Celtics fend off Nets for 113-99 victory

Zack Cox, Boston Herald on Nov 18, 2025

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The Brooklyn Nets made the Boston Celtics sweat Tuesday night at the Barclays Center.

Boston committed a season-high 20 turnovers — including eight by Jaylen Brown and another seven from Derrick White and Payton Pritchard — and trailed the Nets early in the fourth quarter.

But Brooklyn’s upset bid fell short, with the Celtics seizing control late to win their third straight, 116-99. The victory pushed the 8-7 Celtics above .500 for the first time this season.

Brown offset his shoddy ball security with a game-high 29 points on 9-of-19 shooting. Pritchard stayed hot from 3-point range (5 for 12) to finish with 22 points, 10 rebounds and five assists. White had 15-5-5, plus two steals and two blocks.

The teams will play a rematch Friday night at TD Garden.

The Nets have won just two games this season — over the only teams beneath them in the Eastern Conference standings entering Tuesday’s action, the perpetually rebuilding Wizards and injury-ravaged Pacers. They came in ranked 27th in net rating and dead last in defensive rating.

The Celtics struggled, however, to exploit that league-worst defense in the early going — and to contain a Brooklyn offense that came out playing much faster than its reputation. When Joe Mazzulla called his second timeout at the 5:33 mark of the first quarter, Boston trailed 21-11 and had surrendered four 3-pointers in transition.

Pritchard, who played the entire opening frame, got the Celtics back on track with a couple of 3s, a pair of free throws and a pinpoint lob to Neemias Queta for a dunk. Boston closed the quarter on a 7-0 run to tie the game at 29-29. But similar Celtics problems persisted in the second.

The most responsible team in the NBA from a turnover perspective committed 12 in the first half, leading to 17 Nets points, while forcing just four. Brooklyn also outscored Boston 22-0 in transition before halftime, more than doubling its NBA-low average of 8.6 fast-break points per game, and had success targeting backup center Luka Garza in the lane.

The Celtics’ shooting was plenty efficient in the first half — 61% from the field, 52% from 3, with Pritchard and Anfernee Simons (11 points) spearheading that effort — but thanks to those other deficiencies, they took a slim 62-61 lead into the locker room.

Fouls became an issue for Boston early in the third quarter, with starters Jordan Walsh and Queta both heading to the bench after picking up their fourth. Josh Minott, who made nine straight starts earlier this season before being leapfrogged by Walsh, checked in and quickly canned a 3-pointer, then drew a shooting foul after a White steal.

Minott went 3 for 3 from deep in the game and was a plus-15 in his 19 minutes. Walsh, an ascendant player of late who was coming off an imperfect but encouraging matchup against James Harden, played just 11 minutes and was a season-worst minus-10.

White was a steadying presence early in the second half, notching two steals and a block in a two-minute span to help Boston establish control. Brown followed up that sequence with buckets on three consecutive possessions, including a transition 3-pointer off a White assist, as the Celtics built their first double-digit lead of the game.

Seventeen of Boston’s 27 third-quarter points came from Brown, who later drew back-to-back-to-back shooting fouls before closing the period with a catch-and-shoot 3. The Nets, though, had answers for nearly all of Brown’s makes. They trailed 89-85 entering the fourth, then pulled ahead on a Michael Porter Jr. 3 with 9:08 remaining.

It was only then that the Celtics finally began to pull away. Sam Hauser picked Terrance Mann’s pocket and hit a 3 to bookend an 8-0 Boston run. Hauser scored just eight points in the win, but his 2-for-5 showing from beyond the arc was a promising development after the brutal 5-for-34 slump he’d been mired in.

White added two more triples, one of which capped a possession featuring three offensive rebounds, and blocked Porter from behind on a 3-point attempt. The Nets went more than seven minutes without a made field goal, and Brown provided the dagger: a 31-footer that made it 107-93 with 2:55 to play.

Other observations

— With Queta in foul trouble and Garza scuffling, Mazzulla reached to the end of his bench and inserted Xavier Tillman midway through the third quarter. It was the first game action for the reserve big man since Nov. 3. Tillman played five minutes and tallied one assist on a Brown 3-pointer.

— Rookie Hugo Gonzalez was a healthy DNP for the second straight game. He hasn’t seen much meaningful playing time of late, logging more than 10 minutes in just one of Boston’s last six games.

— Friday’s home rematch against the Nets is an NBA Cup game. The Celtics are 1-1 in group play with two games remaining.

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