After familiar slow start, Celtics flip script on Nets in blowout win

BROOKLYN — Nets head coach Jordi Fernandez expected a “statement” from the Celtics on Tuesday night after their sloppy one-point loss to Atlanta 24 hours earlier.

Did he get one? Not immediately. Boston slogged through yet another sluggish start and trailed for much of the first half at Barclays Center.

But the Celtics eventually found their groove and pulled away for a much-needed comfortable victory, defeating Brooklyn 139-114 to improve to 10-3.

The rout snapped a streak of four straight Celtics games that were decided by six points or fewer, including their overtime home win over Brooklyn last Friday.

Jayson Tatum finished with 36 efficient points on 12-of-19 shooting (5-of-6 from 3-point range), 10 assists and eight rebounds to lead the Celtics. He no lingering effects from the ankle injury he aggravated against the Hawks and received sporadic “MVP” chants from the large number of Boston fans in attendance.

Jaylen Brown added 24 points and 12 boards, and Payton Pritchard was highly productive off the bench, notching 23 points, eight assists, six rebounds, two steals and a block.

The Celtics missed their first five field goals and eight of their first 10, and they fell behind by double digits for the third time in four games. Head coach Joe Mazzulla called a timeout after Ziaire Williams drove past Luke Kornet for a reverse layup that put Brooklyn up 19-8 just past the midway point of the first quarter.

Boston’s score at the time of Mazzulla’s first timeout in the previous three contests: down 11-8 to Atlanta, down 16-2 to Milwaukee and down 9-0 to Brooklyn.

Derrick White, arguably Boston’s best all-around player in Tuesday’s loss, got off to an especially sketchy start, committing two fouls and three turnovers and missing a pair of threes before being subbed out for Pritchard 3 1/2 minutes in.

White picked up his third foul later in the first quarter and spent most of the first half on the bench. He finished with a season-low nine points on 3-of-11 shooting in 22 minutes.

Brooklyn led by as many as 13 in the opening quarter before Tatum closed the gap. He scored 11 of Boston’s final 14 points in the frame as part of a 14-3 Celtics run. A corner three by Sam Hauser two minutes into the second gave the C’s their first lead of the night.

The Nets quickly pulled back ahead with a Denis Schroder layup, and Brown was hit with a technical foul on the ensuing Brooklyn possession for arguing a foul call on Neemias Queta. Brown and other Celtics wanted a jump ball; the officials disagreed.

The foul was the third on Queta, who made his third start of the season in place of the resting Al Horford, limiting his availability from that point forward and giving Luke Kornet his largest workload since Nov. 2. Kornet, who logged just 10 total minutes in the previous two games after missing one with a hamstring strain, played 27 minutes and hit 4 of 5 shots.

Without White’s secondary scoring, the Celtics funneled their offense through Tatum and Brown, who combined for 35 first-half points (16 and 19, respectively). White’s foul trouble also pushed Pritchard into a larger role, and he notched 13 points, five assists and five rebounds before halftime.

Pritchard scored on back-to-back possessions late in the second quarter — a second-chance midrange jumper and a fadeaway three off a Kornet handoff — and Boston led 65-60 at half.

That lead soon grew to double digits, with Tatum hitting a pair of threes in the first four minutes of the second half and White adding one of his own for his first points of the game. White then was whistled for his fourth foul when he elevated to deny a Williams dunk, but Mazzulla successfully challenged that call.

A Jrue Holiday three on the next possession made it 85-70 Celtics, and the Nets never threatened again. A pair of tough Tatum layups pushed Boston over the 100-point plateau late in the third quarter en route to the team’s highest point total of the season.

With Horford sitting on the second night of a back-to-back, as is standard for the 38-year-old, Mazzulla employed a tight eight-man rotation. Pritchard, Kornet and Hauser (12 points) all played big minutes, and Jordan Walsh, Xavier Tillman and Drew Peterson didn’t check in until the final two minutes.

The Celtics now will enjoy their first two-day break of the young season before welcoming the Toronto Raptors to TD Garden on Saturday night (8 p.m. ET).