Boston-Brooklyn was the most anticipated meeting of the first round of the Eastern Conference, between the second and the seventh. The confrontation, of a sacred intensity, kept all its promises and ended with the victory of Boston which imposed itself on the wire, at the last second, 115-114.
Throughout the match, the two teams went blow for blow. At the end of the first period, it was a perfect tie, 61-61. The third quarter turned to Boston’s advantage, which widened the gap and finished with an 11-point lead (96-85).
But Brooklyn, led by monstrous Kyrie Irving (leading scorer with 39 points, also author of 6 assists, 5 rebounds, 4 steals), reversed the trend in the first minutes of the last quarter. Two minutes from the end, the two teams still could not decide. The other boss of the Nets, Kevin Durant (23 points but at 9/24) notably missed a crucial shot in the last moments. And while Brooklyn seemed on the verge of winning (114-113), Celtics winger Jayson Tatum (31 points, 8 assists), crucified the Nets in the last second (115-114) after a rather mind-blowing collective action, of a high-class lay-up by winding up his defender, Kyrie Irving, late on the action.
Game 2, in this series which starts on an exceptional basis, will take place on the night of Wednesday to Thursday, still at TD Garden.