Getty Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics and Mikal Bridges of the Brooklyn Nets.
It was a rough night for the Boston Celtics on Friday. After surging out to a 28-point lead in the first half, they crumbled, losing to the Brooklyn Nets by a score of 115-105. The victory for Brooklyn marked the biggest comeback in the NBA this season.
Nothing seemed to be clicking for the Celtics after the midway point of the second quarter. In fact, in the final three periods, the Nets outscored the Celtics 100-68. After the game, Nets wing Mikal Bridges spoke about what allowed Brooklyn to mount the comeback.
“Just defensively, playing together,” Bridges said post-game. “We was getting stops, and once we could get stops, we were getting out in transition [and] scoring. So, I think we kind of realized a couple games that offense really wasn’t our problem in the beginning. We had to switch our offense up a little bit, you know, see our space and everything. But I feel like our offense is pretty good. But this defense, we got stops, and we just stayed together. Possession by possession. You can’t get it all back in one play. So, we just kept fighting and stayed together.”
Bridges put together an extremely impressive performance against the Celtics. He finished the night with a game-high 38 points to go along with 10 rebounds and four assists. The 26-year-old shot 13-of-22 from the field and 4-of-6 from behind the three-point line.
Turnovers and poor defensive effort hurt the Celtics in a big way against Brooklyn. They gave the ball away 19 times and gave the Nets open looks from distance over and over again.
Darius Garland Name-Drops Jayson Tatum
Boston’s loss to the Nets comes just one game after they picked up a win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. Despite nearly faltering late in the fourth quarter, Boston was able to hold on and earn the victory. After the game, Cavaliers star Darius Garland spoke about what went wrong for his team, name-dropping Jayson Tatum in the process.
“The intensity that they had in the third quarter, we have to fix,” Garland said via Bally Sports Ohio & Great Lakes. “Coming out of halftime, we have to just try to punch people in the face first and not get punched. And so, that’s something that we have to really learn. How to shrink around isos with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. And rebound the ball. I think we gave up a lot of second-chance points. So, just trying to rebound a ball, and that’s when you get out in transition and not get stagnant on offense trying to just play iso-ball all the time.”
Al Horford Shows Love to Jayson Tatum
In other news, Celtics veteran Al Horford recently made a bold statement about Tatum, projecting his impressive career path.
“People are gonna have to acknowledge him as a winner,” Horford told ESPN’s Malika Andrews during an interview on NBA Today. “He is gonna win championships. He is gonna be an MVP. Hall of Famer. All that comes with it. He has the work ethic. He has the drive. I feel like he’s mature beyond his years in that regard, and he wants to win, so I think people are gonna remember him as a winner.”