NEW YORK _ In boxing, it's axiomatic that "styles make fights," and that certainly was an apt analogy for the Nets' slugfest with the Eastern Conference-leading Celtics Saturday night at Barclays Center. They may be coming from opposite corners of the standings, but the Nets battled them toe-to-toe to the end of a heartbreaking 87-85 loss.
The Celtics took the lead for good on a slam by Jayson Tatum with 1:16 left, and Tatum's corner 3 pushed it to 87-83 with 45.7 seconds left. But Joe Harris scored on a put-back for the Nets, they stopped a drive by Kyrie Irving and then had five attempts at the tying basket in the final seconds that all failed.
Spencer Dinwiddie and Harris were blocked at the rim, and the ball went out of bounds with 6.2 seconds left. Following the inbounds pass, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson missed at the rim, and Dinwiddie missed a desperate tip.
Jahlil Okafor had provided a spark off the bench in the second quarter, but the question was whether he could do the same at crunch time in the fourth quarter. The answer came quickly as Okafor scored six of the Nets' first 12 points of the period, putting them ahead 73-71 with 7:33 to go on a putback.
Every possession was a battle coming down the stretch as the Celtics regained a four-point lead only to see the Nets tie it at 79 on an eight-foot jumper by Harris with 3:47 left. The Nets led for the last time at 83-82 on a layup by Dinwiddie with 1:31 left before Tatum took over.
Dinwiddie led the Nets (15-24) with 20 points, Okafor had 12, and they got 10 each from Harris and DeMarre Carroll. But the Nets shot just 33 percent from the game, including an awful 6 for 31 performance from 3-point range. Irving led the Celtics (33-10) to their sixth straight win with 21 points, and Tatum had 14, but they shot only 37.8 percent overall and 27.8 from 3 (5 of 18). As an indication of the physical nature of the game, the Celtics had the only two fast-break points.
The Celtics arrived on a five-game winning streak that included a hard-fought win over the Nets on New Year's Eve in Boston. But the Nets caught a break when it was determined Celtics forward Al Horford (sore knee) was not able to play the second game of a back-to-back after a home win Saturday over Minnesota.
"It's a tough matchup for us, an elite defense, a really good offense, talented, athletic," Nets coach Kenny Atkinson said of the Celtics. "I do think we fight and we compete, but it's one of the most difficult matchups in the league and the Eastern Conference. I know they're on a back-to-back, but it's a tough challenge for us."
Recalling a third-quarter meltdown in the previous meeting in Boston, Atkinson added, "Taking care of the ball is vital. That's where they got us last game. We had eight turnovers in the third quarter. And then we have to avoid the bad quarter."
Playing the hard-nosed defense they have relied on of late, the Nets got out to a 22-14 lead near the end of the opening period. But the Celtics put together a 10-2 run spanning the first and second quarters, including four points from former Net Shane Larkin, to tie the score at 24. The Nets had six turnovers in 10 possessions during that stretch and made only one of five shots.
Still, the Nets never lost the lead in the first half, which ended with the home team holding a 41-39 lead after a replay review disallowed a corner 3 by Dinwiddie because it was after the shot clock. The Nets made just two of 13 from 3-point range in the first half, but the 39 points they gave up to the Celtics tied their season-low by an opponent in the first half.
For the second meeting in a row, the third quarter was a killer for the Nets, but the culprit was poor shooting. They missed eight straight shots at the beginning of what turned into a 15-2 Celtics run that included seven points from Irving and gave them a 58-52 lead. Overall, the Nets made just 4 of 19 field-goal attempts in the third quarter, which ended with the Celtics holding a 64-61 lead.
