Under the current impossible circumstances, you could not dream of a better start than what the Celtics got in Game 1 of their first round playoff series with the Nets tonight at Barclays Center. Boston led 21-16 after the first quarter and 53-47 at halftime. As shocking as that was, the second half was basically paint by numbers as Brooklyn decided to try a little bit and they blew the C's out of the water-winning by double-digits (104-93) in a contest where they played kind of terrible. Not that we needed it but it served as a sobering reality check for the Celts that no matter what they do (save for an asteroid hitting the Earth in the next week), they are going to get swept by the Nets in four forgettable games and their really disappointing 2020-2021 season will mercifully be over by next Sunday night.
One of the only interesting sub-plots of this foregone conclusion of a series is the fact that Brooklyn's big three of power forward Kevin Durant (game-high 32 points, 12 rebounds), point guard Kyrie Irving (29 points, 6 rebounds) and shooting guard James Harden (21 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists, 4 steals) had only played together for a grand total of 202 minutes in the regular season. How would it look when they face the pressure of the postseason against a quality opponent? Haha well obviously that question will have to wait until at least the next round since this series basically serves as Brooklyn's extended warmup to the playoffs. Swingman Jayson Tatum led Boston with 22 points and five assists but he was held to 6-for-20 shooting from the field and he turned the ball over four times as well. Guard Marcus Smart (17 points, 5 assists) actually played pretty well and center Robert Williams was able to suit up and he nearly put up a triple-double (11 points, 9 rebounds and a team playoff record 9 blocks) in 23 minutes off the bench. Point guard Kemba Walker scored 15 points while shooting guard Evan Fournier added 10 points, six rebounds and two steals in his Celtics playoff debut. Center Tristan Thompson grabbed 10 rebounds and had two steals in his first playoff game as a Celtic.
Nets head coach Steve Nash's first playoff game was far from a masterpiece but honestly, how much does he have to do? Small forward Joe Harris (10 points) was the only other Net to score in double-figures and just nine guys on Brooklyn saw the floor but when you have the best trio in the league, you can cut many corners. Brooklyn came out in the third quarter and finally looked a little like the title contender that they are expected to be as they outscored Boston 31-20. The Celtics kept trying in the fourth quarter but they are extremely limited offensively without Jaylen Brown in there so they were outscored 26-20 in the final frame. Neither team shot well at all but Brooklyn at least was over 40% (41.7%) while Boston was 36.9% which is pathetic considering how terrible the Nets are defensively. Brooklyn made six more free throws (26-20) and grabbed 10 more rebounds (50-40). The Nets had twice as many points off turnovers (18-9) as the Celtics.
If the C's were ever going to surprise the Nets, this was the time for it. Now, Brooklyn will be more dialed in from the beginning of the game and as a result, Boston will get destroyed and lose by way bigger margins in Games 2-4. This being the NBA, they already get a needless extra day off between contests so Game 2 is on Tuesday (7:30, NBC Sports Boston) and I expect a much uglier blowout loss for the Celts. The Nets were 8-of-34 (23.5%) on 3-pointers in Game 1 and if you think that number will stay in the same area code for the rest of the series, you are completely delusional.
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