Brooklyn wins in Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett's return: 85-79

Tonight Celtic legends Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett returned to TD Garden to take on their former team.

Pre-game was extremely exciting and emotional.

Chris Brouusard interviewed The Captain and talked to him what it was like coming back to Boston but in a different uniform and you could just hear in Pierce's voice how much he loved the franchise as he talked about Celtic Pride.

Team introductions were also exciting as Kashmir from Led Zeppelin underscored the introduction of the legendary Pierce and Garnett for Brooklyn.

The Boston intro was equally as exciting as Sweet Emotion from Boston's own Aerosmith introduced the C's.

This song, also coincidentally underscores the credits to one of my favorite films: Dazed and Confused.

My hope is that the Celtics become good enough within the next couple of years that they can use another Boston band and song appropriately for their intros: The Pixies: Wave of Mutilation.

Having said that, the actual basketball played on the floor in the first quarter did not live up to the hype.

The Nets started out 0-5 including 0-2 from Pierce and 0-1 from Garnett although Garnett had a great block on Jeff Green.

Rondo had a nice and one as the Celtics jumped out to an 8-0 lead until Shaun Livingston finally broke the drought cutting the Celtic lead to 8-2.

Other than that, the most exciting thing that happened the rest of the quarter was the video tribute to Kevin Garnett during the first tv timeout.

Unfortunately, ESPN made the programming decision to cut away to commercials to promote the first of what's sure to be a litany of awful movies the studios are releasing on Valentine's Day: About Last Night starring Kevin Hart.

They came back from commercial and showed the end of the tribute to Garnett which was a nice moment as they closed in on KG on the Nets' bench fighting back tears.

Play continued as one of the worst first quarters in the NBA this season, maybe ever, culminated with the Celtics leading 17-11.

This time at the quarter ESPN cut away to promote another sure to be awful release on Valentine's Day.

This one a romantic fantasy: Winter's Tale starring Colin Farrell

Once again, we rejoined the end of the tribute, this time to Pierce, as The Truth was serenaded with chants from the Boston faithful.

The second quarter was pretty uneventful on the playing floor as well with Rondo showing some glimpses hitting a three and making some nice passes.

Garnett and Pierce sat over half of the quarter with Brooklyn playing much better and Garnett hitting a couple of pretty jumpers late.

Halftime score: Brooklyn 35 Celtics 34

Pierce finally got on the board in the third with a signature step back 16 foot jumper with 9:10 to go.

Celtic highlights in the quarter included a breakaway dunk and three pointer from Jeff Green who otherwise had a subpar game to say the least.

Nets 59 Boston 53 after three.

Some excitement on the basketball floor finally occurred in the fourth as a Rondo drive and Brandon Bass jumper cut the Nets lead to 71-67 with 5:53 to play.

Pierce and Garnett continued to stuggle as Chris Johnson hit a three cutting the Nets lead to 73-70.

Pierce came back with a nice baseline drive and dish to Kirilenko to put Brooklyn up five.

A few possessions later Pierce came off a high pick and roll for his signature highlight hitting a jumper over Jeff Green to increase the Net lead to 78-70.

Deron Williams soon thereafter hit an incredibly tough 19 footer with the shot clock winding down but Brandon Bass countered with a midrange jumper to cut the Net lead to 80-74.

Off a Pierce turnover on the other end Rondo hit a three giving the Celts new life and cutting the Nets lead to 80-77.

On the next possession for the Nets Joe Johnson threw up an air ball and Boston called timeout with 35.6 to play.

KG then had his signature moment stealing the ball on an errant pass from Rondo and going coast to coast putting Brooklyn up 82-77 and locking up the game for the Nets on his and Pierce's special night.

Follow Clint on Twitter @ClintCorey