The Nets have now accomplished something in the last 13 days that they had not done in more than half a decade: they have beaten the Boston Celtics twice in one season. Their win total from the month of November against the Celtics matches the number of wins they had against Boston in the last five seasons combined.
Nets Coach Avery Johnson is not about to declare a changing of the guard in the Atlantic Division, which the Celtics have ruled over the last five years. But after his team’s fourth straight victory and its first 10-victory month since 2006, Johnson said: “People are starting to take notice. We are a mentally and physically tough team.”
The Nets showed it Wednesday night in taking a 95-83 victory in a game that was marred by a fight late in the second quarter that resulted in the ejections of Rajon Rondo, Kris Humphries and Gerald Wallace. Even without two starters, and with Brook Lopez in foul trouble, the Nets kept their composure and relied on their bench, getting a season-high 17 points from Jerry Stackhouse and the first double-double of the season from Andray Blatche (17 points, 13 rebounds.)
“We’re not going to back down,” Deron Williams said. “It’s not about being tough guys or anything like that. But we’re not going to back down. We did a good job of keeping our composure.”
Johnson added: “There was a lot of swings down there. Guys were going in to try and rescue their teammates. That’s the type of team we have. If you’re in an alley fight, we’ve got guys you’d like to be in there with.”
Humphries did not speak to reporters after the game, but he posted a picture on Twitter showing scratches on his upper left arm and shoulder and asked if anyone knew where he could find a tetanus shot in Boston.
Wallace and Rondo declined to comment.
The fallout from the altercation is likely to affect the Celtics, who could lose Rondo to a suspension because he appeared to throw a punch. The referee James Capers said, “Rondo initiated everything that proceeded after the foul.”
The ejection ended Rondo’s streak of having at least 10 assists in a game at 37, tying the Hall of Famer John Stockton for the second-longest such streak in N.B.A. history (Magic Johnson’s 46-game streak is at No. 1.). Rondo had three assists when he was ejected. He missed the Celtics’ first game against the Nets with a sprained right ankle.
While Johnson and Williams were celebrating the Nets’ resilience and toughness, Celtics Coach Doc Rivers was furious after yet another lackluster performance by his team. The Celtics are 4-4 at home and are in fourth place in the Atlantic, a division they won by an average of 17.5 games between 2007-8 and 2010-11.
“That was awful, basketball-wise,” Rivers said. “I thought, If I’m Brooklyn, and the league, you’ve got to think we’re pretty soft the way we’re playing. We’re a soft team right now.”
He added about the fight: “We have no toughness. And that stuff is not toughness.”
The Nets led by 16 when the fight began late in the first half. They led by 13 at the half, by 15 after three and never let the Celtics make a run as Boston could get no closer than 9 points. The victory put the Nets six games over .500 for the first time since the end of the 2005-6 season.
Joe Johnson led the Nets with 18 points. The Nets outrebounded the Celtics, 50-40, with Lopez (10), Reggie Evans (10) and Blatche (a season-high 13) all in double figures. The Nets also had a 23-11 advantage in second-chance points and connected on 10 3-pointers to one for the Celtics.
“We’re trying to hold our own at this point,” Joe Johnson said. “If you want to do anything special in the Eastern Conference, the Boston Celtics are in the way.”
In the first four years of the Kevin Garnett era in Boston, the Celtics won the division title by an average of 17.5 games a season. The closest team to them in those four years were the 2010 Raptors, who finished 10 games behind the Celtics.
The Nets were nowhere to be seen in those years. The Celtics have yet to play the Knicks this season, but in two games, but in two games against the Nets, they have seen that there is at least one more team ready to put up a fight.