BOSTON — The Brooklyn Nets’ four-game winning streak came to an end with a 121-110 loss to the Boston Celtics at TD Garden on Wednesday night.
A hot-shooting second quarter had the Nets up at halftime against the Celtics, who came in with the Eastern Conference’s second-best record. The meeting was the first of a home-and-home between the two teams, with the Celtics due at Barclays Center for a noon game on Friday.
Trailing by 12 midway through the fourth quarter, the Nets cut the Boston lead to 104-101 with a 9-0 run. Spencer Dinwiddie knocked down a pair from the line, then fed Jarrett Allen on a lob. Joe Harris finished on a cut to the basket and a Garrett Temple 3-pointer made it a three-point game with 5:22 remaining.
But Kemba Walker answered with a 3-pointer for the Celtics, and Brad Wanamaker’s three-point play pushed the Boston lead back to nine.
Temple led Brooklyn with a season-high 22 points, including matching his career high with six 3-pointers on 12 attempts. Harris had 21, shooting 5-of-9 from 3-point range.
Allen posted his eighth double-double of the season — and his fifth in the last six games — with 17 points and 14 rebounds. Dinwiddie had his first double-double of the year with 16 points and 11 assists, while Theo Pinson posted a career-high eight assists. Taurean Prince added 12 points and David Nwaba had 10.
The Nets broke out for 40 points in the second quarter to take a 63-57 halftime lead.
Trailing 30-23 after the first quarter, Brooklyn opened up the second quarter with an 17-7 run that included three 3-pointers from Temple and tied the game at 37. After the third of Temple’s three straight threes, Pinson connected from deep as well, and Nwaba’s dunk slicing through a crowd had the Nets even.
Up by a point, the Nets continued to punish Boston from deep, with threes from Prince and Harris sandwiching an Allen rebound basket. The Harris three put Brooklyn up 60-51 with two minutes to go in the quarter, and at that point the Nets had outscored the Celtics 37-31 over the first 10 minutes of the quarter.
One last three from Dinwiddie had the Nets up by six at the break. Brooklyn’s outburst included 15-of-23 shooting for the quarter (65.2 percent), including 10-of-16 (62.5) from 3-point range. Temple made 4-of-6 3-pointer attempts in the first half and had 16 points at the break.
Two Prince threes in the opening minutes of the second half had the Nets up by eight, but Boston evened the game at 75 midway through the quarter. There were five lead changes over the back half of the quarter, but a 9-0 run gave the Celtics an eight-point lead before Temple’s fifth three of the game with 0.8 seconds left in the quarter made it a 91-86 game going into the fourth.
The Celtics outscored the Nets 13-6 over the first four minutes of the fourth quarter — threes by Prince and Nwaba the only Brooklyn baskets during that stretch — to take a 104-92 lead.