BOSTON -- It wasn’t that long ago that a Boston-Brooklyn matchup had major implications for the Celtics.
Beating them had added incentive for Boston.
A Brooklyn loss improved the Nets’ chances of being among the worst teams in the league which was good for the Celtics courtesy of the 2012 draft night deal with the Nets which sent Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Jason Terry to Brooklyn in exchange for a slew of expiring contracts and a treasure chest full of quality draft picks for Boston with two being used by the Celtics to draft Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.
Well the Celtics have exhausted all the picks from the 2012 deal with Brooklyn, but their matchup on Monday night is still a big deal.
Why?
Because after being buried at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings for years, the Nets (27-23) are indeed on the rise.
In fact, they come into Monday’s game against the Celtics riding a six-game winning streak and are currently sixth in the East-- 3.5 games behind Boston (30-19) which is currently fifth.
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Celtics coach Brad Stevens has often praised the Nets and their head coach Kenny Atkinson for how hard his teams consistently play and lately, how they’ve been a challenge for many teams with their much-improved 3-point shooting prowess.
Brooklyn comes into the game connecting on 12.4 made 3’s per game which ranks fifth in the NBA (Boston is second, with 13.2 made per game). And the Nets are shooting 36.1 percent on those 3’s which ranks eighth in the league (Boston is sixth, with 37.0 percent).
However, the Nets have been a bit more inconsistent when it comes to defense.
They are allowing opponents to make 41.3 made baskets which ranks 20th in the NBA (Boston ranks second, with 38.0). Opponents are also shooting 46.4 percent from the field against the Nets and that too ranks 20th in the league (Boston opponents are shooting 44.2 percent which ranks second in the league).
So on paper, the Celtics are certainly going to be the favorite on Monday night and for that matter, whenever the two face off.
However, Brooklyn has shown this season that they can do more than just hang with the Celtics but also beat them.
The last time these two met just a couple weeks ago, the Nets came away with a 109-102 win that, truth be told, wasn’t really that close.
Brooklyn was on the verge of a blowout before Boston’s end-of-the-bench players rallied the team from 27 points down to making it a single-digit game in the fourth.
One wrinkle to Monday’s night game that wasn’t present when these two met in Boston’s seven-point loss on January 15?
Kyrie Irving.
He did not play due to a quadriceps injury, but that doesn’t mean his presence was nowhere to be found that night.
Following the loss, Irving had some words of positivity for his teammates who made it a game in the closing moments, the kind of tough-minded play Irving implored his teammates was needed sooner rather than later.
“It’s the honest truth,” Jayson Tatum, who had a career-high 34 points that night against Brooklyn, said following the game. “He knows what it takes to win a championship, and most of us don’t. Sometimes you gotta be brutally honest in this profession to get the best out of an individual.”
Following the Nets loss, Boston's Marcus Morris was quick to point out the issues facing the Celtics aren’t young player or older player problems.
“I just think it’s a want-to thing,” Morris said. “You either want to or you don’t want to. I’m not the type, ‘you (young players) don’t understand,’ I’m not that type. You can play hard, you can control what you do out there. That’s just it. It’s not an age limit on playing hard, or wanting to win.”
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