The Nets were reminded just how far they are from the best teams in the NBA.
Too big to find a team this good with such a big lead.
On Tuesday, Brooklyn fell to the league-leading Celtics, losing 118-110 in front of a packed Barclays Center crowd of 18,053.
They were eviscerated by superstar Jayson Tatum and watched helplessly as he scored a game-high 41 points. They heard the crowd shower him with chants of “MVP!” MVP! ”
And after that was done, he took off his shirt, took off his jersey and exited the court.
He felt at home in the Nets building. And when they tried to fight back, they never had the answer to stop him.
For Brooklyn, Mikal Bridges scored a team-high 27 points and Cam Thomas added 26 points.
However, the Nets were unable to slow down the Celtics, allowing 51.8 percent shooting.
Now comes the difficult part: the return leg of the Wednesday night series of performances at TD Garden.
Brooklyn (21-32) trailed by as many as 23 points in the third quarter, but pulled within six points multiple times in the fourth.
However, they were unable to overcome the difficulties and finished the home-heavy portion of their schedule on a sour note. They failed to gain weight with home-cooked meals and now have to face the toughest ordeal imaginable.
The Nets finished with just 6 wins and 12 losses in 18 of 13 home games played.
They will now have to play 14 of their next 20 games away.
“Yes, it’s a big challenge for us to be completely locked into one of the best teams in the league,” coach Jacques Vaughn warned beforehand. “And there are some areas that we definitely have to take care of that we didn’t do in the previous two games.
“Part of it is transition defense, not giving early opportunities to guys who can attack the rim or guys who can rebound. In one of those games, they had 17 offensive rebounds. I think we gave them extra chances, kept them away from our rim, and we did it without fouling. So, here’s the recipe: We can focus and commit every possession 100% of the time. Is not it?”
With 4:19 left in the third quarter, Tatum made a running dunk off a feed from Jaylen Brown, giving Boston a 93-70 victory. However, the Nets spent the rest of the night chasing and nearly getting caught.
It was still 98-80 after Luke Cornett’s free throw with a minute left in the period when Brooklyn went on a 13-1 run spanning the third and fourth.
An assist from Thomas led to a dunk by Bridges, narrowing the lead to 99-93 with 7:55 remaining.
But Brooklyn never got any closer.
With 2:07 left, Bridges sank a 3-pointer off a feed from Jalen Wilson to cut the deficit to six points, 114-108.
But Boston kept them at arm’s length all night.
The Celtics (42-12) are 16-6 in their last 22 games and have won five straight for the fifth time this season.
