Buckle Up Everybody Because A Nets/Celtics First Round Series Is On The Horizon

Nathaniel S. Butler. Getty Images.

Alright, the Brooklyn Nets it is. While maybe you were holding out a sliver of hope that the Cavs would somehow pull off the upset on the road, I think we all expected this matchup. As I said earlier today if it ended up being the Nets then so be it. If the Celts didn't feel confident in that matchup they wouldn't have played their way into it. OK, cool. You made your bed now let's see what you do. It's important to remember that when you're talking about the playoffs everything comes down to matchups. What we just saw in BKN/CLE doesn't really mean anything for a BKN/BOS series. Oh what, Kyrie and KD are really good? That was going to still be true regardless of who the Nets played. At the same time, this Cavs defense is nothing close to what the Celts do on that end even without Rob. Offensively, the Cavs were horrendous and shot like 35% through mostly missed open looks. Again, their offense isn't all that relatable to the challenges that the Celts should in theory give the Nets. 

There are obviously a few ways to look at what happened tonight. On one hand, we were shown once again that Kyrie and KD can be absolutely terrifying offensive players. You can play perfect defense and it might not matter. That's a reality we're all just going to have to accept. But there's also the reality that despite their going supernova, the Cavs did hang around. This was only a 14 point game at halftime with Kyrie going 10-10 and KD going 4-5 from the floor. This was a 12 point through 3 quarters and that's even with the fact that the Cavs couldn't do anything right and their secondary players all had some of the worst performances of their season (looking at you Caris LeVert). Not to mention they did it all without their All Star center. We saw this hit game hit single digits (6) in the 4th quarter. As a Celtics fan, that's encouraging.

We also saw what a two way impact Durant can make. I do have some concerns about how the Celts perform around the rim in this series, especially with the lob to Rob not available or even Rob's putbacks not available. Drummond historically gives them some issues there, Claxton is long as shit, and once we get into the playoffs Durant takes his defense up like 10 knotches. 

Despite the dominance of their two star players, I still saw some of the same glaring issues the Nets will have to deal with in the first round. Surviving the non-KD minutes is still an issue and I would expect that to be the case facing the NBA's best defense. Every time he went to the bench we saw the Cavs go on a run and cut into the lead which isn't all that uncommon for the Nets this entire season. Seth Curry is for sure still dealing with that ankle injury and doesn't look as quick, and his job will be to guard….Jaylen Brown. There wasn't a ton of bench production outside of a few Patty Mills threes, but he wasn't exactly a factor. Kyrie still struggles guarding the point of attack, especially with bigger players. We saw LeVert get right by him whenever he was able to drop his shoulder, so I feel pretty good about Tatum/Brown/Smart/White doing the same. Once you take away the Bruce Brown P&R, he's pretty limited offensively. These are all things that will still be true in the next round.

At the same time, there's no sense in trying to make it seem like this will be an easy series. Anytime you're facing elite offensive players like KD/Kyrie there's always a chance they just put the team on their backs and that's enough. But we knew that already. It's not exactly a hot take to say that the Celts will have to play to their potential to win in the first round, but that was going to be true no matter who they played. The Celtics team we've seen play that way can absolutely beat the Nets team we just watched. The only thing that's different is the Celts' margin for error is razor thin. They can't lose their composure when calls don't call their way, they can't have those 5-6 minute scoring droughts, and most importantly, they cannot turn the ball over. 

But if they play the brand of basketball we've seen over the last 47 games (35-12)? They can beat anyone in the NBA, including Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. 

Will they? We're about to find out. Check ball and may the best team win.