Nets suffer overtime heartbreaker to Celtics after blowing lead

BOSTON — The Nets respect the Celtics and how they play but aren’t trying to emulate or imitate the reigning champs as much as beat them and carve out their own winning identity.

Friday’s crusher was a tough lesson on the road, dropping a 108-104 overtime heartbreaker before a typically raucous sellout crowd of 19,156 at TD Garden.

The game was knotted at 94-all, 96-all, 98-all and, finall,y 100-all in overtime.

After Payton Pritchard’s free throws with 2:45 left put Boston ahead by two, Cam Thomas (team-high 31 points) knotted it again for the final time.

Jayson Tatum (33 points, nine rebounds, six assists) found Al Horford for a 3-pointer that made it 103-100. Dennis Schroder scored to pull the Nets within one, but Tatum’s short jumper padded it back to three.

And when Dorian Finney-Smith missed, the Nets were running out of chances.

Brooklyn inbounded with 31 seconds left but couldn’t get a shot off and committed a 24-second violation.

The rest was academic, with the Celtics closing the game out at the line.

“I have a lot of respect for this Celtics team,” Nets coach Jordi Fernandez said beforehand. “But I think what I’ve mentioned before was to be the winning team that they are and a team that won a championship, their physicality and ball pressure are top in the league.

“So obviously that’s something that we’re working on, but by any means, like, we’re not trying to be the Celtics. Celtics are the Celtics, and we’re trying to find our own identity here. But I do respect how they play, how hard, how physical they are and what they’ve obviously accomplished.”

Schroder had 20 points for the Nets, while Cam Johnson added 18 and seven boards.

Brooklyn outrebounded Boston, 50-39, led by as much as 14 in the first half and didn’t trail until the fourth quarter.

But they trailed at the final buzzer of overtime.

The Nets (4-5) play the tail end of this back-to-back Saturday in Cleveland, where their former coach, Kenny Atkinson, has the Cavaliers with the best record in the NBA.

Ben Simmons, who had eight points, eight assists and seven rebounds to flirt with a triple-double, won’t play against the Cavs.

Jrue Holiday had 17 points and Horford a double-double (13 points, 10 boards) for Boston, which improved to 8-2.

Friday’s is a loss that will gall the Nets, who stormed out to a quick lead, scoring the first dozen points.

When Johnson found Dorian Finney-Smith for a 3-pointer with 9:42 left in the first, the Nets had hit their first five shots. They held Boston to 0-for-4 with a couple of turnovers in jumping ahead.

Thomas’ 3-pointer padded the lead to 16-2 with 6:38 left in the first.

But after the Celtics missed their first five 3-pointers, they hit five of the next eight.

Brooklyn saw them close the quarter on a 22-12 run, mostly against Simmons and the rest of the Nets’ bench.

Even though they never trailed, Brooklyn saw the lead cut to four points going into the second quarter and had a 51-49 lead going into the second half.

Brooklyn saw the Celtics knot it at 59-all on a Horford 3-pointer with 8:12 left in the third. Schroder untied it just 11 seconds later.

It was a tense fourth quarter that featured four ties and three lead changes, the first of the game.

With the score knotted at 92-all in the final minute, Finney-Smith and Brooklyn’s pressure forced a Tatum turnover.

But Thomas missed a layup and Tatum snatched the rebound with 37.1 left.

Six seconds later Tatum drove for a baseline dunk that gave Boston the lead.

Johnson missed a 3-pointer, but grabbed his own rebound and got fouled. He sank both at the free-throw line to tie it with 7.6 left in regulation.

It was decided in overtime.