NEW YORK (AP) — Jaylen Brown scored 29 points, Payton Pritchard had 22 points and 10 rebounds, and the Boston Celtics beat the Brooklyn Nets113-99 on Tuesday night to move above .500 for the first time this season.
Derrick White added 15 points for the Celtics, who won their third straight game to improve to 8-7. They played the Nets even for about three quarters before smothering them defensively in the fourth, allowing just one basket for the first 10 minutes of the period.
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Michael Porter Jr.scored 25 points for the Nets, his career-best seventh straight game with at least 20. But after his 3-pointer gave Brooklyn a 90-89 lead with 9:08 left, the Nets didnâ€t make another basket until 1:56 remained.
Dayâ€Ron Sharpe added 16 points for the Nets, who fell to 2-12 overall and 0-7 at home.
The Celtics started the season 0-3 and then won their next three. They dropped the next two games and hadnâ€t gotten their record back to even again until beating the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday.
Porter had 18 points at halftime and Pritchard scored 17. The teams combined for 22 2-pointers and 21 3-pointers in the first half, which ended with Boston leading 62-61.
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The Celtics opened their first double-digit cushion when Brown followed a three-point play with a 3-pointer to cap an 8-0 burst and make it 75-65 with 7 1/2 minutes remaining in the third. Brooklyn cut it to one late in the period before Brown made another 3-pointer to send the Celtics to the fourth with an 89-85 edge.
With the Celtics leading 97-92, they chased down three missed shots on one possession to set up Whiteâ€s 3-pointer. After a Brooklyn free throw, he made another 3 to make it 103-93. Brownâ€s 3 with 2:55 left capped an 18-3 run to make it 107-93.
Up next
The teams meet Friday night in Boston.
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