Brooklyn blown away by Boston, 110-91

Home Woes Continue as Nets Suffer Critical Loss to Celtics

March 24, 2015 By John Torenli, Sports Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Brook Lopez scored 32 points, but the rest of the Nets were no match for the Boston Celtics on Monday night as Brooklyn’s playoff hopes took a major hit with a 110-91 home loss. AP Photo

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Like Michael Corleone in the final installment of the Godfather trilogy, Nets fans keep getting pulled back in just when they think they’re out.

Only next time, if there is one, they aren’t as likely to be duped into believing this Brooklyn team actually has a chance to make the NBA playoffs for a third straight year.

“It definitely stinks that we can’t give our fans something to cheer about,” Deron Williams admitted after Brooklyn’s critical 110-91 loss to Boston on Monday night in front of 16,814 fans at Downtown’s Barclays Center. “[We can’t give them] a reason to get excited about the games and coming to games, and that kind of puts a damper on things,”

The Nets have lost 20 of 32 home contests this season, but Monday’s loss to the Celtics may have been the biggest letdown for a team that has specialized in them during a tumultuous and disappointing campaign.

Having won two straight, Brooklyn was actually in position to climb into the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference after falling as many as 3 ½ lengths behind the so-called postseason contenders just over a week ago.

But rather than rise to the occasion, the Nets played one of their worst games of the season, going a putrid 1-for-17 from 3-point range while allowing the Celtics to shoot 51 percent from the floor.

Brook Lopez scored 31 points and Williams finished with 10 points, 10 assists and nine boards for the Nets (29-40), who dropped into 11th place in the East, 1 ½ games behind Boston while losing the head-to-head tiebreaker to the Celtics in the event the teams finish deadlocked.

“We knew this was a big game, you guys knew this was a big game,” Williams said. “It wasn’t just one game like it normally is when you lose to a team when you fall back one game in the standings. This was actually two because of the tiebreaker. Now they have the tiebreaker.”

The Nets, the only NBA team with more road victories (17) than home triumphs (12) this season, will visit ninth-place Charlotte on Wednesday night, hoping to yet again climb back into contention in the East, if, of course, you want to keep believing.