Jayson Tatum had 36 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds, Jaylen Brown added 24 points and 12 rebounds and the Boston Celtics beat the Brooklyn Nets 139-114 on Wednesday night.

But when the Celtics play like they did in the third quarter, when they rang up 38 points and were 7 for 11 behind the arc, nights like those will be rare. Nets: The Nets should like what they're seeing from Williams,

BOSTON -- Just one game into this year's NBA Cup, the Boston Celtics are already facing an uphill battle in their quest to make it to Las Vegas. The Celtics were completely outplayed by the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday night, and have a lot of work to do to simply make it to the Knockout round of the NBA's second annual in-season tournament.

The TD Garden "bull gang" set down the Celtics' new court ahead of Tuesday's NBA Cup matchup against the Atlanta Hawks.

Facing an undermanned and seemingly overmatched Atlanta team, Boston played one of its sloppiest games of this season, coughing up the ball time and again and struggling to establish any real rhythm.