Three Takeaways from the Celtics Win Over the Nets

The Boston Celtics kept things rolling at home, blowing out the Brooklyn Nets 115-96. Here are three takeaways from the victory.

The Boston Celtics were at (nearly) full health once again, as Kyrie Irving, Marcus Morris Sr. and Robert Williams returned in time to face off against the surprising, scrappy and all-around solid basketball team in the Brooklyn Nets.

The Nets would be severely shorthanded with DeMarre Carroll, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Allen Crabbe, Joe Harris, Dzanan Musa and Caris LeVert all on the sideline nursing various ailments.

Despite being riddled with injuries, the Nets came out like a confident team for all of about three minutes hitting four of their first four 3-point attempts led by Rodions Kurucs‘ sharpshooting.

Celtics fans have been all too familiar with this movie script before — facing a team that they should be able to get a win over only to come out sluggish, falling behind early.

However, the Celtics showed that they have learned from their past transgressions and completely flipped the script on the Nets — dominating them to take a commanding lead after the first quarter with selfless yet assertive basketball like this play culminating with a Marcus Smart 3-pointer.

The Nets elected to slow down their pace in the second quarter after committing 10 first-quarter turnovers and made the game interesting by getting to the free-throw line and taking advantage of the Celtics offense being far less effective in the second than it was in the first quarter.

The Celtics continue to come out slow on both ends, to start the second half and there was reason to worry as the Nets decreased the Celtics lead down to single digits early in the third quarter.

However, these Celtics are not the same as they were in the early part of the season and after Brad called a timeout, the Celtics once again made a run to extend the lead back up to double digits by playing team basketball and playing defense with far more energy than they came out with.

The Celtics kept their foot on the gas pedal and their emphasis on playing together as a team offensively in the final quarter of the game. The Celtics finished the game with 37 assists on 47 field goals and punished the Nets for their 23 turnovers with efficient offense shooting 51 percent from the field and 38 percent from deep.

Here are thnoteworthyrthy takeaways from tonight’s win against the Brooklyn Nets.