{"id":509165,"date":"2026-02-28T06:33:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T06:33:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/509165\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T06:33:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T06:33:23","slug":"celtics-defeat-nets-post-one-of-nbas-best-offensive-performances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/509165\/","title":{"rendered":"Celtics defeat Nets, post one of NBA’s best offensive performances"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOSTON — The Celtics<\/a> have been one of the NBA’s hottest teams since returning from the All-Star break.<\/p>\n

They can add one of the best offensive performances in league history to their list of accomplishments as they await a possible return of star Jayson Tatum<\/a> to action.<\/p>\n

Boston shot a season-high 66.7% (52-of-78) from the field in their 148-111 win<\/a> over the Brooklyn Nets<\/a> on Friday. Including the playoffs, it was the club’s third-highest percentage in a game in the shot clock era (since 1954-55), behind 67.9% in 1984 and 67.0% in 1990, according to ESPN Research.<\/p>\n

The Celtics also shot 64.7% from the 3-point line Friday, which equated to an 80.8% effective field goal percentage — the highest in the shot clock era. Effective field goal percentage measures shooting efficiency by adjusting for the fact that 3-pointers are worth more than two-point shots<\/p>\n

All-Star Jaylen Brown<\/a> led the way, finishing with 28 points, nine assists and seven rebounds. But he got plenty of support from his teammates, with trade deadline acquisition Nikola Vucevic<\/a> adding 28 points and 11 rebounds for his third double-double as a member of the Celtics.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

1 Related<\/p>\n

“I thought we just did a good job reading the game,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. “I thought we made the right reads throughout most of the entire game. I thought tonight Vooch really looked comfortable in his offensive reads and his offensive screening. He unlocked a lot of stuff for us.”<\/p>\n

All 13 Celtics players scored, with Boston committing only three turnovers after halftime.<\/p>\n

“We just try to read the game and take what’s there,” Brown said.<\/p>\n

Boston, winners of five of its six games since the All-Star break, will wait to see if Sunday night’s home matchup with the Philadelphia 76ers<\/a> will mark the return of Tatum.<\/p>\n

The game, originally scheduled to be played earlier in the day, was moved by NBC into an 8 p.m. ET prime-time slot, creating speculation it could signal Tatum’s plan to return.<\/p>\n

It’s been 41 weeks since Tatum ruptured his right Achilles tendon in May in the waning minutes of the Celtics’ loss to the New York Knicks<\/a> in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals.<\/p>\n

The Celtics are required by the NBA to release an initial injury report by 5 p.m. ET on Saturday ahead of Sunday’s home game against the 76ers.<\/p>\n

After practicing with the Celtics’ G League team two weeks ago, Tatum said he hadn’t decided whether he would return.<\/p>\n

“It doesn’t mean that I’m coming back or I’m not, it’s just following the plan. So it’s just another step,” Tatum said. “I don’t know percentage. I just know I feel a little bit better every day. I just try to focus on that.”<\/p>\n

Tatum said in the same interview that he is also mindful of not wanting to disrupt the progress of a Celtics team that at 39-20 sits in second place in the Eastern Conference standings.<\/p>\n

“I’m just hyper aware of what’s going on. I think it would just stem from that. Obviously, I know what I bring to the table and bring to the team. But I’m also aware that these guys have been playing extremely well,” Tatum said.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON — The Celtics have been one of the NBA’s hottest teams since returning from the All-Star break.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-509165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}