First the net lost its best scorer. They then lost the Heartbreaker to the best team in basketball.
Hours after Cam Thomas discovered he missed the rest of the season, Brooklyn was taken away 115-113 by defending champion Boston in front of a 18,016 sold-out crowd at Barclays Center.
Nets (22-45) dropped 10 of their last 11 games. Their previous four against Chicago, Cleveland, Charlotte and the Golden State Warriors totaled 16 points due to the second half's struggle. This was even closer.
Cam Johnson, who scored 23 points, hit a three-pointer and played Brooklyn in 4.5 seconds within one.
However, it was one of two lines in Payton Pritchard (22 points), and the final groove heaves by Johnson were unable to beat the clock.
Brooklyn has the fifth best lottery odds, moving forward in the half game than Philadelphia and two ahead of the seventh place Raptors.
Keon Johnson, who started off guard in place of Thomas, scored 21 points.
The Celtics (49-19) were led by Christaps Porzingis (24 points) and Jason Tatum (20 points).
Brooklyn was already missing Nick Claxton, Noah Crowney and Trendern Watford when news hit the door that Hamstoon's major scorer Thomas had been lost for the rest of the season.
The net abandoned the Celtics run in the first half, 24-5.
Jalen Wilson (15 points) hit a 3 to find Brooklyn, leaving 1:33 in the first quarter for an early lead of 27-26. But they spit out that expansion run that stretched midway through the second.
Brooklyn trailed at age 18 after a 3-pointer from Payton Pritchard concluded the run.
The deficit swelled to 55-34 on Tatum hook shots with 4:12 left in the half.
However, there was a final run in the net, with a 13-5 late blitz to get back into the game.
Wilson's 3-pointer, down with 12 with 1.5 minutes left in a third, pulled the net within 9:21, within 90-86.
A small amount of Maxwell Lewis (15 points, 6/7 shots) made the most of his minutes, with a 3-pointer cut from the Wilson feed to 92-89.
The net then snatched the nail within 94-92 with Johnson's three-pointer, with 7:59 left. He got them within one of them in seconds, but it wasn't nearby.
