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Kyrie Irving scores 20 in an embarrassing 139-96 loss to the Celtics

The Brooklyn Nets took a trip to TD Garden on Wednesday to face the Boston Celtics and lost 139-96. Boston leads the regular-season series 3-0.

For the Nets, Kyrie Irving had 20 points and four assists while Cam Thomas had 19 points off the bench. Joe Harris had 12 points and Nic Claxton had nine points.

For the Celtics, Jayson Tatum had 31 points and nine rebounds while Jaylen Brown had 26 points and three assists. Robert Williams III had 16 points and Derrick White had 14 points.

In a game that was a blowout from the beginning, it appeared that the Nets did not come to play in this one. Since the opening tip, Brooklyn did not play an ounce of defense and no one had a good game offensively when the game was still winnable.

In a game that Brooklyn lost by 43 points, the Nets were able to get the score down to as many as 22 points in the second quarter, but with that big of a deficit, it’s hard to make up that ground against a great team like the Celtics. Boston won this game in every facet and Brooklyn has to flush this loss down the toilet and move on to Saturday.

Here are your Nets player grades:

Kyrie Irving: C+

Irving had a decent offensive game, but he was unable to impose his will scoring the basketball like he has done during this stretch without Kevin Durant. He was unable to get his three-point shot going as the Celtics played great defense all night long. Irving did a good job helping out on the glass and setting up his teammates, but other than that, he was unable to provide value outside of his scoring in this nightmare of a loss.

Seth Curry: C-

Curry struggled with his shot in this game. He wasn’t able to get anything going from any spot on the floor and it looked like the Celtics’ length bothered him all night long. Curry did not contribute to the game in any other way, which will be a theme throughout this writing.

Joe Harris: C+

Despite a slow start to this game, Harris shot the ball well in this one. All of his made shots came from three-point land as he was the only person on the Nets to shoot the ball well from that area. Harris did a decent job helping out with the rebounding and he had some good passes in this one, but was unable to help out much on the defensive end.

Royce O’Neale: D

O’Neale had a miserable time shooting the basketball in this one. Other than hitting an early three and a difficult driving layup, he was unable to hit anything else. He was getting good looks from the three-point land, but was unable to hit anything after the first quarter. O’Neale did a good job on the glass and he set up his teammates reasonably well, but he was disappointing on the defensive end when it came to preventing straight-line drives and providing pressure on the ball.

Nic Claxton: C-

Claxton did not do much in this game. He was able to hit a few shots and had a decent presence on the boards, but you never felt his impact at any point in this game except for a short amount of time in the third quarter. Claxton has been having a wonderful season, but this was one of his least impactful games this season as he struggled with the size and length of the Celtics’.

Cam Thomas: C-

Thomas started off this game shooting uber-efficiently from the field, but as the game went on, his shotmaking dropped off a cliff. Thomas is one of the few players on the team who can create his own shot, but he was not able to get an offensive rhythm after the first quarter. Thomas did not provide much value in any other way and his defense left a lot to be desired.

Day’Ron Sharpe: C

Sharpe had a decent offensive game in this game. He hit a good amount of his shots, but it was clear that he struggles to score over size at the rim. He did a good job of rebounding the basketball, but he was nowhere to be found on the defensive end.

Patty Mills: D

Mills did not do much in this contest as he struggled with his shot. Unlike Monday’s game against the Lakers, Mills was not able to get anything going on the offensive end and as a result, his overall performance suffered. Mills did a solid job of passing the ball, but other than that, he wasn’t able to provide much else for the team.

Yuta Watanabe: D

Watanabe did not do much in this one aside from getting to the free-throw line. He wasn’t able to get anything going on either end of the floor and because of that, he didn’t play much in this game before it turned into a full-out assault.

Edmond Sumner: D

Sumner did not play much in this one when Brooklyn was still trying to win as Sumner was not able to get anything going on either end of the floor. He did a good job on the glass and that was about it.

Story originally appeared on Nets Wire