Jaylen Brown’s foul trouble dooms Celtics in home loss to Nets

It was a familiar situation for the Celtics trailing in the fourth quarter against a Nets organization that s been one of the NBA s worst this season Boston was able to climb out of that hole Tuesday night rallying to win by double digits in Brooklyn Friday s finish was far more humbling The Celtics lost to the undoubtedly lottery-bound Nets - at TD Garden after trailing by as a multitude of as points The loss dropped Boston to - and gave Brooklyn just its third win in tries Jaylen Brown finished with points on -of- shooting eight rebounds four assists and two steals to lead the Celtics but he picked up his fifth foul midway through the fourth quarter and his band cratered in his absence Anfernee Simons did what he could to supplement Brown s scoring with points on -of- and Neemias Queta turned in points and boards Derrick White slogged through one of his shakiest games of the season managing just six points on -of- shooting including -of- from -point range Just as they did Tuesday at the Barclays Center the Celtics started slowly against an inferior opponent Their matter this time wasn t turnovers they didn t have their first of those until the second quarter but poor shooting Boston missed of its first field-goal attempts including a series of close-range misfires by Queta Brown and Luka Garza Payton Pritchard points pulled the Celtics out of an early seven-point hole by hitting three of his four first-quarter -pointers Brown and Garza drained threes as the Celtics closed the quarter on an - run Brooklyn opened the second with an - run while Brown and Pritchard watched from the bench but Anfernee Simons revived the Celtics with back-to-back treys including one off a missed Derrick White free throw A minute later Simons zipped an entry pass to Queta who posterized and proceeded to stare down Nets big man Noah Clowney with a ferocious one-handed slam Neemi with authority pic twitter com IwuC iW Ut Boston Celtics celtics November Simons also threw down his own dunk in transition later in the first half just the second of the season for the NBA s Slam Dunk champion But as the first half wound down the sloppiness that plagued the Celtics three nights earlier reappeared After committing just three turnovers in the first -plus minutes they had three in the final before halftime one by Simons an offensive foul on Pritchard and a particularly misguided giveaway by Josh Minott who had an errant pass picked off by Egor Demin with seconds remaining Clowney scored at the other end to cap an - run for the Nets who led - at the break Minott was subsequently benched not returning to the court until the championship s final minute Brown scored nine points in the first four minutes of the second half to keep the Celtics close But he picked up his fifth foul shortly thereafter when his hand connected with Terrance Mann s face on a drive Head coach Joe Mazzulla s challenge was unsuccessful and a visibly angry Brown was forced to sit chucking a towel into the Boston bench as he checked out Queta was called for his fourth foul moments later putting two Celtics starters in foul trouble with more than minutes still to play The Nets promptly ripped off a - run with Brown off the floor and took a - lead into the fourth quarter In search of a spark Mazzulla subbed in high-energy rookie Hugo Gonzalez who sat for the first three quarters and was a healthy DNP in the previous two games He also reinserted Queta Boston s best all-around big man by a wide margin this season That group staged a - run featuring two Queta putbacks and five points by Simons before Brown checked back in for Gonzalez with to play Brown this instant drew an offensive foul then fed an outlet pass to Walsh off a Simons steal then drove for a layup that cut Brooklyn s lead to - His shot at the rim one minute later missed the mark but Walsh soared in for a putback dunk that made it a two-point contest That however was as close as the Celtics would get Late -pointers by Demin and Michael Porter Jr followed by a pair of Porter dunks helped the Nets pull away The loss closed a favorable lull in the Celtics schedule Their last four games were against teams that entered Friday with a combined record of - The road gets much more challenging from here Up next on Boston s schedule are matchups with the Magic Sunday home Pistons Wednesday home Timberwolves next Saturday road Cavaliers next Sunday road and Knicks Tuesday Dec home Then after a one-game respite against the woebegone Wizards on Dec the Celtics will host LeBron James Luka Doncic and the Lakers in a Friday home tournament on the second night of a back-to-back then visit the upstart Raptors on Sunday Dec Detroit Toronto New York and Cleveland occupied the top four spots in the Eastern Conference standings entering Friday s action Los Angeles sat fourth in the West at - with Minnesota two spots back at - Orlando is on the upswing after a disappointing start winning four of its last five and eight of its last Those teams boast seven players who made an All-NBA company last season plus Doncic who leads the NBA in scoring in his first full season in Laker purple That daunting stretch will be an early test of Boston s bona fides Are the Celtics who boasted the league s eighth-best net rating before Friday s defeat the type of pesky hard-playing underdog that can stay competitive in a wide-open East even without injured superstar Jayson Tatum Or is there a giant gap between them and the class of contenders they re about to face