The Boston Celtics clawed out a 109-98 victory over Brooklyn on Thursday, pulling away late to boost their NBA-best record and widen the distance over the Nets atop the Eastern Conference.

Celtics star Jayson Tatum endured a tough seven-for-22 shooting night on the way to 20 points and 11 rebounds.

Marcus Smart and Malcolm Brogdon added 16 points apiece for the Celtics, who learned shortly before the contest that Jaylen Brown — coming off a 41-point performance in Boston's win over New Orleans on Wednesday — would be sidelined with a right adductor muscle strain.

The Nets, meanwhile, were playing their first game since superstar Kevin Durant limped out of a win over Miami with a sprained right knee ligament, which is expected to sideline him for several weeks.

Brooklyn, led by 24 points from Kyrie Irving, coped admirably through the first three quarters, leading the back-and-forth battle by as many as nine points in the first half and by as many as five in the third quarter before Boston pulled away.

The Celtics connected on 10 of 25 shots from the field in the fourth quarter and clamped down defensively, holding the Nets to 16 points in the period on six-of-19 shooting.

"We get out and run, it's hard for people to stop it," Smart said. "We were able to get back in transition on the defensive end and set our defense."

The Celtics won their fifth straight game to improve to 31-12 and stretched their lead over the Nets atop the East to three games.

"We played against a really good team," Smart said. "Obviously, they were depleted as well, but, you know, that's still a good team over there with great players. It was just coming in and holding our own and just trying to make everything as tough as possible for them."