Drained at the end of a four-game West Coast swing, the Celtics turned in their worst shooting performance of the season in Wednesday’s loss to the Denver Nuggets.
Two nights later, they delivered one of the best in NBA history.
Back on the TD Garden parquet for the first time in 15 days, Boston walloped the Brooklyn Nets 148-111 while shooting an eye-popping 66.7% from the field and 64.7% from 3-point range (22-for-34).
The Celtics were shooting nearly 70% before late misses by end-of-the-bench players dropped their average. Even with that dip, their 80.8% effective field-goal percentage was a single-game NBA record, as was their 82.6% true shooting percentage. Their field-goal percentage was the second-best in franchise history, trailing only a 1984 game against Golden State in which they shot 67.9%.
The 148 points were Boston’s most in a game since Nov. 1, 2023.
“That was pretty good, especially coming off a West Coast trip,” Jaylen Brown said. “I thought that was pretty good — a good sign. We were due for some makes, though. I felt like even in the Denver game (when the Celtics shot a season-worst 35%), we got a bunch of great looks that we just didn’t knock down. And tonight, we didn’t let it affect us. We came out and just played good Celtics basketball.”
Brown was on pace for his fourth triple-double of the season before sitting out the entire fourth quarter with his team up big. Boston’s top option finished with 28 points, nine assists and seven rebounds on uber-efficient 9-of-12 shooting (4-for-4 from three).
The lopsided victory also featured Nikola Vucevic’s best game in Celtics green. The veteran big man bounced back from his 1-for-7 eyesore against Denver by scoring 28 points on 9-of-13, hitting all three of his 3-pointers and all seven of his free throws, and registering 11 rebounds, four assists and a block in 35 minutes.
Vucevic was a plus-35 in the win, second only to the plus-40 posted by Payton Pritchard, who also struggled against the Nuggets. Pritchard’s final line: 22 points, 9-for-12, 4-for-5 from three, six assists in 28 minutes.
The 15-win Nets are one of the NBA’s worst teams — only Indiana and Sacramento owned worse records entering Friday — but they played the Celtics tough in the teams’ previous two matchups, winning in Boston on Nov. 21 and losing in double overtime on Jan. 23. This one was close for much of the first half, but the C’s blew them away by scoring 43 points in the third quarter and 39 in the fourth.
The 39-20 Celtics — who are 20-0 this season when they make at least 17 3-pointers — will host the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday (8 p.m.).
Neemias Queta opened the game with an impressive defensive display, registering two steals and a block in the first 2:13 after tipoff. One of those led to a fast-break dunk that gave Boston an early 7-2 lead. Queta followed that up with two quick fouls, however, and head coach Joe Mazzulla replaced him with Vucevic after four minutes.
Vucevic then spearheaded a supremely efficient first quarter by Boston’s offense, which shot a sizzling 70% from the field (14-for-20) and made all six of its 3-point attempts. The 35-year-old center tallied 10 points and five rebounds in the opening frame despite missing a few bunnies around the basket.
“I think the reads called for it,” Mazzulla said of Vucevic’s heavy involvement. “I thought our spacing was good. I thought his screening was good. I thought we found the advantage quickly, and I thought we just kept hammering that, so it’s a credit to him and his screening and his execution, and then to the guys finding him in advantages to make plays for himself or for others.”
Brown has urged Vucevic — Boston’s top trade-deadline acquisition — to be more aggressive, and he liked what he saw from his newest teammate in that area. Vucevic’s seven free-throw attempts were his most in a game this season.
“I’m still getting used to, obviously, the new offense and all my teammates and learning their tendencies and finding my way,” Vucevic said. “At times, I feel like I overthink a little bit, which then makes me kind of hesitant and takes away my aggressiveness. I feel like tonight, I was able to put a little more together and play off my teammates. When I was getting good looks, shots were falling, so obviously that helps. But just have to find the right balance of still playing my game, be aggressive, use my instincts, but make it fit with what we want to run.”
Derrick White and Baylor Scheierman shot a combined 5-for-5 from deep in the first. Pritchard added two triples early in the second.
The Celtics’ shakiest shooter early on was Brown, who scored two first-quarter points while going 0-for-4 from the foul line. He said shoulder tightness hindered him early in the game, but “after I warmed up a little bit, it got going, and I felt fine.”
The Nets — who had lost their previous six games and nine of their last 11 — hung around, thanks in part to a strong initial shift by Josh Minott. The Celtics trade-deadline castoff scored his first basket in a Brooklyn uniform on a soaring poster dunk over Hugo Gonzalez, then closed out the first quarter with a putback off a missed free throw.
Minott also converted a contested layup against Vucevic and hit a corner three in his return to TD Garden. It was the first meaningful playing time the 23-year-old had seen with the Nets, who assigned him to the G League after acquiring him from Boston on Feb. 5 and only used him in garbage time in his Brooklyn debut on Thursday.
Nic Claxton and Michael Porter Jr. combined for 25 first-half points on 10-of-18 shooting, and Brooklyn trailed by four with less than a minute remaining in the second quarter.
A Brown-led scoring binge stretched Boston’s lead to double digits early in the second half. The All-Star wing scored nine points in the final 2:21 before halftime and seven more in the first two minutes of the third quarter, interrupted only by an assist on a Queta layup.
“Just staying the course,” Brown said. “Just managing the emotion of the game, not making anything or doing anything out of character, just trying to get off to a good start. I thought we got off to a slow start, partially because of me. But the game continues on, and you figure it out.”
The Nets rallied, ripping off an 8-0 run that made it a six-point game. But 3-pointers by White, Vucevic and Sam Hauser, plus two Brown free throws, put the Celtics ahead 90-76 with 4:51 to play in the third.
Those threes were part of a 19-4 run that broke the game open. The Celtics then closed the quarter with an 11-2 run — capped by Brown’s sixth triple of the night and a Gonzalez block — to take a 109-83 lead into the fourth.
Boston’s lead reached 35 points before Mazzulla began emptying his bench with more than seven minutes remaining. It peaked at 41, with deep reserves Luka Garza, Dalano Banton and John Tonje all getting extended run as the fourth quarter wound down.
Tonje’s two points were the first of his NBA career, and Banton’s four were his first as a Celtic this season. Both players are on 10-day contracts that expire on Saturday.
