By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Despite being 17 points down, the Celtics were up for the challenge. Boston ended up getting the 114-107 over the Brooklyn Nets and taking a 2-0 lead in their first-round series for the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Jaylen Brown scored 22 points, including 10 in the fourth quarter, and Jayson Tatum added 19 points for the winning side. German big man Daniel Theis also contributed 15 points and six rebounds.
On the contrary, Kevin Durant was held without a basket in the second half. He finished with 27 points but struggled from the field for the second straight game, shooting 4 of 17. Kyrie Irving had just 10 points on 4-of-13 shooting a day after being fined $50,000 for directing obscene gestures and profane language at Celtics fans during Game 1.
Durant and Irving were a combined 1 for 17 in the second half. Bruce Brown finished with 23 points and Slovenian guard Goran Dragic added 18 points.
“I think we did that,” Celtic coach Ime Udoka said. “We want to make him work defensively and offensively have bodies on him the whole time and try to wear him down.”
Irving was booed once more in the TD Garden, beginning with the pregame introductions. Still, the Nets entered the final period leading by five (90-85), but it was not enough.