Kyrie Irving and Jayson Tatum talk after their regular season game on March 6th. (Photo Courtesy: Gary Washburn, Boston Globe)
The Celtics are in for a rude awakening when they take the floor on Easter Sunday in their opening game of the playoffs against the Brooklyn Nets. A season ago, the Celtics lost to the Nets in the first round of the playoffs in five games, and last year the Celtics were the team fighting for their lives in the play-in game. This time it was the Nets, who defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers in the play-in game 115-108.
Brooklyn battled injuries and off the court issues throughout the season to lead to their low seeding. Entering the playoffs as the number seven seed, the Nets are the most feared team in the Eastern Conference, and that is because they have the best player on the planet, Kevin Durant. He is arguably the best scorer that has ever played this game, at 6’10” Durant has ball handling and shooting skills like a guard. This season Durant also averaged a career high in assists with 6.4 per game, so he is even more dangerous than past years. And then of course, there’s Kyrie Irving. Irving, who didn’t play his first game of the season until January 5th because of vaccination issues, tied his career high in points per game with 27.4 and shot a career best 41.8% from the three-point line. Irving was a part time player and did not play in his first home game until March 27th, and he did not let that affect his play. Kyrie will hear his fair share of boos from Celtics fans in this series but that won’t affect his play, as he is someone who has played in three NBA finals in his time with the Cavaliers. Celtics fans believe that Marcus Smart should win the defense player of the year, and he will show in this series whether he deserves that or not, as he will be the one tasked with slowing down Kyrie Irving.
The Celtics were 13-22 in clutch games this season. A clutch game is defined as a game that is within five points with less than five minutes remaining. The Nets were 22-20 in these games. The games in this series should all likely come down to the wire, and it will be interesting to see what wins out, the young fresh legs of the Celtics, or the experienced Nets. Jayson Tatum shot 2-25 from three-point range throughout the season in clutch games and the Celtics are going to need him to step up late in these games because he is their go to guy.
Both teams are going to be missing key defenders at the start of this series, however both players have a chance to play at some point. For the Celtics, that player is Robert Williams, who is their most important defensive player. Williams is recovering from surgery on his torn meniscus that he suffered on March 27th. He averaged 10 PPG, 9.6 RPG, and 2.2 BPG and he altered many more shots around the rim. In the Celtics' last 22 games that he played their record was 20-2. After his injury they went just 4-3, albeit they were resting some guys in a couple of those losses. It is not likely that Williams will return at any point in the series, but this series is really spread out and game seven is not until May 1st which would be just over four weeks since his surgery. For the Nets, their player who is injured is Ben Simmons. Simmons has not played in a game since June 20th of last year. This was the game where he famously passed up a wide-open layup to pass the ball out to the three-point line. After the game Doc Rivers, Sixers coach, was asked whether Simmons could be the point guard of a championship team. Rivers responded by saying, “I do not know the answer to that.” Simmons did not love these comments and it was shortly after he decided he would never play for the 76ers again. They eventually traded him to the Nets at the trade deadline for James Harden. Shams Charania of The Athletic has reported that Simmons has been ramping up his basketball activity and could potentially return for game three. Simmons would be a huge addition for the Nets specifically for defensive purposes as he would be the primary defender on Jayson Tatum.
Both teams know what they’re going to get from their two superstars, but it will be important for Tatum and Brown to come close to matching the scoring outputs of Durant and Irving. The X factor for the Nets is going to be Seth Curry. Curry has the highest career three-point percentage in NBA playoff history, minimum of 100 attempts, at 46.8 percent. He was scoreless in Tuesday's game with Cleveland on just four shot attempts. The X factor for the Celtics is going to be Al Horford. He will benefit from all the attention Tatum and Brown will receive from the defense and should receive many open looks from the outside that he needs to knock down. Horford has averaged 13.6 points and 8.1 rebounds in 124 career playoff games. I believe that he will need to average a double-double for the Celtics to have any chance in this series.
This first round series is going to be a battle that will feel like an eastern conference finals matchup, and I expect it to go seven games. But, Celtics fans should be worried about another early exit after a tremendous regular season.
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