Brooklyn Nets: Look What Kyrie Irving Did To The Celtics, Again

From the desk: THE HOOPS OF FLATBUSH

THURSDAY

Celtics 109

Nets    121

FINAL

Kyrie Irving Ties Season-High With Forty Points Against Celtics

No Kevin Durant, no Blake Griffin; no problem.  It was business as usual for Steve Nash and the other more familiar faces at Barclays Center.

After sputtering in the first quarter, Flatbush takes a four-point lead into the half and, with a strong fourth quarter, secures a twelve-point victory over the visiting Boston Celtics.

Playing against and surely motivated to perform against his former team, Kyrie Irving took his turn being the big man on campus with a game-high forty points; it's the second time this season he's notched forty, the last time occurring on Feb. 18, at Sacramento.  Irving was 15/23 (65.2%) from the field, including 5/8 from three and a perfect 5/5 from the line, to go along with eight rebounds in 34 minutes.  James Harden added 22 points but shot just 1/8 from behind the arc.  He otherwise led the floor with both ten rebounds and eight assists.

Starting at center, DeAndre Jordan grabbed eight rebounds.  You know I've been riding Joe Harris whenever KD, Kyrie, or The Beard do not play.  But I'll let him off the hook this time.  Although somewhat off-target, he at least attempted ten shots and finished with twelve points.  Meanwhile, Bruce Brown flat out struggled, shooting 2/9 from the field in only 19 minutes.

But that's where the bench comes in.  Jeff Green, Landry Shamet, Tyler Johnson, and Nicolas Claxton joined together for a plus-14, with 39 points, 13 rebounds, and seven assists, in 92 total minutes.  Landry Shamet led the effort with 18 points in 32 minutes, and Jeff Green scored eleven points in 25 minutes.

Brooklyn is now 2-0 versus the Celtics.  Back in December, Kyrie Irving scored 37 points in Brooklyn's first visit to Boston.  Thursday marks the Celtics' first visit this season to Flatbush. 

The Nets improved to 14-6 at home.  They next host the Detroit Pistons.  On Feb. 9, the Nets suffered perhaps their most ponderous and confounding loss of the season at Detroit.  That's the night when Steve Nash effectively told the team to look themselves in the mirror and decide what kind of team they wanted to be.  With Thursday's victory, the Nets since that night improve to 11-1, which included an eight-game win streak.

Brooklyn remains a mere half-game out of first; Philadelphia, winners of three in a row, retain the Eastern Conference top spot with a victory over the Bulls.