BOSTON
The Celtics now control their own fate in their quest to secure the Eastern Conference’s top playoff seed.
Isaiah Thomas scored 27 points to help Boston beat back a fourth-quarter charge and defeat the Brooklyn Nets 114-105 on Monday night.
The win clinched the Atlantic Division title and no worse than the No. 2 seed for the Celtics. More importantly, with Cleveland’s overtime loss at Miami on Monday night, a Boston win in its regular-season finale against Milwaukee on Wednesday would give the Celtics the No. 1 seed.
But if Boston loses to the Bucks and Cleveland wins its finale against Toronto, the Cavs would own the tiebreaker by virtue of their 3-1 head-to-head record with Boston.
Thomas said being this position “means a lot.”
“It says a lot about this team,” Thomas said. “We’ve been through ups and downs. … We just kept going. That says a lot about who we are.”
After Monday’s win several players gathered in the trainer’s room to watch the end of Cleveland’s game with Miami. When the Cavs tied it late in OT on Deron Williams’ 3 before he completed four-point play to put them up one, screams could be heard from inside. Clapping was heard again from the same room when the Heat finished their victory, cementing the Celtics’ chance to claim top seed Wednesday.
Al Horford added 19 points and eight rebounds. Avery Bradley finished with 18 points and five rebounds.
“It shows that we’re starting to play the right way,” Bradley said.
Brooklyn trailed by 27 in the third quarter before an 18-5 run got it back into the game.
The Nets got as close as six in the fourth, but Thomas and Horford combined for 15 points in the period to help secure the victory.
Jeremy Lin led the Nets with 26 points and 12 rebounds. Brook Lopez finished with 25 points, and passed Buck Williams to become the franchise’s career leading scorer with a jumper late in the fourth quarter.
Playing on a day’s rest following its win at Charlotte on Saturday, Boston led by as many as 21 in the first half.
Next — The Celtics finish the regular season at home against Milwaukee on Wednesday.
Comments are not available on this story. Read more about why we allow commenting on some stories and not on others.
We believe it's important to offer commenting on certain stories as a benefit to our readers. At its best, our comments sections can be a productive platform for readers to engage with our journalism, offer thoughts on coverage and issues, and drive conversation in a respectful, solutions-based way. It's a form of open discourse that can be useful to our community, public officials, journalists and others.
We do not enable comments on everything — exceptions include most crime stories, and coverage involving personal tragedy or sensitive issues that invite personal attacks instead of thoughtful discussion.
You can read more here about our commenting policy and terms of use. More information is also found on our FAQs.
Show less