Tatum Scalds Brooklyn For 36
Photo: Special to the NY Beacon
By Andrew Rosario
Pritchard Rebounds Off The Bench After Loss To Atlanta
Photo: Special to the NY Beacon
The last thing the Brooklyn Nets wanted was to face a Boston Celtics team that was coming off an embarrassing home loss to the Atlanta Hawks Tuesday night. It was the start of the mid-season NBA Cup Tournament for the second year in a row. Making the loss more unbearable was the fact that Atlanta was without All-Star guard Tre Young. With the tournament resuming Friday, the Celtics had a chance to re-group at Barclaysb Center facing a Nets team coming off a win Monday night on the road against the New Orleans Pelican who were without their star forward Zion Williamson. With the Nets next two games at Madison Square Garden (Friday and Sunday) they were hoping to carry the momentum from their previous win.
At the start, it appeared that Boston were still suffering a hangover from the Atlanta loss as the Nets took a 13-point lead (26-13) after a Cameron Johnson jump shot with 3:52 in the first quarter. But there is a reason the Celtics are the defending World Champions as they would close out the quarter on a 19-8 run closing the gap to within 2 (34-32) to finish the quarter.
The Celtics would take their first lead of the game (37-36) after Sam Hauser drained a 3-pointer. Brooklyn righted themselves temporarily extending their lead by 7 (48-41) but the Celtics would outscored the Nets 33-26 to finish the second quarter with a 65-60 lead. It would be the closest Brooklyn would get as Boston ran away in the second half.
In their 139-114 loss, the Nets defense disappeared as they allowed 38 points in the third quarter and 36 points in the fourth quarter. Jayson Tatum (36 points, 5-6 from 3-point land) and Jaylen Brown (24 points) were top scorers for Boston. What the Nets didn’t expect was Payton Pritchard who came of the bench to score 23 points connecting on 5 of 9
3-pointers. Pritchard talked about the team bouncing back after the loss to Atlanta. “Everybody was disappointed about Tuesday’s game,” he began. “I was very disappointed in myself. I felt like l came out with no energy and it showed. But we came back today and it showed the character of our team.”
Nets first year head coach Jordi Fernandez felt his team stopped fighting in the second half. “I’m okay with losing,” Fernandez began. “But I’m not okay with, at one point in the game, not fighting. You can never, ever quit or look defeated whatever the case may be. We have to continue to do things the right way, and if one night the other team is better than you, then you gotta respect it.”
The Brooklyn Nets have a chance to right themselves when they face the Knicks at Madison Square Garden Friday and Sunday night. After the Knicks took out the Philadelphia 76ers Tuesday night, they started out slow against the Chicago Bulls the following night 124-123. The Knicks did come back from a 22-point deficit only to fall short.
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