BOSTON — Before the season began, Celtics assistant Sam Cassell declared that this team would be the hardest playing group in basketball this season.

Flashes of that energy were apparent throughout the team’s 8-7 start to the year. However, that tenacity was nowhere to be found Friday night in a 113-105 loss to the Nets. A tanking Brooklyn team outworked Boston on both ends, tallying their third win of the year in a performance that disgusted Jaylen Brown.

“Come ready to play, or don’t play at all,” Brown said after the loss. “That’s my whole thing. We’ve gotta come ready to play. We just went through the motions today like, I don’t understand it.”

Boston stands at a respectable 8-8 in the East standings despite the defeat with some promising advanced metrics mixed in. However, a closer

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