Biofreeze Keys to the Game: Celtics 116, Nets 95

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The Boston Celtics have really been whipping the ball around on offense for the last week and a half. That trend continued during Monday night’s 116-95 win over Brooklyn, and it highlighted the game’s most important run.

This run totaled only seven points, but they were seven points that pumped life into the Celtics’ offense.

Boston’s once-20-point lead dropped all the way down to five early on in the third quarter while its offense went stale. However, it relocated its rhythm midway through the quarter thanks to ball movement, ball movement that provided the Celts with a 16-point advantage.

Kyrie Irving triggered the C’s offense by pushing the ball out in transition after a missed 3-pointer by Rodions Kurucs with 6:22 left in the third period. Irving put pressure on the Nets’ defense, dropped a pass off to the trailing Al Horford, and then Horford whipped another pass across the court to Marcus Morris on the left wing. Morris caught the pass, squared up to the rack and swished home a 3 to push the C’s ahead by 12.

Less than a minute later, after Boston had held the Nets scoreless on consecutive possessions, Horford connected with Irving for another bucket. This one was of the two-point variety.

With the C’s yet again setting up transition offense, Horford ran a dribble-hand-off with Marcus Smart, but he faked the hand-off to Smart. Irving, who was standing in the right corner of the court, saw the move and darted behind his defender, who was ball-watching, to the basket. Horford hit him with a beautiful, right-handed bounce pass and Irving kissed one off the glass for two.

Irving returned the favor to his big man just 34 seconds later when the duo ran a spectacular two-man play. Irving set a screen for Horford, who caught a pass from Morris, and then Horford handed the ball off to Irving while Irving curled around him. As Irving took possession of the ball, Horford then opened up and flared toward the corner before Irving hit him with a wrap-around pass. Horford took care of the rest by cashing in on a 16-foot jumper while simultaneously giving Boston a 16-point advantage.

Those three straight assists really woke up Boston’s offense. As a result, the Nets never had a chance at staging a comeback.

The C’s wound up tallying a season-high 37 assists on the night, including 17 that were logged over the final 18-plus minutes of action, beginning with that Horford dish to Morris.

Let’s give Daniel Theis some love! After all, it’s not often that he’ll flirt with a double-double while coming off of the bench.

Theis did exactly that during his 19-plus minutes of action against the Nets. He accumulated 11 points and eight rebounds during those minutes, falling just two boards shy of his second double-double of the season.

Diving a bit deeper will give even more context as to how well Theis played. He hit five of his six shots from the field and did not commit a single turnover. He also hauled in three offensive rebounds to triple up the next-highest total on the team, to go along with his two blocked shots.

Boston was great while he was on the floor, as it outscored the Nets by 17 points. Only Terry Rozier, with a plus-19, finished with a better plus/minus rating on the night.

Brad Stevens on Marcus Smart's 3-point shooting.