Jayson Tatum bailed out the Boston Celtics in the end, but this one was a grind long before his buzzer-beater dropped through the net for a 125-124 overtime win over the Brooklyn Nets.
Boston came out loose and a little messy, and Brooklyn took advantage early. The Nets finished the first quarter on a 7-2 run to grab a five-point cushion, then kept the Celtics at arm’s length through another choppy second quarter. That left Boston trailing 61-56 at halftime, still searching for a cleaner rhythm.
The game finally turned when Sam Hauser and Baylor Scheierman both hit the floor for a hustle play late in the third quarter. Hauser’s diving save helped jolt the Garden awake, and he followed it by splashing a pair of 3s as Boston closed the period on a 14-5 burst and moved ahead by four. Paul George helped steady the Celtics from there, and it looked like Tatum had sealed it late, but a bad foul, missed free throws, and a Brooklyn three forced overtime.
That’s when Tatum got the last crack. Mikel Brown Jr. made the wrong choice in the closing seconds of overtime, going for a layup with the Nets up one instead of killing the clock and getting fouled. He missed, Boston secured the rebound, and Tatum took care of the rest.
Tatum lived at the line all night, finishing 18-22 there. Brooklyn matched him with 17-22, but Tatum’s trips were the result of him attacking the paint over and over. Both his makes and his attempts were career highs.
George also deserves a nod for the way he held up in the fourth quarter. He played the entire period, scored nine points, and added three assists while keeping Boston afloat during the stretches when Tatum wasn’t on the floor.
After the game, George said, “I feel great,” and added, “I think, knock on wood, those days are behind me. I've been feeling really good health-wise.
But the main goal is to get to the end of the year and be healthy at the end of the year, so whatever it is, approach, I'm ready for. Whether it is playing back-to-backs, whether it's being smart approaching back-to-backs, we'll get to that when the time is there.
But I feel good. I feel good out there, and yeah, we'll see how I feel tomorrow.”
Joe Mazzulla saw the same sloppiness everyone else did. “We weren’t playing well, obviously, but we were staying with it,” he said.
“We had the game won, went to overtime, and then had to win it again. So we'll learn from that.”
Boston’s shooting was rough early and stayed that way for stretches. The Celtics were just 2-16 from 3 at halftime, while Brooklyn went 6-17 from deep and used that edge to keep the pressure on. The Nets carried that confidence into the fourth and continued making shots that Boston couldn’t answer cleanly.
The late-game mess started with a costly foul from Neemias Queta with four seconds left and Boston up four, while the Celtics were already in the penalty. Instead of letting the Nets settle for a desperate heave, Queta reached in after Tatum missed a free throw. That opened the door for a wild sequence: Julius Randle made one free throw and missed the second on purpose, Mitchell Robinson got fouled and missed both free throws, and Brown Jr. buried a three to tie the game and send it to overtime.
Boston also had to deal with Nolan Traore right away. He sparked Brooklyn’s first-quarter push and finished with 15 points, with nine coming in the opening period.
Michael Porter Jr. kept giving the Celtics problems, too. He went 6-12 from three on the same kinds of actions that gave Boston trouble last season, working off screens and handoffs with too much success.
On the other side, Jordan Walsh gave Boston a needed lift offensively. After three games where his defense stood out more than his scoring, he finally broke through with 15 points on 5-8 shooting, including 3-5 from deep. At one point in the third quarter, he had half of Boston’s made threes.
And Mo Wagner once again made himself a nuisance in Boston. In what felt like another one of those familiar visits, he scored 15 points and helped fuel a 52-27 bench scoring edge for the Nets.
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Jayson Tatum Just Delivered A Celtics Reminder In Crunch Time
Jayson Tatum spent 42 minutes reminding everyone why the Celtics can still lean on him when a game turns chaotic, and Boston needed every bit of it in a 125-124 overtime win over the Nets. He was efficient, steady and all over the stat sheet, piling up 40 points on 50% shooting with eight assists, five rebounds and a block while keeping his turnover count at zero.
The performance also pushed Tatum deeper into the Celtics record book, where he added more franchise marks tied to scoring, playmaking and efficiency. Paul George, meanwhile, also left his mark by setting a Celtics record for steals per game, but the lasting image from this one was Tatum taking control when the game was hanging in the balance. [Read more 🡒]
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