What went wrong for the Brooklyn Nets in their 148-111 beatdown at the hands of the Boston Celtics at TD Garden on Friday (Feb. 27) evening? Pretty much everything, it seems. A cycle of Boston getting the ball on offense in advantageous positions to put the Nets on their heels, only to see the process duplicated over and over again went down in a Groundhog Day-esque fashion defined the tenor of the historic shooting night for the Celtics.
“They got open, and they did not miss when they got open,” said Brooklyn big man Noah Clowney of that dynamic after the loss. “They drive, we help, they kick, swing 3 balls over and over and over and over.”
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“To be honest, they have players who are very hard to guard one-on-one, so they require help,” added the Nets center. “Somebody’s open, and at that point we’re in, we’re scrambling, and we didn’t scramble good enough.”
Feb 27, 2026; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown (7) shoots the ball over Brooklyn Nets center Nic Claxton (33) during the second half at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images
“I don’t think any of us go in with the mindset of we’re not going to compete,” he explained. “I think we’re all trying. But it gets to a point where they were like I said, they kept getting open, they kept making it. We weren’t capitalizing on that. Then they capitalized on them.”
“They shot like 70 percent from the field. I mean, they had 150 (sic) points down here. I don’t think anybody went in the game with the mindset of being lackadaisical. I think we all came with the mindset of ‘let’s try to get a win’.”
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Alas for them, that plan did not pan out, not that the home crowd minded one bit.
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This article originally appeared on Celtics Wire: Noah Clowney on what went wrong for Nets in 148-111 Celtics drubbing