BOSTON — A year of fireworks for the Celtics concluded with a win a few hours before they lit up the frigid Boston skyline at midnight on New Year’s Eve.
Fittingly, it was the most colorful splash of the offseason — Boston’s acquisition of Kyrie Irving — who had the biggest hand in an 108-105 victory over the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday at TD Garden.
Irving scored 28 points — including the game-sealing free throws with 7.7 seconds left after the Nets had cut a 14-point deficit to two in the closing seconds — and grabbed eight rebounds.
“It came down the stretch,” Irving said, “to a few bad misses on their end, and getting the basketball when we’ve got to come up with it. We understand that. There were a few great takeaways from this game. But, especially down the stretch, we’ve just got to close out better.”
Jaylen Brown had 13 points, Al Horford had 10 points and 10 rebounds, and the Celtics got big efforts off the bench from Marcus Morris (15 points) and Terry Rozier (14 points, 7 rebounds) in their third straight victory.
Boston ends the year with the second-best record in the NBA at 30-10 and with a three-game lead on the Toronto Raptors for the top mark in the Eastern Conference.
“It’s a new year and a new day,” Brown said. “Coming into the next part of the year, it’s like the season has just started again. We’ve got to continue to do what we did to be the No. 1 team in the East.”
The Cleveland Cavaliers, due in town on Wednesday, are four back in the East as they await the return of Isaiah Thomas as early as this week against Boston.
“The guy put on some performances — some epic performances,” Irving said of Thomas. “For the city of Boston, what he gave on a consistent basis, you were just wondering how that tough-nosed (expletive) was getting it done every single night. Demanding it from his teammates and really playing with an edge that cemented himself as a premier player in this league.
“You are just nothing short of happy for a guy like that. Whether or not he plays, it’s going to be nothing but love for him from Boston.”
A 7-0 Nets run cut a 14-point Boston lead to 98-91 with 4:46 to play when Irving drilled a corner 3-pointer off the inbounds pass for a 10-point gap. Marcus Smart got the line on a drive with 3:52 to go for 102-91 difference.
The Nets got two back from Spencer Dinwiddie at the line, then Jayson Tatum made one of two free throws to make it 103-93 with 3:18 to go. Rondae Hollis-Jefferson then came back with five in a row for a five-point game with 2:05 left.
Irving got the line to extend the lead to 105-98 when Dinwiddie answered with a drive with 1:34 remaining. Quincy Acy’s third-chance 3-pointer brought the Nets within two with 15.2 seconds left when Smart was fouled and hit one free throw for a 106-103 game with 14.5 on the clock.
The Nets missed their shot at the tie, Irving hit two free throws for a five-point game, and the Nets burned nearly all of the remaining 7.7 seconds getting off a final shot.
“It’s definitely not where we want to be,” Rozier said. “But we want to keep building off of it. It’s three wins in a row. We’ll take it, for sure.”
The Celtics were tied four times early in the third quarter when they went on a 12-1 run behind the shot-making of Irving, the overall play of Morris and the sheer size of Aron Baynes. Brown’s 3-pointer of had Boston up 82-71 with 1:46 remaining before the Nets ended the third on a five-point run.
Back-to-back 3-pointers from Morris and Tatum put Boston up 91-80 into a timeout with 9:35 to go.
Horford threw down an alley-oop slam from Smart for a 13-point lead when Hollis-Jefferson answered with four straight for the Nets. Baynes bullied his way inside for a pair of free throws and a 95-84 game with 6:57 on the clock before Rozier’s pull-up jumper put Boston up 13 with 6:30 to play.
A Baynes free throw extended the lead to a game-high 14 when the Nets shot back with seven in a row into a Brad Stevens timeout with 4:46 left.