Boston, Massachusetts - The boos could be heard from Brooklyn.

The second Kyrie Irving showed face for pregame warmups on TD Garden’s parquet floor, approximately 5,000 scorned Celtics fans let him have a piece of their mind.

They booed him from that moment on and booed louder for Irving in pregame introductions than any cheers for a Boston starter.

They booed him every time he touched the ball, every time he made a move and cheered obnoxiously for every miss, of which there were many.

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They even orchestrated "F*** you, Kyrie" chants, twice, with the arena’s in-house DJ drowning the expletives with Drake’s soothing sounds.

In the end, they helped the Celtics avoid an 0-3 series deficit, the likes of which no NBA team has ever recovered.

The Celtics needed a perfect storm to stand a chance against the Nets’ superstar-powered offense. On a dreary Beantown day, the basketball gods delivered, as did Celtics deity Jayson Tatum, who broke free from a cold stretch to turn in a game of the ages and lead Boston to a 125-119 Game 3 victory.

Tatum ran up a new playoff career-high 50 points – 40 coming in the first three quarters – one side-step, stepback or turnaround fading shot at a time.

Irving, meanwhile, was stuck in an episode of the Twilight Zone. A superior scorer who once donned the Celtics’ green and white, only to leave for Brooklyn after proclaiming he would stay in Boston long-term, was undoubtedly thrown off and impacted by the TD Garden crowd at 25 % capacity.

Celtics fans did not forget that broken promise. They likely didn’t forget he called them racist, either.

After joining the 50-40-90 Club in the most efficient shooting season of his career, Irving shot just 6 of 17 for 16 points and didn’t hit his first 3-pointer until midway through the fourth quarter. He deferred to his teammates often and missed a number of makeable shots.

The basketball world expected a vintage performance from Irving, who has made a name for himself by raising his game under pressure, most notably hitting the shot that delivered the Cleveland Cavaliers their first NBA championship in 2016.

A championship looks just out of the Nets’ grasp after succumbing to a limited Celtics crowd, to a team without Jaylen Brown (wrist), to a team they outmatch at almost every position, including Tatum’s.

Tatum shot just a combined 9 of 32 in Games 1 and 2 before a signature performance in Game 3. He made a stepback two midway through the first quarter, creating separation from Durant on the floor before hitting the shot that snapped him back to reality.

Tatum hit the same shots he missed in the first two games of the series, breathing life into Steve Nash’s pregame prophecy.

"He’s not going to shoot that way the entire series. He’s just too good a player. We expect him to play better," the Nets’ coach said before the game.

"He’s played pretty well, his shots haven’t gone in. But he causes all sorts of problems for a defense. We respect him and what he’s capable of. We’ve got to be very diligent with our gameplan, and no matter what they throw at us tonight, we have to find solutions."

As the Nets collapsed on Tatum’s every drive, other players squirmed free. Marcus Smart hit five 3s and Evan Fournier made four. And on shots they missed, the cleaning crew did its job.

With no Jeff Green, who is out at least until June 6 with a strained plantar fascia, Boston’s Tristan Thompson dominated the inside.

He grabbed nine offensive rebounds, 13 boards total, and finished around the rim with little to no resistance.

Nic Claxton, who played a bigger role in Green’s absence, looked more like a second-year forward with minimal experience than a playoff role player.

After Thompson’s performance, DeAndre Jordan minutes in Game 4 should be a no-brainer.

The Nets jumped out to a 19-4 lead, largely thanks to James Harden (41 points, 10 assists, seven rebounds) and Durant (39 points, nine rebounds), who combined for 80 points on 24-of-41 shooting. They could not sustain that lead as Tatum’s hot streak overtook Irving’s passive approach.

The boos that reverberated about a socially distant TD Garden will only be amplified for Game 4, when the Celtics lift their 25-per-cent capacity to something just shy of 99 per cent.

Irving and the Nets better be ready. The Celtics just got some confidence, and confidence is all a desperate team needs to turn the tables in a playoff series.

And some fans. They need their fans, too.