BOSTON –- The way it was snowing back home, some people probably questioned why the Nets would bother making the flight here and waste fuel on another loss. But the Nets wound up with the perfect storm.

Rested from two days without practice –- one because of the snow -– and facing a team that is in somewhat of a slide, the Nets came into the building where they enjoyed some monumental victories the past decade and had their most impressive in this one. The 104-96 win over the Celtics on Saturday doesn’t compare to when the Nets hoisted the Eastern Conference championship trophy here in 2002 or when they won their final regular-season game in 2005 to make the postseason. But it was significant all the same.

After blowing an 18-point lead last week against Memphis, after falling apart down the stretch of numerous games lately, after looking like they would never be able to close out a game, the Nets, for one afternoon, told everyone to stop burying them. Against the Celtics, who until recently people considered a real championship contender, the Nets held on to an 18-point lead. Against the Celtics, the Nets didn’t wilt when the game got tight and the crowd got loud. Against the Celtics, they showed they can close out a game by playing together, never getting down and showing an overall belief that they could get it done.

“I though the effort was terrific,” interim coach Kiki Vandeweghe said after his team's sixth win this season. “It was four quarters of effort and that’s what we’ve talked about. We’ve been getting good effort through 43, 44 minutes and we didn’t have the letdown today.

“But really it was the effort. We were good on the boards, got rebounds when we had to. We held on with poise when we had to. It was just a good effort overall.”

It was an amazing effort, an unexpected effort. The Nets have played hard lately, but they never played with this composure.

Every time the Celtics made a run, you expected the Nets to start to fold up, but either Courtney Lee hit a big shot, or Devin Harris a critical basket, or Brook Lopez went up strong inside and drew a foul or Kris Humphries did the same or Keyon Dooling hit a huge jumper. While you, I and everyone else waited for the here-we-go-again fourth period, the Nets weren’t playing not to lose. They played to win and proved all of us wrong.

It came from every player. It was an overall refuse-to-lose mentality that lifted the Nets to this much-needed character-building victory.

“We’ve been playing well for a while now and just finished it today,” Lopez said. “We finally put together a full game.”

The Celtics, on the other side, didn’t. They blew a 13-point lead Thursday against Cleveland and endured a 33-point swing as they lost by 20. The Celtics were up 10 on the Nets and allowed a 28-point swing as New Jersey led by 18 in the fourth.

The Nets made it happen with inspiring, stirring play and the confidence exuded from the backcourt as Harris (23 points) kept them in the game early and Lee (21 points) hit plenty of big shots throughout.

“It means a lot for us,” Lee said. “We’re starting to play together as a team.”

It was the perfect storm for the Nets. They did all the things right for a longer period against a team that suddenly is doing more soul searching than the Nets.

Al Iannazzone covers the Nets for The Record (Bergen County, N.J.)