Brooklyn Nets 141-126 Boston Celtics: 5 Talking points as Kyrie Irving silences TD Garden crowd | 2021 NBA Playoffs
The Brooklyn Nets cruised to a 141-126 blowout win over the Boston Celtics at TD Garden to take a 3-1 lead in their best-of-seven series. It was a rough outing for the home team, who played hard but were just overpowered by the visitors’ out-of-this-world shooting prowess.
The Nets blew the game wide open in the second quarter, outscoring the Boston Celtics 40-26, and they had the game in the bag from that point forward. There was very little defense coming from the C's, who had many of their fans back in the arena.
The home crowd was only a factor in the first quarter but even they couldn’t help stop the Brooklyn Nets juggernaut.
Check out the 5 talking points from Game 4 of the Brooklyn Nets vs. Boston Celtics series:
#1 Brooklyn Nets’ Big 3 played big
Unlike Game 3, when Kyrie Irving struggled from the field, the entire Big 3 showed up for Game 4. Irving made up for his 6-of-17 shooting in his previous outing to score 39 points on 11-of-24 shooting from the field in this one. He also grabbed 11 rebounds.
The former Boston Celtics guard was ably aided by his fellow All-Stars as Kevin Durant had 42 points and James Harden added 23 points with five rebounds and a career playoff-high 18 assists.
Irving was on fire as he silenced his critics who questioned his effort in Game 3.
#2 Jayson Tatum had little help
Jayson Tatum had 50 points in Game 3 to carry the Boston Celtics to a victory. But without Kemba Walker around, the extra load and added defensive attention was just too much for the two-time All-Star.
Tatum played well, scoring 40 points on 10-of-22 shooting from the field and 17-of-17 from the free-throw line. His mid-range shots were falling as well as his 3-pointers even in the fourth quarter, when he was finally joined by his teammates. Unfortunately, no one else scored more than 16 points and they shot just 14-41 from behind the arc as a team.
If the Boston Celtics want to win Game 5, Tatum will need more help.
#3 Injury bug bites again
Game 4 was defined, not just by who was on the floor but also by who was not on it. The Boston Celtics were already missing the services of All-Star swingman Jaylen Brown for the entire playoffs and now they had to face a star-studded Brooklyn Nets squad without Kemba Walker (bruised left knee) and Robert Williams III (sprained left ankle).
The Brooklyn Nets also got hit by the injury bug with key reserve Jeff Green out with a strained plantar fascia. Green is unlikely to return for this series because of the injury. With the Boston Celtics losing some of their most important contributors, the Nets will not miss the veteran forward’s presence much.
But if they advance to the later rounds without Green, that’s when the Brooklyn Nets will feel his loss more.
#4 No defense could hold down Brooklyn Nets
The 141 points by the Brooklyn Nets looks a lot like a regular-season score, but the team showed off just how much firepower they had. The Big 3 alone had a total of 104 points with two others, Joe Harris and Bruce Brown chipping in with 14 points apiece. They were the only double-figure scorers, but they already outscored the entire Boston Celtics squad.
The score is a franchise playoff record for the Nets. Game 4 was a shooting clinic for the Brooklyn Nets, who made 57.8 percent of their shots from the field and 59.3 percent from the 3-point arc. They nailed a total of 16 threes for the game and nearly had a perfect free-throw shooting performance, going 29-of-30 from the line.
#5 Other Boston Celtics arrived too little too late
There was a bit of a run by the Boston Celtics in the fourth quarter but they simply could not stop the Brooklyn Nets from scoring at the other end. The Celts scored 35 to the Nets’ 29.
If they were trying to win the game by scoring more than their opponent, the Boston Celtics’ strategy was just going to end in failure. It was an admirable effort, though, with Aaron Nesmith, Jabari Parker and Tatum leading the charge.
Brooklyn Nets coach Steve Nash kept his Big 3 in the game until the last few minutes to douse cold water on the Celtics’ run and it was all over from there.
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