The Boston Celtics held off the Brooklyn Nets, 118-110, at the Barclays Center on Tuesday.

The Celtics (41-12) were the ones to get off to a strong start as they extended their six-point lead after the first quarter to 15 points heading into halftime. The Nets (21-32) managed to go bucket-for-bucket in the third and crawled the deficit back to single digits in the fourth quarter. Brooklyn got as close as six points to Boston in the final frame, but the Celtics made timely buckets to hang on down the stretch to improve their road record to 17-9.

The Celtics were led by All-Star forward Jayson Tatum, who scored 31 points in the first half and finished the game with 41 points, 14 rebounds, five assists and two steals for his 20th double-double of the season. Fellow All-Star Jaylen Brown tallied 19 points and four assists, while Derrick White totaled 16 points, two rebounds and three assists. Al Horford, starting in place of Kristaps Porzingis (back), had 16 points, six rebounds and four assists. Jrue Holiday contributed 14 points, five rebounds, 12 assists and two steals for his seventh double-double of the season.

Mikal Bridges led the Nets with 27 points, two rebounds and three assists. Cam Thomas had 26 points, two rebounds, four assists and two steals. Lonnie Walker led the Brooklyn bench with 15 points, three rebounds, three assists and two steals. Nic Claxton added 10 points, eight rebounds and two blocks, while Ben Simmons did a little bit of everything with five points, six rebounds and eight assists.

The Celtics and Nets will face each other again Wednesday at TD Garden, which will be the fourth and final contest of the season between the two Atlantic Division rivals.