Williams, Pierce return; Nets beat Celtics 104-96

Photo credit: ESPN

Coming off a much needed win against the Milwaukee Bucks, Deron Williams and Paul Pierce made their returns from injury as the Nets took on the Boston Celtics. This would be the first game in which Pierce and Kevin Garnett played against their former team, who they had won a championship with, and they defeated the Celtics 104-96.

It was only fitting that Garnett score the first basket against his former team. The Nets played high energy basketball in the first quarter, and they took advantage of their size advantages. Brooklyn outscored the Celtics 31-20 in the quarter, and scored 18 of those points in the paint. With Deron and Pierce added back into the mix, the Nets began the game with inspired basketball, and finished the first quarter on an 18-6 run.

A lot had changed in the second quarter. The energy level wasn't where it was in the second quarter, and the Nets began turning the ball over and allowing Avery Bradley to shoot open threes. Deron Williams lost Bradley a few times off the ball, leading to those open threes. After their lead had evaporated from 11 to just two, the Nets once again began playing the high energy style basketball that was seen in the first quarter. They outscored the Celtics 56-47 in the half while shooting a surprising 65.7% from the field. The Nets scored 30 points in the paint in the half, and were led by Brook Lopez, who completely abused the Celtics' big men.

The third quarter started as a typical Nets third quarter. Boston got off to an early 13-4 run, lead by Jared Sullinger's two three pointers. The Nets would immediately respond with a 10-0 run of their own. Their lead would expand to 15 in the quarter, as Brook Lopez continued to have his way with the Celtics' interior defense. After starting the third with a huge run, the Celtics went ice cold for the rest of the quarter. The Nets outscored them in the third (!!!!) 29-25, and held a 85-72 lead headed into the fourth quarter.

The Celtics came out in the fourth quarter with tremendous intensity on defense, leading to forced shots and turnovers by the Nets. Boston cut the Nets lead down to eight, but the Nets continued to grind against heavy Celtic defense. Boston started the fourth on a 9-4 run, but once again began to slow down as the quarter progressed. The Nets struggled to get anything going, but were able to stop Boston from narrowing the lead. The Nets were outscored 21-19 in the quarter, but still managed to win 104-96.

In his return from another sprained ankle, Deron Williams went off on the Celtics, scoring 25 points on 10/16 shooting while also dishing out seven assists. Brook Lopez had his way against the Celtic bigs, putting up 24 points, but only grabbing three rebounds. Kevin Garnett put up 11 points and grabbed nine rebounds against his former team. Alan Anderson added an impressive 15 points on 6/7 shooting.


Final Score:  104-96 Nets
Most Disappointing Stat of The Game: Brook Lopez three rebounds
Promising Stat of The Game: Deron Williams 25 points in 37 minutes
Scariest Moment of the Game: Boston starting the third quarter on 13-4 run
Best Moment of The Game: Andray Blatche with the circus layup for an and-one


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