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Nets take it ‘on the chin’ in Beantown

League-best Celtics beat up Brooklyn from opening bell

February 2, 2023 John Torenli, Sports Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle
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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.

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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 the way.”

They’ll get their chance again in just over a month in Boston, but Brooklyn should be more concerned that Durant is likely to miss at least another two weeks as it prepares to open a five-game homestand at Barclays Center Saturday night vs. Washington.

Kyrie Irving and the Nets were up against it in Beantown Wednesday, dropping to 4-7 since Kevin Durant went down with a knee injury. AP Photo by Charles Krupa

Starting stronger than they did against the Celtics shouldn’t be a problem as Brooklyn suffered through its worst opening of the year, falling behind 33-7 before trailing 79-45 at intermission.

Cam Thomas scored 19 points off the bench and Joe Harris added 12 on 4-of-7 shooting from 3-point range, but the rest of the Nets went a dismal 5-of-32 from beyond the arc.

“We really took it on the chin,” said Brooklyn head coach Jacque Vaughn. “This was a night where they hit first, they hit hard and it hurt.”

It’ll hurt even worse if the Nets can’t get back some of their key supporting players. Both T.J. Warren (shin) and Ben Simmons (knee) missed their third straight game Wednesday.

Yet, Brooklyn remains in fourth place in the East standings, 5 1/2 games behind Boston.

The Nets will try to stay within striking disance until they get healthy, with Durant’s return serving as the key to them saving home-court advantage in the opening round of the playoffs.

Neither he nor Irving could prevent the Nets from dropping four straight to the Celtics in the first round of the playoffs. But both will likely have a say in reversing that narrative, if or when these teams meet again with elimination on the line.

“We’ve got to be one of those teams that stands up to (the Celtics).” insisted Irving.

***

The New York Liberty enhanced their chances of winning the 2023 WNBA title Wednesday, reportedly signing free-agent forward and former league MVP Breanna Stewart.

Stewart, a two-time WNBA champion during her seven years with the Seattle Storm, will join a Liberty squad that has already acquired former MVP Jonquel Jones in a blockbuster offseason deal.

Also, New York boasts one of the sport’s fastest-rising stars in point guard Sabrina Ionescu.

Former WNBA MVP Breanna Stewart is moving from Seattle to Downtown Brooklyn after signing with the New York Liberty as a free agent. AP Photo by John Locher

The franchise, which has never won a title, is clearly going after its first with a series of ground-breaking moves, much the way the Nets did when they got Irving and Durant to come here in the summer of 2019.

Though terms of the deal have not yet been finalized, Stewart was excited to come to Brooklyn.

“It’s been a roller coaster of emotions for sure, and I decided to go to New York because I want to continue to be great,” she said on ESPN Wednesday night.

“I want to go to the place where I can continue to help this league become better, to continue to raise the standard. I feel like, why not go to the biggest market in all of sports, and I’m really excited to go after their first championship.”

Stewart, Jones and Ionescu are expected to make their debut as a dynamic trio May 19 at Washington. They’ll play their first game together at Barclays on May 21 vs. Indiana.


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