Nets-Celtics playoff preview: Can Boston be more than a tune-up for Kevin Durant, James Harden, Kyrie Irving?

Cease me should you’ve heard this earlier than: Coming into their first-round playoff collection towards the Boston Celtics, the Brooklyn Nets’ mighty trio — to be clear, I’m referring to James Harden, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, not this mighty trio —  have performed solely 202 minutes collectively. That’s 23 fewer minutes than Caris LeVert and Jarrett Allen shared in Nets uniforms this season. It’s 9 fewer minutes than Taurean Prince performed for Brooklyn this season. It’s 182 fewer minutes than Todd MacCulloch performed for the Nets within the 2002 playoffs. 

This, within the phrases of Blake Griffin, who has performed subsequent to Harden for simply 84 minutes — 24 fewer than he’s logged with Mike James — is “not splendid.” Ever the optimist, although, Griffin identified Brooklyn is getting into the playoffs wholesome, which is all the time “a win.” He additionally mentioned that the IQ of the Large 3 makes the sport straightforward for everyone else, so the Nets will “attempt to lean on that.”

They’ll additionally lean on their huge expertise benefit. Should you haven’t watched Boston since final 12 months’s playoffs, you then is perhaps shocked to see Evan Fournier, Aaron Nesmith, Tristan Thompson, Payton Pritchard and Luke Kornet are getting the minutes that might have beforehand gone to Jaylen Brown, Gordon Hayward, Daniel Theis, Brad Wanamaker and Enes Kanter. (Don’t panic: Brown remains to be a Celtic. He’s simply out for the season, recovering from wrist surgical procedure.)

Expertise, nevertheless, shouldn’t be every little thing. Simply ask Brooklyn coach Steve Nash, who ran level for groups that had a number of the finest chemistry of all-time and a number of the absolute worst.

“Not at all do I take a look at this and go, ‘Oh, we’re so proficient, we’re simply going to roll on the market and win video games,’” Nash mentioned. “You understand within the playoffs, particulars matter. You understand connectivity, you understand cohesion issues. Groups are going to throw plenty of totally different stuff at us, attempt to sluggish us down, attempt to make it tough, attempt to give us totally different reads, and we gotta have the option adapt and modify.”

Nash mentioned that, all through the playoffs, the Nets can be studying. They’ll be attempting to make all of the items “match along with fluidity and understanding.” They can even, a minimum of for a short while, be extraordinarily centered on slowing down Jayson Tatum. In Boston’s final recreation, a 118-100 victory over the Washington Wizards for which it earned the prize of this daunting matchup, Tatum scored 50 factors. Three weeks in the past, he scored 60. 

Positions are roughly meaningless lately, however Nash referred to as the 6-foot-8 Tatum “an enormous guard, so to talk,” due to “the best way he handles the ball and is ready to shoot in any respect three ranges, use his measurement inside or exterior to shoot over individuals.” Whereas Durant is essentially the most pure defensive matchup for Tatum, Brooklyn switches a lot that the primary line of protection isn’t essentially a very powerful factor. 

“As a lot as something, it’s about focus,” Nash mentioned. “Not giving him the simple ones, not making easy errors. And that comes from a crew effort. Getting again and matched up in transition. Ensuring we’re there in help always.”

For the Nets, coping with Tatum and Kemba Walker working excessive pick-and-rolls ought to function tune-up. If Boston goes to make this attention-grabbing, it should get these guys going, capitalize once they draw assist, restrict turnovers, get again in transition, dominate the glass, contest Brooklyn’s soar pictures and keep away from fouling. Somewhat luck wouldn’t harm, both. 

Schedule: 2. Nets vs. 7. Celtics

All occasions Jap

• Sport 1: Nets 104, Celtics 93
• Sport 2: Tuesday, Might 25, 7:30 p.m. | TNT
• Sport 3: Friday, Might 28, 8:30 p.m. | ABC
• Sport 4: Sunday, Might 30, 7 p.m. | TNT
• Sport 5*: Tuesday, June 1, TBD | TBD
• Sport 6*: Thursday, June 3, TBD | TBD
• Sport 7*: Saturday, June 5, TBD | TBD

*If mandatory

1. Hey man, good shot

If Celtics coach Brad Stevens has one main message about competing with a superteam, it’s this: At the least make them beat you. Should you get discouraged or distracted when the Nets’ superstars make loopy pictures, you haven’t any probability. 

“There can be some tip-your-cap moments,” Stevens mentioned, “the place you’re going to must [say] ‘good shot’ and go down the opposite finish and rating.”

That is additionally about executing with precision. “Your offensive possessions must be very purposeful,” Stevens mentioned, as a result of Boston can’t afford to waste them. Should you throw away a handful of consecutive possessions, “that turns into a 12-0 run actually shortly.” 

The Celtics’ offensive movement as waxed and waned over the course of a wacky common season that has been notably bizarre for them. After they recorded 25 assists or extra, they went 23-6. After they didn’t, they went 13-30. Brooklyn’s switch-heavy protection is designed to close down an opponent’s ball motion, and Boston wants to search out methods to counteract that. That may imply looking mismatches, slipping screens or just persevering with to run their stuff so there are extra alternatives for the protection to make a mistake. 

Within the common season, the Celtics have been twenty fifth in makes an attempt on the rim, in accordance with Cleansing the Glass. That in itself isn’t damning, however in that it’s a mirrored image of their problem placing stress on opponents’ inside protection, it is perhaps. The excellent news right here is that the Nets aren’t essentially the most bodily imposing defensive crew, however the dangerous information is that they’ve been fairly good at defending the rim anyway. 

A little bit of that’s due to DeAndre Jordan’s, the crew’s lone “conventional” middle, however collectively Brooklyn has had loads of follow shutting down driving traces, scramming out of mismatches and sending assist when it may’t achieve this. Boston’s finest wager is making the most of Jordan in drop protection, and if the Nets don’t put him within the rotation, then it might want to seize sufficient offensive rebounds in order that they haven’t any selection. 

Which brings us to …

2. ‘We’re not the perfect rebounding crew, however …’

Nash referred to as limiting Thompson’s offensive rebounds a “precedence.” Nets massive Nicolas Claxton referred to as Thompson a “menace” on the glass. Griffin mentioned they’d must “match his physicality and his power.” This has been a topic of dialog as a result of Boston was the third-best offensive rebounding crew within the league, grabbing 28.9 % of its misses, and Brooklyn ranked twenty third in defensive rebounding share. 

“We’re not the perfect rebounding crew, however by committee we may be,” Griffin mentioned. “So sitting down and getting stops after which ending these stops with a rebound and never giving them further pictures is large.”

The Nets play a lot of small lineups that includes Jeff Inexperienced or Griffin at middle, and their switches usually depart bigs out on the perimeter relatively than battling below the boards. Harden and Bruce Brown are nice rebounders for his or her measurement, although, and, as superior as Brooklyn is in transition, it is not going to be searching for leak-outs on this collection. The participant who bins out Thompson shouldn’t be essentially going to be the participant who will get his arms on the ball. 

“All people has to return again in,” Griffin mentioned. “It’s not simply having a mismatch down low. If there’s a fantastic offensive rebounding crew, everyone has to return again in ’trigger, plenty of the time, these guys will tip ’em out.”

A type of guys is Robert Williams III, who completed fourth in particular person offensive rebounding share within the common season. Sadly for the Celtics, Williams has turf toe, didn’t follow Thursday, seemingly gained’t Friday and is taken into account day-to-day. They want him wholesome for his rebounding, to not point out his vertical spacing and passing. 

There may be lineup uncertainty on Brooklyn’s facet, too, by advantage of its roster development. Nash didn’t tip his hand as as to if or not Jordan can be within the rotation, saying solely that each one the bigs will share minutes. Claxton is basically a rookie, and the Nets have to get him playoff reps with out overexposing him. Griffin has already warned Claxton that the sport is about to get considerably extra bodily, and Nash doesn’t anticipate him to be good. 

“If he performs arduous and makes use of his size and athleticism and his exercise, he’s OK, we will enable him to make some errors,” Nash mentioned. “Our crew must be adequate to permit him to make some inexperienced performs and nonetheless have an effect on the sport due to his profile.”

3. Problem every little thing 

Brooklyn’s sheer firepower can overwhelm opponents, notably when it’s piling up straightforward factors in transition and on the free throw line. When Stevens repeatedly confused the importance of execution, he was speaking about protection, too. No crew allowed fewer transition alternatives than the Celtics two years in the past, and final season they’d the perfect transition protection within the league, in accordance with CTG, however this season they have been common on this respect. That’s nowhere close to adequate towards one of the crucial terrifying transition groups you could possibly probably think about. 

“You’re going to must problem every little thing,” Stevens mentioned. “You’re going to must deal with the basketball, you’re going to must dash to remove any straightforward transition baskets, you’re going to have to remove straightforward baskets on cuts and rebounds. As a result of if they can add up quite a few straightforward baskets that means, by way of their motor and power and a scarcity of enjoying the correct means on our half, then … all these different pictures that they make change into an excessive amount of to beat.”

The Nets drive defenses to make not possible choices. Joe Harris, who shot a league-best 47.5 % from 3-point vary, noticed no daylight towards the Philadelphia 76ers within the playoffs two years in the past. The Sixers top-locked him, so he couldn’t discover his regular seems to be off screens, they usually stayed glued to him always. If Boston does one thing like that now, with Harris surrounded by a number of the finest scorers in league historical past, it can include painful trade-offs. 

“I’m certain they don’t need to give him any free seems to be,” Nash mentioned. “He’s among the best shooters in our recreation. Having mentioned that, it’s a bit trickier when you might have three guys on the market that may break the protection down. That’s the great thing about our crew.”

If Brown have been wholesome, then, between him, Tatum and Marcus Sensible, the Celtics would have pretty much as good a shot at anyone at containing Brooklyn’s stars one-on-one. There may be all the time a stability to be struck with assist protection, however Stevens would ideally like to remain out of rotation as a lot as doable. The Nets’ function gamers have spent the entire season exploiting the additional consideration that Durant, Harden and Irving demand.

“You’re going to must resolve as a crew are you going to problem and make it as tough as doable or are you going to scramble in all places?” Stevens mentioned. “And so they’ll make the most of you scrambling in all places, so I feel you need to decide your spots properly.”