Jayson Tatum and the Celtics had their way with the Nets all night in Boston Wednesday, cruising to a 43-point victory. AP Photo by Charles Krupa
The Brooklyn Nets suffered a first-quarter knockout loss at league-best Boston on Wednesday night.
Unfortunately, they had to play out the last three periods as well against the team that swept them out of last year’s playoffs.
The reigning Eastern Conference champions used a huge first quarter and led by as many as 49 points en route to an embarrassingly easy 139-96 rout of the Kevin Durant-less Nets in front of 19,156 fans at TD Garden.
Boston (37-15) buried Brooklyn from the jump, using a 46-16 first quarter to put the Nets away for good and never let them up thereafter.
The Celtics made an eye-popping 48 percent of their 3-pointers, hitting 26-of-54 shots from long range as both Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown knocked down seven 3s.
Tatum scored 31 points and Brown finished with 19 for Boston, which won its third straight from the Nets this year with the season-series finale set for Beantown on March 3.
Brooklyn has been without Durant since he went down with a right sprain of the medial collateral ligament on Jan. 8 in Miami. They are 4-7 since, but this loss was their most humbling.
Last season, the Nets went 5-18 after Durant went down with a left MCL sprain in January, taking a precipitous drop in the East standings that saw them sink from the top to the No. 7 seed.
Thus far, they are faring better without their best player, but they hardly looked up to the challenge from the start against a team that is eager to go back to the Finals and finish strong after losing to reigning NBA champion Golden State last summer.
“It’s clear as day that they want to win the championship, and they’re not wasting any time in the regular season,” said Kyrie Irving, who led the Nets with 20 points.
“Tonight I felt like we were just one of those teams in the way, and you know, we just can’t be one of those teams in…
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