johnson was T’d up for throwing the ball across the court after the fourth quarter buzzer. When play resumed in earnest, the teams traded buckets in the paint, remaining knotted up — 100 points all — as the clock approached two minutes remaining.
Horford provided the first long-range scoring of the extra frame, cashing in on a triple with 1:56 remaining to give the Celtics a three-point edge. Schroder responded with a layup, but it was summarily negated by a two-pointer from Tatum. The clock ticked under a minute remaining to play, and after a missed three from Tatum, the Nets called timeout to save a broken possession with 31 seconds remaining. Their ensuing possession went nowhere, and took too long, to boot — with 23 seconds remaining in the game, Brooklyn had no choice but to play the foul game. A pair of freebies from Pritchard finally, mercifully put the game on ice.
Next up, the Celtics will head to the Midwest, facing off with the Bucks for the second time this season on their home court in Milwaukee, this Sunday at 3:30 PM EST on NBC Sports Boston.
