Revenge travels well. Three nights after letting one slip away at Barclays Center, the Nets didn’t flinch in Friday’s rematch against the Boston Celtics at TD Garden, rolling to a 113-105 win to move to 3-12 and 1-2 in East Group B of the NBA Cup.
The opening minutes made it clear Brooklyn had come to finish what it couldn’t on Tuesday.
The Nets set the early tone, sharing the ball and defending with energy as Boston struggled to find its footing and fell behind by seven. But the floor tilted fast. The Nets went cold while Boston’s shooters heated up and ripped off a 16-3 run to end the first. Brooklyn’s offense flatlined for the final 2:39, turning an encouraging open into a 28-22 deficit.
Then Drake Powell gave them a jolt. Seconds into the second quarter, the rookie wing jumped an Anfernee Simons pass, snatched the steal and raced the length of the floor for a two-handed slam over the very Celtic who’d coughed it up. The highlight play sparked a 10-2 burst that briefly restored a two-point Nets lead with 9:44 left in the half.
After a back-and-forth stretch, Brooklyn closed the half on a 14-5 run and took its largest lead, 62-53, into the locker room. Rookie guard Egor Demin capped the surge with an aggressive layup, then added a steal moments later that set up an easy transition finish for Noah Clowney.
Demin led the Nets with five first-half assists, none sharper than a baseline whip to Powell for one of Brooklyn’s eight early 3-pointers. He complemented his passing with nine points on assertive drives to the basket and five rebounds, becoming only the fifth Nets rookie since 1997-98 to reach five rebounds and five assists in a single half. Clowney, Michael Porter Jr. and Nic Claxton each reached double figures as Brooklyn shot 50% before the break. The Nets turned it over only five times and held Boston to 42.6% from the field.
And Brooklyn didn’t drift into another sluggish third quarter like it did on Tuesday or so many times this season. By the 10:22 mark, a Terance Mann 3-pointer created when Claxton grabbed his own miss and found the open man stretched the lead to 12.
Boston pushed back, but Jaylen Brown picked up his fifth foul with six minutes left in the third and the Nets up three, taking the Celtics’ top scorer off the floor. Brooklyn kept rolling from there, closing the period on a 21-9 run with Brown on the bench to build a 92-77 lead and quiet the TD Garden crowd.
It didn’t last. Brown checked back in with 7:47 remaining and the Celtics already on a run. What had been an 18-point lead was down to six after a Jordan Walsh 3-pointer with 7:05 left, forcing a Nets timeout. Porter briefly stopped the bleeding with a triple on Brooklyn’s next possession, but the Celtics kept pushing as the momentum swung their way.
But just when the Celtics seemed ready to take the lead, Demin calmly brought the ball up and drilled a 26-footer to push Brooklyn’s edge back to five. The Nets followed with a string of stops, Porter went nuclear offensively, and they steadied themselves to go up nine with 2:50 remaining.
Porter poured in 16 of his game-high 33 points in the fourth, carrying Brooklyn to its third win despite Boston winning the quarter 28–21. Claxton delivered his first career triple-double with 18 points, 11 boards and a career-best 12 assists, the Nets’ first since Ben Simmons in 2023. Clowney stayed hot with 19 points and three rebounds.
Brown led Boston with 26 points, eight rebounds and four assists in 32 minutes.
The Nets continue their road trip Sunday with a matchup against the Toronto Raptors at Scotiabank Arena.
