The Celtics beat Nets 125-124 in overtime on Tuesday night, October 27, 2026, at TD Garden in Boston, and the ending was as thin as a one-point margin gets. Jayson Tatum’s turnaround jumper at the overtime buzzer gave Boston the win after Brooklyn had forced the extra period on the final play of regulation.
Boston improved to 3-1. Brooklyn fell to 0-4, still searching for its first win of the season after coming into the night 0-3.
Celtics beat Nets 125-124: how the final minute unfolded
Brooklyn led 61-56 at halftime after taking the first quarter 31-26 and splitting the second 30-30. Boston turned the game in the third, outscoring the Nets 30-21 to take an 86-82 lead into the fourth.
Late in regulation, Derrick White’s free throws put Boston up 111-109. Mitchell Robinson then had a chance to ice the game but missed two free throws with three seconds left. Brooklyn got one final chance, and rookie Mikel Brown Jr. made a corner fadeaway to tie the game at 117 with 0.2 seconds remaining, sending it to overtime.
Overtime stayed just as tight. Julius Randle scored the first four points of the extra period for Brooklyn, and Brown drilled another three-pointer to keep the Nets in front. Boston stayed within reach, and with the clock running out, Tatum hit a foul-line turnaround jumper. The basket stood after a review, and the final score was 125-124. Boston won overtime 8-7 after Brooklyn had won the fourth quarter 35-31.
Tatum’s 40 points carry Boston on the second night of a back-to-back
Tatum finished with 40 points and 8 assists in 42 minutes, shooting 10-for-20 from the field and 18-for-22 from the free-throw line. He scored 15 points in the first half and kept getting to the line as the game tightened, and he delivered the shot that mattered most at the very end.
Paul George added 20 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists, and Derrick White had 16 points and 6 assists. Jordan Walsh scored 15 points, including three three-pointers, and Sam Hauser added 11 points off the bench.
The win came on the second night of a back-to-back for Boston, which had beaten the Chicago Bulls 134-99 on Monday night. Tuesday was a very different kind of test: a winless opponent that led for long stretches and refused to go away.
Brooklyn’s late surge falls one point short
Michael Porter Jr. led Brooklyn with 27 points and 12 rebounds, hitting six three-pointers. Randle finished with 24 points and 9 rebounds, and Brown scored 17 points in total, with 16 of them coming in the fourth quarter and overtime.
Nolan Traore, Chaney Johnson and Moritz Wagner each scored 15 points for the Nets, who showed real depth and fight on the road. Brooklyn shot its way back into the game more than once, and Brown’s late scoring — the tying shot in regulation and another three in overtime — nearly stole a win at TD Garden.
There was also bad news for Brooklyn during the game. Point guard Egor Demin was ruled out for the remainder of the night with a right leg contusion, the team announced. Demin finished with two points in 10 minutes. His availability beyond Tuesday night was not confirmed in the reporting used here.
Analysis: Boston survived an off night from deep because Tatum kept getting to the line
This is a clearly labeled analysis section, not a report of a new fact. Boston shot just 2-for-16 from three-point range in the first half, a sharp contrast to Monday’s blowout, yet the Celtics never fell out of the game. The reason was Tatum’s pressure on the rim and the free-throw line: 22 attempts is a huge number in a one-point game, and it gave Boston a steady source of points while its outside shooting came and went.
For Brooklyn, the takeaway is more painful than encouraging. The Nets did almost everything a winless road team needs to do — they led at halftime, they answered Boston’s third-quarter run, and a rookie delivered twice in the biggest moments. But they still lost, because the final possession of overtime belonged to Boston’s best player, and he made the shot.
What to watch next
Boston next hosts the Chicago Bulls for the second time in a week on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. ET, in the first game of East Group C in the NBA Cup. The question for the Celtics is whether the shooting that deserted them early on Tuesday returns against a familiar opponent.
Brooklyn, meanwhile, keeps looking for its first win — and for an update on Demin. If Brown’s fourth quarter and overtime are a sign of what is coming, the Nets have found a late-game scorer. They still need the win to go with it.
For more from this site’s recent coverage, see our Monday Night Football report: https://ussportsmedia.com/cowboys-beat-eagles-38-21-monday-night-football/ — our World Series Game 3 report: https://ussportsmedia.com/brewers-beat-rays-10-1-world-series-game-3/ — and our World Series preview: https://ussportsmedia.com/brewers-vs-rays-world-series-2026/
Sources: CelticsBlog (game recap and scoring summary), NBC Sports Boston (live updates), Wire Report (Brown’s tying shot, citing the Nets), and ClutchPoints (Demin’s injury update, citing the team announcement), linked above. Box-score figures were cross-checked against the game’s published box score.
The Celtics beat Nets 125-124 in a finish that turned on Tatum’s buzzer-beater.
