Celtics star Jayson Tatum rises for two of his 41 points Tuesday as Boston won its eighth straight game in Downtown Brooklyn. AP Photo by Peter K. Afriyie
Perhaps they should start calling them the Brooklyn Celtics.
Jayson Tatum and his Boston teammates continued their mastery of the Nets Tuesday night before a sellout crowd of 18,053 fans at Downtown’s Barclays Center, many of whom slogged through the slush to see what they’ve come to expect from these Atlantic Division rivals.
Tatum scored 41 points and ripped down 14 rebounds in his latest virtuoso performance in our borough, driving the league-leading Celtics to a 118-110 triumph, Boston’s eighth straight win in Brooklyn and 15th in the last 16 meetings with the Nets, including a first-round sweep in the 2022 playoffs.
“We’ve got a really good team where in any given possession we could have two, three advantages and it’s not always just going to be me,” Tatum said. “So just understanding that and knowing that I need my teammates. I need everybody, we all need each other.”
After putting up 32 points and grabbing 11 boards in his last visit here on Nov. 4, Tatum was even finer in his second trip to Brooklyn this season.
He put up 31 first-half points to give the Celtics a 72-57 cushion and finished 14-of-26 from the floor, including 5-of-11 from 3-point range.
“We rely on him to make those and he’s not afraid to shoot them,” Boston guard Jrue Holiday said of Tatum.
“But tonight, him taking those shots gave us a lot of energy. It definitely gave us a boost to go out there, lock in defensively and then get him the ball back.”
The Net nemesis also handed out five assists, picked up a pair of steals and blocked a shot in 39 scintillating minutes.
“These high-level guys, once they get going, we started to trap him a little bit, but they’ve got so much shooting out there,” Nets coach Jacque Vaughn lamented as his team dropped the opener of a back-to-back, home-and-home set to…
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