Celtics win 10th straight over Nets in dominating fashion

BOSTON -- If Wednesday night's Celtics-Nets game was a boxing match and not a basketball game, Brooklyn would have been forced to throw in the towel in the first round. No one would have made a boxer go through a full 12 rounds of such a beatdown.

But it was indeed a basketball game, so the Celtics got four full quarters to smack the tar out of their Atlantic Division foe. They came out swinging and put a historical whooping on the Nets in a game that shifted between comical to just sad for 48 minutes.

The final score was 139-96, but it wasn't even that close. The Celtics controlled the matchup from the jump, and needed just nine minutes to jump out to a 30-point lead over Kyrie Irving and company. Boston led 46-16 after the quarter, the biggest first-quarter lead in Celtics history. 

Jayson Tatum outscored Brooklyn all by himself, scoring 18 points in the opening frame. Boston opened the game by draining its first eight threes, and was an absurd 18-for-29 from the field over the first 12 minutes.

Even with such a crooked number on the scoreboard, the Celtics never slowed down. They had 79 points by halftime, good for a new season-high. While they certainly hit their share of threes, accounting for 39 of Boston's first-half points, the C's also took advantage of Brooklyn's lack of size. Boston scored 36 points in the paint, as the Nets simply had no answer for such a well-balanced attack.

The hoop must have appeared as big as the ocean for Tatum and Brown on Wednesday, as the duo combined for 57 points. Tatum scored 31 points off 12-for-19 shooting and 7-for-12 from downtown. Brown had 26 points on 8-for-16 shooting, matching Tatum's 7-for-12 from three-point range.

Their combined powers set some more history for Boston. It was the 25th time this season that Tatum and Brown both scored at least 25 points. No duo in NBA history has done that more than Tatum and Brown before the All-Star break, according to ESPN Stats and Info.

Not bad, but it wasn't just Tatum and Brown on Wednesday night. Everyone in a Celtics uniform was getting in right hooks and body blows on the Nets. Derrick White had a 14-point, 10-rebound double-double. Robert Williams put in a season-high 16 points -- hitting seven of his eight attempts -- to go with his nine rebounds and blocked shoot in just 19 minutes. 

Boston's starters never got off the bench in the fourth quarter, but the reserves kept up their end of the bargain. Boston's bench mob drained six more threes and shot 50 percent for the closing quarter. Anyone who played got involved, with Luke Kornet leading the charge off the pine with 12 points in his 18 minutes.

It was sheer dominance by the Celtics, as they finished the evening a scorching 53-for-92 from the floor. They hit 26 of their 54 threes, with those 26 makes from downtown setting a new record inside TD Garden. 

Wednesday night's game was not kind to the history books. Or the Brooklyn Nets.

But that is what the Nets have come to expect when they see this Boston team. Add in last summer's postseason sweep, and the Celtics have now won 10 straight over Brooklyn. The last time the Nets beat the Celtics was way back on Nov. 24, 2021. 

The caveat of Wednesday night was, of course, that Kevin Durant remains out for the Nets. His presence may have changed the lopsided score just a tad.

But given the look in their eyes from the jump, the Celtics still probably would have rolled to another W even had Durant played. All three of Boston's wins over the Nets this season have been by double digits, including an 11-point win in Brooklyn when Durant scored 31 for the Nets.

It's been a one-sided rivalry for a while now, and it doesn't seem like that will be changing anytime soon.