Back at Barclays Center, the Brooklyn Nets marked their first home game in 19 days with a 110-96 win over the Boston Celtics, improving to 39-38 with five games left in the season.
After a sluggish scoring start, the Nets came alive on the offensive end in the second quarter and followed D'Angelo Russell's scintillating third-quarter shooting show in rolling up a 19-point lead.
The Celtics got back within 10 points three minutes into the fourth quarter, but the Nets quickly pushed the lead back to 16 points over the next few minutes, with Russell setting up Joe Harris and Caris LeVert for scores that put Brooklyn up 100-84.
Russell posted a double-double with 29 points and 10 assists, and Caris LeVert had 15 points. Harris and DeMarre Carroll added 13 points each. Jarrett Allen had 10 points and seven rebounds.
After shooting 28 percent in the first quarter (7-for-25), the Nets shot 53.4 percent (31-for-58) the rest of the way.
The Nets took a one-point halftime lead on the strength of a 17-3 run in the second quarter.
Boston led 21-17 after the first quarter and stretched that lead to 11 points with a 7-0 burst to open the second quarter. The Celtics were still up 38-30 midway through the quarter before the Nets got things going on the offensive end.
Spencer Dinwiddie finished a drive, Treveon Graham knocked down a three and LeVert scored to bring the Nets within a point before Marcus Morris hit a three for the. Celtics. Carroll answered with two free throws for Brooklyn followed by a LeVert 3-pointer that put the Nets in front. A Harris jumper and a Carroll 3-pointer put the Nets up 47-41.
Brooklyn closed the half with a 49-48 lead after shooting 11-for-19 in the second quarter.
Russell kept Brooklyn's hot hand going after that, exploding for 20 third-quarter points as the Nets built a 19-point lead.
The Nets came out of halftime on a 10-2 run with a pair of Russell threes around a Carroll rebound basket followed by an Allen dunk in transition off Russell's assist.
The point guard was just getting warmed up. He scored Brooklyn's next nine points, and after a Harris 3-pointer, Russell converted his fourth three of the quarter before dropping home a high-arcing scoop shot off a drive for a 76-57 Nets lead with 4:39 to go in the quarter.
Brooklyn went on to take an 82-70 lead into the fourth quarter.
UP NEXT
The Eastern Conference's top two teams are bound for Barclays Center, with the first-place Milwaukee Bucks due in on Monday and the second-place Toronto Raptors following in on Wednesday.