The Boston Celtics welcomed a full capacity crowd for the first time in over 14 months on Sunday, but that did not seem to bother the Brooklyn Nets as Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant led the way in a blowout victory to take a 3-1 series lead.
To no surprise, Irving heard jeers from the vocal Boston crowd every time he touched the ball. He still managed a bounce-back performance after an underwhelming Game 3 performance, finishing with 39 points and 11 rebounds. Kevin Durant was also unstoppable with a game-high 42 points. James Harden added 23 points and a playoff career-high 18 assists. The trio combined for 104 points, accounting for about 74% of Brooklyn’s points in the game.
The fact that Kemba Walker (knee) and Robert Williams (ankle) joined Boston’s injury report for Game 4 did not help the Celtics. Jayson Tatum scored 40 points but it was not nearly enough for Boston to keep up with the high power offense of Brooklyn. Marcus Smart had 16 points and nine assists.
Following a closely contested first quarter, the Nets opened up the game in the second and never looked back. It appeared as though the Nets were scoring for fun at times and Brooklyn held a 27 point lead at one point. The Celtics were simply unable to slow down Brooklyn’s offense or string together any sort of run to get back into the game.
The Nets are now one win away from a birth in the Eastern Conference Semifinals for the first time since 2014. The series will shift back to Brooklyn with Game 5 slated for Tuesday night at 7:30 PM EST.