Final, Celtics 111-87: That’s 11 straight victories over the Nets and it was practically in the win column before the tip.
It improves Boston’s NBA-best road record to 16-5 and drops New Jersey to an unsightly 3-35 overall.
Seven Celtics landed in double figures, led by Paul Pierce with 24 points. Rajon Rondo had 14 assists, three shy of his career high.
Boston has a quick turnaround before hosting Chicago on national TV on Thursday night. We will be courtside for that one as the C’s look to improve to 3-0 against the Bulls this season.
Fourth quarter, 2:53, Celtics 101-82: We are limping to the finish in extended garbage time.
In case anyone is wondering when New Jersey pops up on the schedule again, it is Feb. 5 at TD Garden. The C’s also host the Nets at the end of the month, likely giving them a win entering March, which is an absolute bear.
Fourth quarter, 3:45, Celtics 101-80: Glen Davis looks as if he took one on his wrist but appears to be OK and will stay out there.
Bill Walker just beat the shot clock with a long jumper for his first points of the season. Meanwhile, J.R. Giddens has put up a real quality line thus far — two points, six rebounds an assist and a steal in just 11 minutes.
Fourth quarter, 5:48, Celtics 97-77: Yi Jianlian will have a free throw after the break to try to get the Nets’ deficit under 20 for the first time in nearly three quarters.
Bill Walker has checked in for Boston, looking for his first points of the season.
Fourth quarter, 6:18, Celtics 96-75: Although we gave him some love a little bit ago and his turnover-less streak remains alive, Eddie House is probably one of the few Celtics who may say he had a bad game tonight.
House has missed all seven of his shots in 13 minutes of play.
Fourth quarter, 8:06, Celtics 96-72: Bill Walker is the only Celtic we are waiting to see here. He has played just six minutes this season.
Fourth quarter, 8:57, Celtics 94-72: After the commercial timeout, New Jersey will have a chance to get its deficit down to 20 points for the first time since the start of the second quarter. The Nets have to take something positive from this game if they can.
They have outscored the C’s 37-23 in the second half.
Fourth quarter, 9:35, Celtics 94-70: With Eddie House in the game, it gives me a chance to highlight a stat you will only get here (I think).
Including 10 minutes in this game, House has now played over 180 straight minutes without committing a turnover. We will keep mentioning it until it ends.
End of third quarter, Celtics 90-64: The Nets offense woke up a bit in the third quarter, or the Celtics defense went to sleep. Either way, New Jersey has a good shot at avoiding the record books now as it was cruising toward the worst loss in the history between these teams.
It was all the way back on Halloween 1979 when the C’s defeated the Nets by 37 points to set that mark.
Still, it will be an 11th straight loss in the series for New Jersey.
Third quarter, 1:44, Celtics 88-62: It would be nice to see a fourth quarter without Paul Pierce, who just banged his right knee for the second time in the game and had to walk off the pain.
Third quarter, 2:15, Celtics 86-60: Rajon Rondo’s 14th assist is a bullet bass between multiple defenders to Paul Pierce.
Rondo’s career high in assists is 17, a mark he has reached twice before.
Third quarter, 4:25, Celtics 81-58: Yi Jianlian hits a 3-pointer and it is down to 23 points. It was just the second 3-pointer of the game for New Jersey.
Third quarter, 5:35, Celtics 81-53: It was an 16-6 run to open the second half for the Nets before the C’s score on consecutive possessions.
This game is a bit like one New Jersey played in Toronto back in December. In that one, the Raptors built a 70-33 halftime advantage before being outscored by 14 in the second half.
It was still a comfortable win for Toronto and figures to be so for Boston. Just thought it was worth mentioning.
Third quarter, 7:53, Celtics 75-49: The Nets have gone into a zone defense, a tactic Atlanta used to great success against Boston on Monday.
Third quarter, 8:25, Celtics 75-47: You could see this coming, couldn’t you? The Celts are looking a bit too nonchalant out of the locker room and have seen the Nets put together a 12-4 run to start the third quarter.
Third quarter, 10:18, Celtics 75-41: The Nets have actually scored six of the first 10 points of the second half. Fireworks are going off over the Hudson.
Third quarter, 11:55, Celtics 71-35: Doc Rivers has his starters out there to start the second half but they likely won’t stick around too long with a home game against Chicago on Thursday night.
Bill Walker is the only available player not to get in yet. He and guys like J.R. Giddens and Shelden Williams may establish season highs in minutes played as long as the margin is a wide one.
By the way, Paul Pierce’s 15 first-half points moved him into 43rd on the NBA’s all-time scoring list, passing Gail Goodrich.
Halftime, Celtics 71-35: The first half ends on a rather appropriate note as the Nets completely lose Ray Allen on an inbounds pass with 0.9 seconds left. Allen’s layup gives the Celtics their first 70-point half of the season and sends an already lost New Jersey bunch to the locker room searching for answers.
The C’s shot 68.4 percent in the half, outrebounded the Nets 25-13, got to the line 20 times and already have five players in double figures.
Rajon Rondo has 10 assists at the break. Kendrick Perkins has made all five of his shots. Paul Pierce has 15 points. Brian Scalabrine and Glen Davis both have 11.
Apologies for stating the obvious but the Nets are just horrible.
Second quarter, 1:44, Celtics 67-33: In case anyone is wondering what the Celtics’ record for points in a half is, it’s 91, accomplished in 1959 and 1960. Should be safe for another night, but the Celts are scoring at will.
Second quarter, 2:40, Celtics 62-31: Here’s something to chew on when you consider the mismatch here — with a little luck, Brian Scalabrine could flirt with a triple-double.
Read that sentence again for full effect.
Scal has 11 points, four assists and three rebounds. Before the break, Rajon Rondo, who has seven assists against zero turnovers, drove the lane completely untouched for a one-hand jam.
Second quarter, 4:40, Celtics 57-27: The lead reaches 30 for the first time as Tony Allen leaks ahead of the field after another Nets turnover.
Second quarter, 5:55, Celtics 50-27: The last thing you want to see in a game that is almost over already is another Celtic limping, especially Paul Pierce, who hobbled to the sideline heading into the timeout.
It appeared as if Pierce banged knees with someone and should be fine, but the sight of him limping is one you might want to get used to.
Pierce has both knees wrapped heavily in ice after games these days and has hobbled quite a bit entering the Celtics’ media room at the Garden the other night.
Second quarter, 6:23, Celtics 50-25: Just take a look at the score. You won’t see that too often.
Kendrick Perkins gets Boston to the half-century mark before the midway point of the second quarter. Perkins has made all four of his shots.
Second quarter, 7:34, Celtics 48-25: Paul Pierce to Tony Allen for a powerful alley-oop that looked a bit more like a video game than anything we see in real life.
At some point we will start to feel bad for New Jersey, but for now this is quite a performance by the C’s.
Second quarter, 8:35, Celtics 46-22: This is downright ugly, but I can’t stop smiling for some reason.
Tony Allen just had a strip and layup while being fouled and the Celtics lead just continues to build, while the Nets futility continues to amaze.
New Jersey is 0-for-5 with two turnovers in a scoreless second quarter thus far.
Second quarter, 11:00, Celtics 42-22: It’s not garbage time yet but it almost has that feel here early in the second quarter.
The Celtics’ lineup consists of Giddens, House, Davis, Allen (Tony) and Williams to open the quarter.
End of first quarter, Celtics 38-22: Where do we start? How about the numbers. They seem to tell the story of the C’s dominance in the first quarter.
In the first 12 minutes, Boston:
–shot 67 percent (12-of-18) from the floor.
–had 11 assists on 12 baskets
–had an 11-6 advantage on the boards
–made 4-of-7 3-pointers.
–matched its best scoring output for one quarter all season.
It’s tough to see this one going the other way, but Boston has shown a tendency to let up from time to time of late, notably in two losses to Atlanta in which it lost second-half leads. Let’s hold off on updating the standings for now.
First quarter, 2:10, Celtics 35-17: When you don’t watch a team on a regular basis, you wonder how it can be so bad. Then you get a few minutes with the Nets and it all makes sense.
The C’s are dominating on every front here early on against a New Jersey team that literally has no physical presence whatsoever.
This has already matched the Celtics’ highest-scoring first quarter of the season.
First quarter, 4:15, Celtics 30-13: This is a 21-6 run overall for the Celtics, who may hit the 200-point mark at this rate.
First quarter, 5:25, Celtics 23-13: Kendrick Perkins gets a decided edge early on in his matchup with Brook Lopez.
Perkins has made all three of his shots for six quick points, while blocking one of Lopez’s and forcing the Nets big man into a traveling violation moments ago.
First quarter, 6:24, Celtics 20-11 : We gave you these numbers in Brian Scalabrine’s first start Monday, but it’s worth another mention after he gets off to a nice start here.
Scalabrine had made just one shot in 19 attempts over a miserable 11-game stretch before he buried all three of his 3-pointers Monday to end the slump.
He has five points and a pair of assists early on for the Celts, who are 8-of-9 from the floor.
First quarter, 8:00, Celtics 13-7: Early lines for the Celtics:
–5-of-6 from the field
–1-of-2 from 3-point range
–2-of-2 from the line.
First quarter, 9:08, Celtics 9-7: A nice start for Paul Pierce, who has a 3-pointer and a dunk to go with an early assist.
First quarter, 11:55, 0-0: We’re underway in a matchup of Atlantic Division “Haves” and “Have-nots”.
Keep your eye on, of all things, the Brian Scalabrine-Yi Jianlian matchup. Before he picked up his fourth foul and never returned Monday against Atlanta, Scalabrine actually outplayed the high-flying Josh Smith.
Scal locked down Smith on the defensive end in impressive fashion and contributed three big 3-pointers for the C’s. He will be called upon for another solid defensive effort against Yi, who has averaged 18.4 points in nine games since returning from a sprained knee that robbed him of seven weeks.
7:20 p.m.: The starting lineups are in at the IZOD Center.
Boston goes with Rajon Rondo, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, Brian Scalabrine and Kendrick Perkins.
The Nets throw out Devin Harris and Courtney Lee at guard, Chris Douglas-Roberts and Yi Jianlian at forward and Brook Lopez underneath.
7:13 p.m.: We have received a pair of injury updates.
Rasheed Wallace, unsurprisingly, is out for the second straight game with his sore left forefoot. The Nets will have the services of Devin Harris, who missed his last game with wrist pain.
We are still waiting on the rest of the starters. It is expected that Brian Scalabrine will start in Wallace’s place again. Scalabrine had nine points and five rebounds in 21 minutes in Monday’s loss to Atlanta.
By the way, Doc Rivers was slapped with a $25,000 fine today for arguing with officials Monday. Rivers was given two quick technical fouls and kept at it for a bit after receiving his ejection in the wake of a flagrant foul call on Glen Davis.
4:24 p.m.: With five losses in their last eight games and an injury list that keeps growing, the Celtics could use a break. Enter the New Jersey Nets.
Boston visits the Izod Center for a matchup with the Nets, who are on pace to set an NBA record for the fewest wins in a season. We will be tracking all the action right here. Tip is set for 7:30 p.m.The C’s tough stretch continued Monday at home when they announced just minutes before a 102-96 loss to Atlanta that Rasheed Wallace — coming off his best game as a Celtic — was unavailable with a sore foot.
Wallace is expected to be out through the end of the week, at least, putting him on the shelf alongside Kevin Garnett and Marquis Daniels.
The 3-34 Nets have dropped five in a row. But before fans mail this one in as a win, recall the first meeting between these teams this season.
On this same court on Nov. 7, a shorthanded New Jersey team with just eight healthy players came within six points in the closing minutes before falling to the C’s 86-76.
Devin Harris was out for the Nets in that one, and he missed Sunday’s loss to San Antonio with a sore right wrist. He said he expects to return for this one.
