After trailing just 46-45 at halftime on Monday night, the Celtics suddenly disappeared.
In the blink of an eye, the Brooklyn Nets blew the game out of the water with a 15-0 run to start the third quarter, totaling 44 points in the period — 18 from point guard D’Angelo Russell — on a Boston defense that was nowhere to be found.
“We were guarding for three quarters tonight,” said Celtics coach Brad Stevens. “We chose one of the middle ones to take off. Third-quarter defense was awful. Obviously, they scored 44 and D’Angelo got going. We didn’t get a stop or a rebound there for the first four minutes of the quarter.