Filip Tomic
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It’ll be a series between the team nobody in the Eastern Conference wanted to face in the 1st Round and one of the most pleasant surprises over the last 3 months of the regular season. The #7 seed Brooklyn Nets take on the #2 seed Boston Celtics in what will surely be the highlight of this year’s opening round of the postseason.
This match-up has so many storylines. From the Celtics looking to avenge last season’s 4-1 loss in the 1st round, to Kyrie Irving returning to Boston after stomping on the logo, injuries to key players in both camps and so much more!
Let’s break all that down!
Which duo is better? Kyrie and KD or Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown?
Believe it or not there are a lot of similarities between the Nets and Celtics, especially when you compare the two best players on each team. When both Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant play, the Nets have the best offensive rating in the NBA and they are also a top 10 defense in the league. However, due to various reasons they’ve played a total of just 17 games together during the regular season (yes, you read that correctly) and over that stretch they went 11-6. Both of them missed quite a few games this season, they combined to play in just 84 out of a possible 164 games. In a weird way though, that could work in their favor. Having fresh legs is crucial for a deep playoff run and nobody has as much rest as Irving this season.
Coming into the season there was a lot of talk around the Celtics’ dynamic duo, whether or not Tatum and Brown can co-exist after their failure in last year’s playoffs. You even had people analyzing trade scenarios, especially after the slow start over the first couple of months of the season. Something clicked at the end of January though, this team was 26-25 on January 30th and then they went on a run of 25 wins and just 6 losses. A big reason for that was the play of Tatum and Brown.
A lot will depend on them in this series. Tatum has had a couple of really big games against the Nets, in his last game against them he dropped 56 points in a home win. Brown just had a streak of 10 games in a row scoring 25+ points and these two have combined to score at least 50 points in their last 8 games. With the Nets being capable of scoring 120+ a night, it’ll be crucial for the Celtics to have both Tatum and Brown put up numbers consistently. Can they do it? It’s hard to say, this will be the biggest challenge of their young careers so far.
Don’t forget to check our Game 1 Predictions for Brooklyn Nets vs Boston Celtics
Will the Celtics overcome the absence of Robert Williams III?
Not having Timelord has already proven to be a big loss to the Celtics and they might get exposed even more in this series with two elite scorers coming at them. Daniel Theis and Al Horford will have their hands full trying to stop Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant as they attack the basket relentlessly. Defending the pick-and-roll will be a problem for the Boston defense as we saw in their last few regular season games without Williams.
There is hope in the Celtics camp that Williams could make a return at some point, as the medical staff did call it a “minor” knee procedure. I am a bit skeptical when it comes to that, from my experience of covering the NBA for over 20 years there’s no such thing as minor knee surgery. Williams could make a comeback some time down the line in the Eastern Conference finals, that is if the Celtics make it that far.
Ben Simmons the X-factor?!
Ben Simmons hasn’t played competitive basketball in almost a year, but according to reports the Nets are ramping up his workload over the next couple of weeks and if there is no setback he could make his Nets debut in games 5, 6 or 7. If true, this could have a huge impact on the outcome of this series. Granted, I’m not expecting Simmons to play 35+ minutes per game after being out for so long and just recovering from a back injury, but if he can give Brooklyn 15-20 minutes of solid defense on either Tatum or Brown, that opens so many possibilities for the Nets on both ends.
Prediction
With so many uncertainties surrounding this series, I think we can all agree on one thing – this is going to be a long series. The Nets have the best player in this series, so I am not worried at all if this goes 7 games and Brooklyn has to close it out on the road in a hostile environment. It has been a great run towards the end of the season for the Celtics, but losing Robert Williams will prove to be too much to overcome against an offensive juggernaut like the Nets. Despite the oddsmakers liking the Celtics here, I’m going with Brooklyn to advance. There is also value in backing this series to go the length, you can get +170 odds on FanDuel for 7 Games.
Back Brooklyn Nets to advance at +120 odds on FanDuel.
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