Viewing The Nets’ Heartbreaking Game 1 Loss Through Two Lenses
Are you a glass half-full or a half-empty kind of Nets fan?
Empty—The Nets blew a huge opportunity to steal home court from the Celtics when Jayson Tatum beat the buzzer to give Boston a 115-114 victory in Game 1 of the highly-anticipated Eastern Conference quarterfinals on Sunday. All Brooklyn needed was one score OR one stop in the final 45 seconds and at worst the game would have come down to how well they shot free throws. They got neither as Boston scored the final four points to rip out Nets fans’ hearts.
Full—As poorly as Brooklyn—and superstar Kevin Durant (9-for-24 shooting, 6 turnovers)—played, they were right there at the end. Again, the usual suspects created a heavy drag on performance—they coughed the ball up 12 times in the first half, 9 in the live-ball category; Boston bullied its way to 14 offensive rebounds against the Nets’ undersized lineups; and Brooklyn’s defenders struggled to keep in front of penetrators, leading to excessive fouling. Still, thanks to Kyrie Irving’s otherworldly shotmaking in the fourth quarter (18 points, 7-for-9 from the floor), they rallied from a double-digit deficit to let Boston know the hype was real. You can never really count this team out because of the awesomeness of their two stars.
Empty—Nets Head Coach Steve Nash has given no indication that he will adjust to the matchup issue created by Boston’s size advantage, especially when the Celts can play their version of a Twin Towers lineup with centers Al Horford and Daniel Theis. When that duo took the court together, the Celtics outscored Brooklyn, 47-36, in just 14 minutes. More telling was that Boston recovered nearly half of its missed shots in those stretches. Too often, the Nets would be boxing out Theis with guys like Irving or Seth Curry, who were giving up about 7 inches. If you think Nash will counter by, say, replacing Bruce Brown with either of LaMarcus Aldridge or Blake Griffin to make it more of a fair fight underneath, you haven’t been following this team for the last two seasons.
Full—For all the pre-series chatter about the inadequacies of the Nets’ bench, they received healthy contributions from center Nic Claxton (13 points, 8 rebounds) and Goran Dragic (14 points) while Boston’s Derrick White and Grant Williams had minimal impacts outside of Williams’ thuggery on KD. Dragic was absent for the latter part of Brooklyn’s stretch run after entering the league’s health and safety COVID-19 protocols and saw just 10 minutes of action in the play-in triumph over Cleveland on Tuesday, so it was easy for Boston to fall asleep on him for one game. Still, I believe his veteran calmness and toughness will prove quite useful as the series rolls forward.
Empty—Not only do the Nets not have enough size in their lineups, there’s not enough shooting. That makes it so much easier for Boston to work over Durant with different looks and at different angles, since they can send extra defenders off either Brown or whoever of Claxton or Andre Drummond is at the 5. Durant told the media after the game that he needed to “slow down” when in reality he needed to make his reads quicker so he could find the open man to set up a 4-on-3. That could also be on KD’s teammates, who needed to move into vacated spaces instead of waiting for one of the Nets’ superstars do something spectacular. The bottom line is that Durant, who has been seeing every variety of defense that can be thrown at someone over the course of his Hall of Fame career, came into the series averaging over 10 assists per game over the Nets’ last four games and finished with just three assists on Sunday.
Full: I can’t tell if the Nets are being purposely coy or they’re serious about Ben Simmons’ return-to-play timeline. The three-time All-Star has yet to suit up in a Brooklyn uniform since being dealt on February 10 in the James Harden blockbuster with Philadelphia due to a herniated disc in his back. As most know, Simmons hasn’t played an NBA game in about 10 months after telling the Sixers he wasn’t “mentally ready” to perform. Depending on whether you believe certain pundits or Nash’s “I see nothing” remarks, he is either about to start the contact portion of his protocols and could return in as soon as a week for Game 3, or he's still miles away. If it’s the former, Simmons could certainly provide a boost against the Nets’ size and defense issues, even if it’s for limited on-court runs.
Empty—The Celtics proved their crunch time offense is much easier to execute than Brooklyn’s. The Nets have too many guys on the court they need to hide—on both ends. You don’t want Claxton with the ball in his hands in case he gets fouled, nor do you want Brown to have it out of fear he will look to be overaggressive. Conversely, the Celtics can get the Nets to switch to any matchup they’d like with a simple screen, whether it’s Curry on Tatum or Irving on anyone other than Marcus Smart. As a result, the Nets are overreliant on their stars to bail out bad offense while the Celtics can find easier ways to get to the front of the rim. In that ignominious final minute, the Nets resorted to Irving and Durant three-point heaves while for the Celtics, first it was Jaylen Brown who easily beat namesake Bruce Brown off the dribble for a layup; and then a pair of -drive-and-dishes eventually found a cutting Tatum (Durant’s responsibility) in the paint for the game-winner.
Full—The odds of Durant putting up two stinkers in a row are low, no matter the opponent. Yes, Boston made life difficult for him, but so did Milwaukee in last year’s second-round playoff series. You all remember Games 5 and 7, right? And you know who he is. Game 2 on Wednesday would be the perfect opportunity for him to issue a loud reminder to anyone who makes too much of this one contest.