The New Jersey Nets escaped mother nature and headed to Boston to take on one of the Eastern Conference's elite teams. The Nets came in with the league's worst record at 5-52.
Surprisingly, the Nets not only showed up physically but they played very hard to shock the Celtics on their home court. The Celtics were missing Paul Pierce.
Regardless the Nets played very well and earned the victory. The Celtics came out building an early lead, they were up 12-2 with 8:43 left in the first quarter. The Nets after a timeout scored 6 straight points to make it 12-8. The Nets hung tough the rest of the quarter. With 2.8 seconds left in the quarter, Keyon Dooling hit a basket to give the Nets first lead, 29-27 after the first quarter.
In the second quarter, the Nets started to build their lead. With 4:06 left, they opened it to double figures at 46-36. It should be noted KG aka Kevin Garnett was on the bench during this run. He had 8 points before sitting for an extended period of time.
When the Celtics called timeout, the crowd booed the team loudly. A typical what have you done for me lately reaction by the front running Celtic fans in attendance. Their team did win a championship in 2008 if I recall correctly. The Nets wound up leading at the half, 49-42.
In the 3rd quarter, the Nets came out strong and they extended their lead to a baker's dozen 65-52 with 5:14 left. They lead by 10, 74-64 at the end of the 3rd quarter.
In the 4th quarter, Courtney Lee was fouled by former Net Brian Scalabrine, on that play he got hurt. He still shot his 2 free throws and he made them. That gave him 21 points for the game with 10:56 left. Unfortunately he was forced to left the game and he didn't return.
The Nets continued to hung tough and they built their lead to 18, 94-76 with 5:06 left in the 4th quarter. The Celtics made a run. They got within 6, 98-92 with 2:06 left in the game on Ray Allen's trey. In addition, Ray Allen make a gesture of firing a gun when he delivered a premature dagger. The Nets behind some big shots and rebounds from Kris Humphries were able to hold off the Celtics last surge.
The Nets came out on top for their sixth win of the season. I didn't expect them to win the game and they pulled together and found a way to get it done. Royalty was there to witness it.
As for the high scorers in this contest, the Nets were lead by Brooks Lopez who played well start to finish. He had 25 points. Devin Harris also played well, he wound up with 23 points. Kris Humphries who was a presence had 11 points and 10 rebounds. Yi Jianlian also had 10 boards in the team effort.
As for the Celtics, KG led all scorers with 26 points in the loss. Rajon Rondo had 13 points to go along with 17 assists.
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