Nets rally but Jayson Tatum helps Celtics pull away to victory

After nearly three weeks of home cooking, the Nets let a visitor steal the show to wrap up this stretch of 10 of 11 home games.

Jayson Tatum put on a first-half scoring clinic and keyed the Celtics to a 118-110 win Tuesday night. He finished with 41 points, 31 coming before halftime, and 14 rebounds.

Tatum’s first half nearly matched the 32 points he had in his last trip to Barclays Center on Nov. 4. It also was one fewer than the entire Nets starting five scored by halftime.

“Multiple things we could’ve done but I think just personally we were just messing up our coverages defensively as a team,” Mikal Bridges said.

“[Tatum] just had everywhere. It was threes, dunks, getting out in transition, getting wide-open ones, free dunks and stuff. We just got to be better in knowing what we’re doing.”

It took the Nets (21-32) too long to figure that out as they trailed by as many as 23 points in the second half and 16 in the fourth.

They rallied to cut the lead to six points multiple times but the Celtics (42-12) answered each one to keep them from getting closer.

Derrick White made a three-pointer to push the Celtics’ lead to nine points with 7:36 left. Later Jalen Wilson made a three with 2:24 remaining to bring the Nets to within 111-105 only for White, who finished with 16 points, to make another three.

Bridges answered with another three-pointer with 2:07 left to make it 114-108. But Tatum sliced through the Nets’ defense for a layup and the Celtics survived for their fifth consecutive win.

The teams play again Wednesday night in Boston, their final games before the All-Star break.

“We did mix things up a little bit,” coach Jacque Vaughn said. Got more aggressive in every facet of the game, whether it was in the post, pick-and-roll defense also. At times like that, you just have to scramble a little bit and cause some confusion. Hopefully you get rewarded for it.”

The Nets held the Celtics to just 46 points in the second half but it wasn’t enough. Nor was it enough only being out-rebounded 39-37 to the NBA’s leading rebounding team.

Bridges had 27 points and Cam Thomas finished with 26. Thomas scored 19 in the second half after the Celtics harassed him on defense and hunted for him on offense, often scoring on mismatches.

“[He] continued to fight and had his teammates really pull for him to have a better half,” coach Jacque Vaughn said of Thomas.

“So a lot goes to his credit, because that’s more than a physical battle, that’s a mental battle at that time against a really good team.”

The Nets matched the Celtics with 15 three-pointers but the damage was done in the first half with a pair of runs that led to 72-57 halftime lead.

The Celtics led 45-43 with 7:17 in the second then had an 8-0 run where Tatum and Brown scored each point. Then at 3:16 in the period, the Nets trailed 57-49 only to allow the Celtics to go on a 15-3 run.

“They’ve been together for a long time so you build those habits throughout those years,” Bridges said of the Celtics.

The Nets, meanwhile, fell back to 2 1⁄2 games out the last play-in tournament spot. Ben Simmons had five points, eight assists and six rebounds and Vaughn said he’ll be out Wednesday for injury maintenance.

Lonnie Walker IV had 15 points off the bench while Nic Claxton added 10 points and eight rebounds. Wilson had nine points in 22 minutes as the rookie continued to earn more trust in late-game situations.

All five Celtics’ starters scored in double figures with Jaylen Brown scoring 19 points.

By Evan Barnes

evan.barnes@newsday.comevan_b

Evan Barnes covers the Giants for Newsday. He previously covered the Brooklyn Nets, Memphis football and the Memphis Grizzlies and also covered prep sports in Los Angeles.