Defense steps up: 10 Takeaways from Boston Celtics-Brooklyn Nets

1. The Boston Celtics had their latest win streak snapped at five when the lost at home in overtime to the Miami Heat. The question when a streak is snapped is: Does a new streak start the other way?

The Celtics did a good job at the Brooklyn Nets of making sure they got back on track. It was one of Boston’s worst offensive efforts of the season, but it came on a night when the team really locked in on the defensive end.

The Nets shot just 40.5%, while Boston also forced 15 turnovers. That offset some sloppy offense and shooting from the Celtics, including some weird troubles at the rim.

The ability to bounce back and beat a good team is good. But what’s really good is seeing the Celtics still have the ability to shut a team down. Boston has been a bit uneven on defense, but the ability is still there, and this was without their two best defenders too. Definitely a good sign of things to come.

2. Jaylen Brown in the first quarter is a truly wild thing. He’s gotten Boston off to countless great starts over the last two years. This game was no different.

Brown had already hit a couple of threes before this deep pull:

This was a fake DHO to get Brown working in space on an ATO. He does a great job of creating separation from Kevin Durant for this finish:

Even though he was scorching hot, Brown did a good job of not forcing shots. He draws two defenders here and makes the smart kickout pass to Malcolm Brogdon:

Brown’s 20-point first quarter was just a part of an overall great game. He finished with 34 points on 10-of-20 shooting, including 5-of-9 from behind the arc and 9-of-11 at the free throw line. But Brown also grabbed 10 rebounds, blocked a career-high four shots (more on that in a bit). The best number of all? Zero turnovers.

3. The third quarter was the worst quarter of basketball Boston has played this year. The Celtics scored 13 points on 4-of-16 shooting out of the break. They also had eight turnovers (six regular giveaways and two shot-clock violations). That’s 20 empty possessions out of 24 overall possessions in the period.

The good news? The Nets weren’t much better. Brooklyn hit 8-of-20 shots and turned it over three times themselves. That allowed the Nets to only cut six points off the Celtics 12-point halftime lead.

4. Part of the reason Boston acquired Malcolm Brogdon was in hopes he’d steady things when everything was going sideways. Brogdon did exactly that late in the third quarter and early…