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Nets compete, but fall short against Celtics

Boston wins 13th straight game despite game effort by Brooklyn

November 15, 2017 By John Torenli, Sports Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Spencer Dinwiddie had 12 assists and only one turnover while filling in for the injured D’Angelo Russell, but the Nets still fell short in their quest to slow down the red-hot Boston Celtics at Barclays Center on Tuesday night. AP Photo by Frank Franklin II
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The Nets played exactly the way head coach Kenny Atkinson wanted them to for most of Tuesday night.

They spread the ball around, got back on defense, knocked down plenty of 3-pointers and overcame a pair of 13-point deficits.

But against the NBA’s hottest team, Brooklyn’s brand of basketball still wasn’t enough as the Boston Celtics held on for their 13th straight victory, 109-102, over the shorthanded but feisty Nets in front of 12,936 fans at Downtown’s Barclays Center.

“I thought guys competed,” said an enthused but still disappointed Atkinson after Brooklyn fell to 5-9 on the season and lost for the seventh time in nine games since an inspiring 3-2 start to the campaign.

“We just have to do it in long stretches.”

That’s something the Celtics (13-2) have become accustomed to doing since dropping their first two games of the year.

Boston held leads of 17-4 in the opening quarter and 80-67 in the third, only to see the Nets come fighting back on each occasion.

After Caris LeVert’s basket pulled Brooklyn within 82-81 with just under 10 minutes to play, the red-hot Celtics finally took control of the contest for good, going on a 10-0 run that vanquished any hopes of yet another Nets comeback.

“They’re obviously a great team, and whenever it would seem like we were able to make a run, they would come back with a run of their own,” said Joe Harris, who led Brooklyn with a career-high 19 points off the bench.

“It just goes to show [that] when you play against good teams, or great teams in fact, you can’t just have little strings here and there,” he added. “You’ve got to have the complete game, and that’s what we were lacking. We had some good stretches, but we just didn’t play a complete game like we needed to.”

It was as complete a performance against an elite team as the Nets could have hoped for, especially with leading scorer and playmaker D’Angelo Russell shelved indefinitely with a knee injury suffered during Brooklyn’s recently completed five-game West Coast swing.

Brooklyn nearly matched a season best with 26 total assists, committed only 14 turnovers and hit 40 percent (14-of-35) of its 3-pointers with Harris and Allen Crabbe draining a team season-high five apiece.

But the sizzling Celtics, who got a game-high 25 points from Kyrie Irving and 21 from Marcus Morris, remained unbeaten since a 108-100 loss to Milwaukee on Oct. 18.

“They made tough shots down the stretch,” said Crabbe, who finished with 15 points.

“Made more plays than us down the stretch. That’s all you can really say. The ball went their way tonight.”

With Jeremy Lin out for the season and Russell still on the mend, Dinwiddie did a solid job at the point, scoring 12 points and dishing out 11 assists while committing just one turnover in 34 minutes.

Hollis-Jefferson scored 16 points, LeVert finished with 15 and Trevor Booker added 12 for Brooklyn, which used its balanced attack and deft ball-handling to grab a brief 65-61 lead in the third quarter before Boston came roaring back with a 19-2 run.

“I thought the third quarter really kind of got us,” said Atkinson.

“Really it was our offense. We turned the ball over four times I believe … Credit to them. They turned up their defense and we couldn’t handle it. We didn’t handle it.”

Booker and Hollis-Jefferson combined for 17 rebounds and Quincy Acy blocked a pair of shots before the Nets came unglued down the stretch en route to their third consecutive home loss since stunning LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers here on Oct. 25.

“When we play the way that we’re supposed to, playing together, playing with the pass, the way that Kenny and the rest of the staff preaches, we get good shots and everybody gets touches,” said Harris.

“I thought we played a good game, that’s what coach said,” LeVert added. “He was proud of the way we fought, proud of the way we competed.”

That pride will only carry the Nets so far if they hope to seriously compete for an Eastern Conference playoff spot this season, something they haven’t come close to doing in each of the previous two campaigns.

Nothing But Net: Atkinson remained hopeful on the matter of Russell (left knee contusion) returning to the Brooklyn lineup at some point this weekend. The 21-year-old point guard suffered the injury during the late stages of last Saturday’s 114-106 loss in Utah. The Nets have not yet looked for added depth at the position beyond what they currently have on the roster, which points to their belief that Russell will be back “sooner than later”, as Atkinson put it prior to Tuesday’s loss to Boston … Brooklyn native and Lincoln High School alum Isaiah Whitehead, who was called up from the D-League last week to help the Nets with their backcourt depth, was held scoreless on three shots and committed a turnover in six minutes of action vs. the Celtics … DeMarre Carroll had nine points and seven rebounds Tuesday night, but missed all but three of his 11 shots from the floor.

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