New Celtics Fall to Deron Williams and the Old Celtics

With the Brooklyn Nets abysmal record (6-14) coming into tonight's game against the Celtics, one might forecast the Celtics to rollover the Nets as they had done against the Knicks on Sunday.  But this was not the case.  The Net saw the return of Deron Williams (ankle) and Paul Pierce (broken hand) to the line up, and, together they had the Nets looking like the team that many had predicted during the pre-season to be one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference.  Williams led all scorers with 25 points along with 7 assists.  Pierce, who was wearing a protective glove to protect his recently fracture shooting hand, wasn't looking for his shot, but did an effective job of running the offense as a point forward whenever Williams went to the bench.  The Nets looked like a completely different team than they have been over the past several weeks when their two best playmakers were sidelined with injuries. The Celtics also had problems stopping Brook Lopez, who seemed to score with ease over whomever was assigned to guard him (Lopez scored 24 points on 10-13 shooting).  Undersized Jared Sullinger and Brandon Bass and slow-footed Faverani were not match for the taller more athletic Lopez.  Kevin Garnett also had a decent scoring night with 11 points on 5-10 shooting.  Avery Bradley led all Celtics with 22 points.  Jeff Green added 19, including make 4 of 4 3 pointers.  Credit Brad Stevens for trying to give the Nets different looks to get the Celtics during the game.  In the second half after the Nets had broken away for a 17 point lead, Stevens had the Celtics applying full court pressure on the Nets, which allowed the Celtics to tie up the score. The Celtics also had Sullinger shooting threes at the beginning of the second half, which succeeded in drawing Lopez out of the paint until the Nets changed up their defensive assignments.  Celtics kept themselves in the game with great 3-point shooting, making 11 of 22 3-point attempts during the game.  But Celtics just didn't have enough in them tonight to overtake the Nets.  They just didn't show the kind of killer instinct they had during the recent win streak. I credit this to the fact that Pierce and Garnett were on the other team.  The Celtics seemed a bit too friendly with their opponent this evening, often laughing or smiling with former teammates Garnett and Pierce as they lined up for free throws and at other points during the game.