EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. ? The New Jersey Nets and Boston Celtics have three days to ponder the ugly-beautiful nature of their series thus far.

Game 1 had an uptempo flow that was pleasing to the eye and to the Nets.

Game Two was much more to the Celtics’ liking, even if it might have been an eyesore to anyone who watched the teams miss a combined 138 shots.

“They came to do a job, they got a game and now they have home court,” New Jersey’s Jason Kidd said. “The series is tied. We knew it was going to be a series.”

Kidd has had triple-doubles in each of the first two games, but that’s about the only similarity between Game One and Game Two.

The Nets were able to run their fast break and control the boards in Game One, building a large third-quarter lead that withstood a late Celtics run. In Game Two, the Celtics dominated the rebounding and prevented New Jersey from turning missed shots into easy opportunities. They crowded the lane on defense and made the Nets settle for jump shots, then took their turn hanging on in the final two minutes.

“Any time you don’t rebound the ball, you can’t run. You can’t run without the ball,” Nets forward Kenyon Martin said. “We had 14 fast-break points and they outscored us in the paint. It was vice versa from the last game.”

Neither team practiced Wednesday, taking the opportunity to get some rest given the long break between games.

Paul Pierce hopes to regain his touch on Saturday.

The NBA’s third-leading scorer shot just 3-for-20 from the field in Game Two and has made only three three-pointers in the two games.

An 81 percent free throw shooter during the regular season, he has already missed 15 free throws in two games a feat even Los Angeles Lakers pivot Shaquille O’Neal would have a hard time duplicating.