Boston (USA), May 30 (EFE) .- The offensive power of the “Big Three” was present at the TD Garden in Boston, where the Brooklyn Nets beat the Celtics 126-141 in the fourth Eastern Conference playoff first-round tie game now dominating 3-1 best-of-seven.
Although the Celtics fans, who filled the stands for the first time in more than a year, dedicated themselves to dedicating all kinds of teasing and booing to the base Kyrie Irving, former player of the Boston team, every time he touched the ball, the response on the Nets field was devastating.
Irving himself, who was also thrown a bottle onto the field when he retired, finished with a monumental double-double of 39 points, 11 rebounds, two assists and two recoveries, which was decisive.
The television broadcast showed Irving and Nets guard Tyler Johnson looking into the stands and pointing at a fan; Video on social media appeared to show police pulling out a man in a handcuffed Kevin Garnett T-shirt.
The 42 points of forward Kevin Durant were also decisive, who was perfect 3-3 from triples, and 11-11 from the personnel line, in addition to distributing five assists and putting two blocks.
While guard James Harden was in charge of directing the game with a double-double of 23 points and 18 assists without the Celtics having any answers to the inspiration of the “Big Three”.
Game 5 will be played at the Barclays Center in New York on Tuesday night, as the Nets will attempt to advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals for the first time since 2014.
Power forward Jayson Tatum scored 40 points as the Celtics leader, following his 50-point effort in Game 3 victory.
But with starters guard-forward Jaylen Brown and point guard Kemba Walker out with injuries, Tatum couldn’t save the season on his own.
Point guard Marcus Smart had 16 points and nine assists as the second-leading scorer for the Celtics, who reached the Eastern Conference finals in three of the previous four seasons.
This year’s team flirted with a seeded early on and was still in position to host a first-round series well into April before losing 10 of its last 15 matches and falling in the entry tournament.
After losing the first two games in Brooklyn, the Celtics hoped their home crowd would help them make a series of more games.
Tatum scored a victory off a quarter-capacity attendance on Friday, before Covid-19 restrictions were lifted starting Saturday.
The ice hockey Bruins had 17,400 for their playoff game against the Islanders on Saturday, the highest attendance of the National Ice Hockey League (NHL) this season.
The Celtics cleared several lines around the benches Sunday and officially announced an attendance of 17,226, about 1,500 less than the field’s official capacity.
Celtics supporters, most of them attending their first home playoff game in more than two years, gave Durant the New York Yankees treatment in pregame warm-ups, shouting his mocking name and cheering. for each missed training shot.
But it went to Irving, who professed his love for Boston and the Celtics before giving up his contract in 2019 to join the Nets.
“We know what these folks are like in Boston. We know how offended they are by Kyrie (Irving), they’re still mad at him,” Durant said. “That’s no reason for them to act childish. There’s no need to talk about it. We got the win and hopefully we won’t have to come back here.”
The Celtics scored the first six points of the game and led by as much as nine in the first, but the Nets erased it before the end of the quarter. Durant had 17 points in the first and Tatum 14, laying the groundwork for a stellar scoring trade.
But second was all Brooklyn with Harden scoring 15 points with six assists, and Irving scored 11 to help the Nets pull away, turning a 34-33 deficit early in the period into a 37-45 lead, which in the end of the first half they increased to 13 points.
Tatum didn’t score in the second. He responded with 18 points in the third quarter, but Durant had 17 to help the Nets open a 27-point lead and have everything done.
Durant’s 17 points were the most in the Nets’ first quarter since exala-center Kenyon Martin’s 17 in Game 4 of the 2002 NBA Finals against the Lakers.
The Nets scored 100 points in three quarters of a playoff game for the second time in history. They also did it on Friday night.
(c) EFE Agency