The Brooklyn Nets aren’t an ideal matchup for the Boston Celtics.
But when you finish the regular season .500, playing the team with the best offense in the first-round of the NBA Playoffs is an understandable fate.
And make no mistake, that’s what the Nets are, with the highest offensive rating and field goal percentage in the league, led by an All-Star trio of Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving.
They swept Boston in the season series this year, with at least one member of Brooklyn’s Big 3 sitting out in each of the teams three meetings.
So long story short, the Celtics know what they’re up against.
“There will be some tip your cap moments where you’re going to have to (be) like, ‘Nice shot,’ and go down the other end and score,” Celtics head coach Brad Stevens said after practice Thursday over Zoom. “And that’s probably the other part about this for us is, you know, you’re not going to hold these guys to 90 (points) or whatever the case may be. These guys are a high-octane offense. You’ve got to guard them as hard as you can, and then you got to go and score on the other end.”
On the contrary, for as good as the Nets offense is, the defense leaves a lot to be desired, if they even decide to bother exerting effort on that end.
So while some may see holding Brooklyn to, say, 115 points as a good consolation, Stevens only would hang his hat on that if Boston exploited their defense, too.
In other words, there’s one scenario where Stevens would be ok giving up that many points.
“If we score 116,” he said.
