BOSTON — Jarrett Jack was a jack-of-all-trades for the Brooklyn Nets on Friday afternoon.
The veteran guard and former Sixth Man of the Year candidate did it all, scoring a game-high 27 points, grabbing seven rebounds and dishing out a team-high five assists in Brooklyn’s 109-107 come-from-behind win over the Boston Celtics in a matinee matchup at TD Garden.
Brooklyn (13-15) swapped leads with Boston (10-17) eight times in the first half on the way to a 56-all tie at the break. The Nets fell behind by as many as 12 points in the second half, but they outscored the Celtics by nine in the fourth quarter in their only 30-point period of the game.
“I saw a lot of heart,” Nets coach Lionel Hollins said. “I mean, tenacity and perseverance — we were down … we got it to four, they ran it up to 12 and then we just kept battling, kept battling. We made big shots but we also played good defense and we rebounded the ball very well.”
Jack got the start in place of injured guard Deron Williams, who had missed two straight games for the Nets with a strained right calf. Williams was a game-time decision on Friday, but he did play, coming off the bench to finish with eight points and four assists in just under 21 minutes.
“He had his pocket shot all night,” Nets center-forward Mason Plumlee, who had 14 points and 12 rebounds, said about Jack. “They couldn’t guard him off the pick-and-roll. Then at the same time to have 27 (points), and then he kept everybody else involved too, so it was very efficient.”
When healthy, a pair of combo guards like Jack and Williams can be a lethal combination.
“It’s huge having (two) guys who can drive the car, so to speak,” Jack said. “When you can swing the ball from side to side and another guy is putting pressure on the defense and you reverse the ball and the defense has (to) shift from weak to strong side and there’s another guy doing the same thing, that’s tough to deal with. I think that’s what me and (Deron) definitely can present when we’re out on the court together.”
Brooklyn guard-forward Alan Anderson packed a punch off the bench with 15 points and forward Mirza Teletovic pocketed a pair of 3-pointers and finished with 11 points. Center Brook Lopez contributed eight points off the bench for Brooklyn, which shot 49.4 percent.
“We could make it easier on ourselves for sure, but a win’s a win right now,” Plumlee said.
Jeff Green and Jared Sullinger led the way for the Celtics, with the forwards combining for 41 points. Green finished with a team-high 22 points and Sullinger had 19 points and eight rebounds. Guard Avery Bradley added 17 points and center Kelly Olynyk had 11 off the bench.
“Just need to make one more play, whether it’s defensively or offensively,” Olynyk said.
Boston approached 60 percent shooting at times before settling in at 51.7 percent for the game.
After falling behind by 12 three times in the third quarter, the Nets cut their deficit to seven, 86-79, by the end of the quarter. Boston built the lead back up to double-digits early in the fourth and led by 11 with 8:53 to go. But Brooklyn used a 13-4 run to pull within two at the 4:58 mark.
Jack’s 15-foot jumper at 4:15 tied it at 99 for the first time since early on in the third quarter.
Sullinger briefly gave the Celtics a lead once more with his jumper at 2:37, only to have Nets guard Joe Johnson tie it up again on a layup at 2:16. Sullinger hit a clutch three on the other end with 2:00 to go, but Anderson answered with a clutch corner three at 1:38, knotting the score at 104.
“That was a big shot,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens said about Anderson’s trey. “It’s what happens when you go and win the game. Those are the kind of plays that go your way when you win a game, and that’s nothing that our guys should necessarily hang their heads about.”
Another Jack jumper, this time from the free-throw line, put the Nets up by two with 1:13 to play, and he proceeded to hit a pair of important free throws, making it 108-104 with 5.4 seconds left.
Bradley gave the Celtics a glimmer of hope with a three with 1.8 seconds on the clock, and Johnson only made one of two free throws after the ensuing intentional foul, giving Boston one last shot.
Gerald Wallace, the veteran forward and former Net, threw a perfect full-court inbounds pass to Sullinger, who had a look at the game-tying bucket on a fadeaway over Plumlee, but he missed.
“I was holding my breath,” Hollins said. “I should have told (Plumlee) to foul.”
“To even get a quality shot off like that is a good execution,” Plumlee said. “It’ll be interesting to look at that on film to see what happened but Stevens has some stuff, as I knew from college.”