Kyrie Irving Says Nets 'Were Just One of Those Teams' In Celtics Way to Title in Loss

The Brooklyn Nets were embarrassed by the Boston Celtics 139-96 on Wednesday night at TD Garden, and Kyrie Irving knows his team needs to put up a little more of a fight if it hopes to contend with the Eastern Conference's best.

After the loss, Irving told reporters that the Nets were just another team standing in the way of Boston's bulldozer.

"It's clear they want to win the championship, and they're not wasting any time in the regular season," Irving said. "We were just one of those teams in the way, and we just can't be one of those teams in the way. We've got to be one of those teams that stands up to them."

Irving isn't wrong, but the Nets were without their best player in Kevin Durant on Wednesday as he continues to recover from a knee injury. Had Durant played, the Nets could have put up more of a fight against a dominant Boston squad.

However, the Celtics have now won their last 10 straight games against the Nets, which includes last season's first-round playoff sweep of Brooklyn, and Durant has appeared in some of those matchups.

The Celtics improved to an NBA-best 37-15 with Wednesday's win, and it has become very clear that they intend to make it back to the NBA Finals this season after falling short of accomplishing the ultimate goal last year.

Star forward Jayson Tatum is in the midst of a career year and is currently in the MVP conversation. The 24-year-old entered Wednesday's game averaging 31.1 points, 8.7 rebounds and 4.4 assists in 48 games while shooting 46.5 percent from the floor and 35.0 percent from deep.

The same can be said for Jaylen Brown, who entered the matchup averaging 27.0 points, 7.2 rebounds and 3.2 assists in 45 games while shooting 49.1 percent from the floor and 32.8 percent from beyond the arc.

In addition to Tatum and Brown, the Celtics have an incredibly deep lineup that includes Al Horford, Robert Williams III, Malcolm Brogdon, Derrick White, Payton Pritchard, Grant Williams, Luke Kornet and Sam Hauser.

There's no team quite like the Celtics in the NBA this season, and interim head coach Joe Mazzulla also deserves a lot of credit for keeping Boston in title contention following the suspension of Ime Udoka.

The C's will look to keep the momentum going before entering the All-Star break later this month.