The Celtics will face the Nets in the first round after Brooklyn’s 115-108 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first play-in game. Game 1 between the Celtics and Nets will be played on Sunday at 3:30 PM.
The Nets got huge performances from Kyrie Irving (34 points (12-15 FG, 3-6 3P, 7-7 FT), 12 assists) and Kevin Durant (25 points (9-16 FG, 1-2 3PT, 6-6 FT), 11 assists, 2 steals, 3 blocks). They also got nice contributions from Bruce Brown (18 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists), Andre Drummond (17 points, 8 rebounds), and Nic Claxton (13 points, 9 rebounds, 5 blocks).
The Nets asserted themselves early behind a perfect half from Irving, but they let the Cavs creep back into the game after going up 22 in the third quarter. In fact, Cleveland outscored Brooklyn 65-58 in the second half, and cut the lead down to 6 with 5:38 left to play. Durant took over down the stretch to close out the Cavs, who have one more chance to make the playoffs by hosting the winner of the Charlotte Hornets/Atlanta Hawks play-in game on Wednesday.
All-in-all, this was as typical a Brooklyn performance as we’ve seen in recent weeks, so here’s why my mind hasn’t changed about how Boston will fare against the Nets.
1. Brooklyn has no adjustments
This is how they play. They're not hiding some magic bullet to unleash against the Celtics. Maybe they’ll try to suit up Ben Simmons, but I find it impossible to believe a guy who hasn’t played in a year will step onto a court with new teammates and just be fine in a playoffs series.
No, this is the Brooklyn team we’re going to see, possibly with a few more minutes from Durant and Irving. They will try switching on defense, they’ll go to some zone as well, just like they always do. If Boston can bust that zone, then the Nets will hope beyond hope that Boston will start isolating because then it will simply be a matter of which duo can outscore the other.
Boston should know what’s coming, and they should have a plan A, B, and C to combat it.
2. Durant and Irving are going to have to play a ton
Both played just about 42 minutes in this game, and Brooklyn needed all of them to barely get by the Cavs. Irving was on a heater to end all heaters and he still finished this game at only a +2. Without Durant on the floor, the Nets were susceptible to long Cavs runs with no answer on the other end.
Boston’s offense and talent is a bit better than Cleveland’s and Boston is a fresher team coming in. If Durant’s minutes on the bench lead to same kind of opportunities for Boston, the Celtics can pile up even bigger numbers than the Cavs.
3. Brooklyn’s defense is not good.
They gave up 108 to a Cavs team that struggled in a big way in the first half. Cleveland only scored 43 points at the half, meaning they got up to 65 points in the second half once some shots started to fall.
Look at the Cavs’ first half shot chart.
Even with Irving going perfect in the first half and Brooklyn scoring 57, Boston easily could have made some of these very open shots the Cavs were missing.
The Cavs played fast and they didn’t play together in the first half. Then they’d have possessions like this that made it easy for the Nets to defend.
4. Kyrie Irving is still a prime target for the Celtics offense
Just watch Caris LeVert, who had a horrible night, breeze by Irving.
The Nets might be happy to let the Celtics get lulled into iso-hunting Irving, so they do have to be careful not to just stand and watch. Durant kept leaving his man to get help-side blocks so an easy counter to that would be looking for that guy for dunks or find the corner shooters. The rest of the Nets aren’t exactly going to swarm to stop anyone.
Durant deserves his respect as a closer. If the game is close, he can come in and win it for Brooklyn. It can also easily be argued that Durant, as evidenced by only 16 shots and 11 assists, was very content to take his game down a notch because he felt the Nets could get by the Cavs pretty easily.
If that was the plan, it mostly worked. He still had to play 42 minutes, but he didn’t have to go into full takeover mode until the final few minutes. With four days off to rest and prepare for the Celtics, Game 1 could be a real battle.
However, there was nothing in this game against Cleveland that showed me anything different about the Nets. There was nothing that made me fear them any more. I still think Boston will be favored in the series and for good reason.
They have the talent to counter everything Brooklyn does, and the scheme to exploit every Nets weak spot. If the Celtics play their best basketball, even without Robert Williams, they should handle Brooklyn in five or six games.