Celtics Fall To Jokić-Less Nuggets At Home Despite 33 Points From Jaylen Brown

The Boston Celtics entered Wednesday’s matchup with the Denver Nuggets having won four games in a row and eight of their last nine. ESPN had the Celtics ranked as the No. 4 team in the NBA in new power rankings released earlier in the day. Vibes were good.

But Boston ran out of gas against a Nuggets team that came into TD Garden and played with superior force and energy, despite playing without the NBA’s best player, Nikola Jokić (or perhaps because of it).

The Celtics got off to a strong start in the first quarter, but Denver’s hot shooting from the outside balanced the scales. By the time the fourth period rolled around, Boston looked exhausted and Denver took things up a notch, winning the quarter

Jaylen Brown continued his high-scoring ways by dropping 33 points on 14-of-29 from the field and 4-of-6 from 3. Derrick White and Payton Pritchard had tough shooting nights: White tallied 17 points on 7-of-19 from the field and 3-of-12 from 3; Pritchard scored 17 points on 5-of-13 from the field and 1-of-6 from 3.

Anfernee Simons continued his Sixth Man of the Year campaign with 15 efficient points off the bench on 3-of-4 from 3.

Peyton Watson led the Nuggets in scoring with 29 points on an absurd 6-of-7 from beyond the arc. The Nuggets shot 45 percent from 3 on the night (20-for-44), which is definitely what doomed the Celtics more than anything else. Boston held Jamal Murray to just 21 points, which you’d think would be the main ingredient for a win.

The Celtics made things interesting at the end. After some Watson missed free throws, Boston actually cut the lead to three with 6.5 seconds left, but Denver called timeout and successfully inbounded the ball to Murray, who hit 1-of-2 free throws to put the game out of reach.

Next up for the Celts is a back-to-back at TD Garden: Friday against the Toronto Raptors and Saturday against the San Antonio Spurs.