Eastern Conference | Round 1 | (2) Boston Celtics vs. (7) Brooklyn Nets

[Triple M]

The amount of Celtics homerism in this thread is vomit inducing.

It's not homerism. Why shouldn't they back a team that has played at a 60 win rate for more than half of the season?

[Triple M]

The amount of Celtics homerism in this thread is vomit inducing.

It's not homerism. Why shouldn't they back a team that has played at a 60 win rate for more than half of the season?

If you are talking about the 20% of votes that voted an early series the numbers look close to even from a % of votes for both teams

26% to 22%

Not a huge difference

[3pt_chucker]

The amount of Celtics homerism in this thread is vomit inducing.

It's not homerism. Why shouldn't they back a team that has played at a 60 win rate for more than half of the season?

The Nets have a 60+ win rate when KD and KAI this season.

You should be confident for sure but people commenting like this will be a quick series is insane to me.

This series screams 6-7 games.

[hardenASG13]

At the beginning of the series, I believe the Nets goal will be to play Theis off the floor and force the Celtics to go smaller with Grant Williams.

If the Celtics put Tatum on Durant and Brown and Smart on KAI/Curry, then that leaves Theis for Bruce Brown and Horford on Drummond(to start the game). The Nets will 100% run Bruce Brown as the screener, for KAI/KD and that will put Boston in a bind and KD/KAI will be going at Theis over and over. If the Celtics decide to trap/double off this action(like the Cavs did) we saw how great both KD and KAI is at passing the ball out of doubles and Bruce Brown as a Draymond role can be super effective. The Nets have also shown willingness to have Brown initiate the action which results in the same thing: KD/KAI attacking Theis.

The Celtics can counter by either switching the matchups to force Curry or Drummond be the screener. This will probably result in more 3's for Seth and Bruce Brown or Drummond with great match-ups at the rim. I think Drummond can avg a double double this series, unless the Celtics target him defensively(which they should).
They can also go smaller with Williams, which I think the Nets won't mind either option.

On the other end, I think the Celtics will relentlessly hunt Curry and also exploit Kyrie on Tatum. That's a huge advantage and I expect if it happens often, Clax mins will go up dramatically or might even start by game 3. He is probably the only one who can make things tough on Tatum other than KD(disregard Simmons until he plays). Foul trouble will be huge if Claxton racks up fouls because Tatum ight avg 40+pts in the series

Key stats for the Nets:
1) Last 15 games, the Nets have an awesome(for them haha) 105.2 defensive rating in 332 mins with Nic Claxton on the floor
2) Last 15 games, the 3 man lineup of KD-Brown-Clax have a +15.9 net rating(114 OFF; 98 DEF)
3) Seth Curry is shooting 40% from 3 (5 ATT) vs the Celtics with the Nets.
4) Patty Mills is shooting 47% from 3 (4.8 ATT) vs the Celtics
5) Drummond avgs 5 O-rebs per 100 possessions with Al Horford in the game

Worrying stats for the Nets (2 games the Nets were depleted):
1) Tatum vs the Nets: ~30pts on 48-38-80 +8.3
2) Marcus Smart is shooting 50% from 3 (8 ATT!!!) vs the Nets this season
3) Smart-Brown-Tatum-Horford-Theis lineup in 4 games(59 mins): +33.9 Net Rating(129 OFF; 95.2 DEF)

I agree with alot of this. What about Simmons in that Brown screener role though? I think he could cause major problems going downhill 4 on 3 with nobody in front of him. Teams likely should continue to blitz KD and Kyrie on the screen, otherwise they could be two of the top 5 attacking one on one in those scenarios (with KD being the best in the business in my opinion).

[ajones9219]

We beat your beloved Celtics.

Not our fault you were stupid and traded for Fournier and signed Tristan Thompson.

Gotcha. So the Bucks were the better team last season then?

We were beating the Celtics with or without a few games of Rob Williams and everyone knows it. Give me a break.

The series wasn't close.

The Bucks was decided by KD's big toe.

We were missing Rob, brown, and kemba.
You can argue you still may have won but to act like that series wasn't a sham due to injuries is just biased

[ajones9219]

Who says all night? If Ben plays in the 4th, we have a ton of players on the bench to foul him. It’s not like KD gets to the line that much anyways, same with kyrie. Also most teams gets into the penalty anyways. Plus good luck with your horrible bench. You might need to play KD and Kyrie 40 plus mins for you to have a decent chance. Not sure they would hold up till the end of the series. Plus with Ben playing, i like our chances playing 4 v 5, coz ben is as useless on offense as a scorers table lol.

Thats a weird take. Kind of shows you don't know what you're talking about.

There is not "might need to play KD and kyrie 40+ min" they ARE playing 40 and have been most of the year. There is zero problem with this, it's the play-offs.

It's weird that you don't see why playing injury prone guys 40mpg and absolutely needing that to win every game is not good.

[Hello Brooklyn]

He can play Point Guard and pass a lot without scoring as well.

I don't think he would actually score 0 points btw. Just saying it would be possible.

Nah man there's no room for a PG on that team... You give the ball to KD half the time and to Kyrie the other half and that's the offense, those guys are not waiting for anyone to bring the ball up and start a play.

Funny you say that when they literally did that with Harden last year and it worked perfectly.

Both KD/Kyrie play better off ball.

[Hello Brooklyn]

Gotcha. So the Bucks were the better team last season then?

We were beating the Celtics with or without a few games of Rob Williams and everyone knows it. Give me a break.

The series wasn't close.

The Bucks was decided by KD's big toe.

We were missing Rob, brown, and kemba.
You can argue you still may have won but to act like that series wasn't a sham due to injuries is just biased

Its not "we may have won."

We were winning the series. We were the far better team.

And the Celtics were basically .500 all year despite having Brown/Tatum/Williams healthy for most of the season. Nets with KD this year had the #1 seed in the East.

Kemba isn't even good so pretending that made a big difference is comical.

Completely different from the Bucks series. We had a higher seed and were winning by far till Kyrie got undercut by Giannis.

[ajones9219]

We were beating the Celtics with or without a few games of Rob Williams and everyone knows it. Give me a break.

The series wasn't close.

The Bucks was decided by KD's big toe.

We were missing Rob, brown, and kemba.
You can argue you still may have won but to act like that series wasn't a sham due to injuries is just biased

Its not "we may have won."

We were winning the series. We were the far better team.

And the Celtics were basically .500 all year despite having Brown/Tatum/Williams healthy for most of the season. Nets with KD this year had the #1 seed in the East.

Kemba isn't even good so pretending that made a big difference is comical.

Completely different from the Bucks series. We had a higher seed and were winning by far till Kyrie got undercut by Giannis.

Ok so you're blinded by homerism then. Good to know which posters to avoid

[Hello Brooklyn]

We were missing Rob, brown, and kemba.
You can argue you still may have won but to act like that series wasn't a sham due to injuries is just biased

Its not "we may have won."

We were winning the series. We were the far better team.

And the Celtics were basically .500 all year despite having Brown/Tatum/Williams healthy for most of the season. Nets with KD this year had the #1 seed in the East.

Kemba isn't even good so pretending that made a big difference is comical.

Completely different from the Bucks series. We had a higher seed and were winning by far till Kyrie got undercut by Giannis.

Ok so you're blinded by homerism then. Good to know which posters to avoid

Im blinded by homerism yet youre acting like the .500 Celtics had any shot beating the Nets last year?

The team that was an inch away from beating the reigning Champions.

Stop projecting. Only homer here is you.

[ajones9219]

Its not "we may have won."

We were winning the series. We were the far better team.

And the Celtics were basically .500 all year despite having Brown/Tatum/Williams healthy for most of the season. Nets with KD this year had the #1 seed in the East.

Kemba isn't even good so pretending that made a big difference is comical.

Completely different from the Bucks series. We had a higher seed and were winning by far till Kyrie got undercut by Giannis.

Ok so you're blinded by homerism then. Good to know which posters to avoid

Im blinded by homerism yet youre acting like the .500 Celtics had any shot beating the Nets last year?

The team that was an inch away from beating the reigning Champions.

Stop projecting. Only homer here is you.

You literally just said kemba was bad and act like he wouldn't have made a difference. Dude put up

19.3 and 5 assists on 49/36/89 efficiency and led the league in charges drawn for most of the season.

Brown was averaging 25/6/3 on 53/40/76

And we can just discount that maybe those losses made a difference in addition to timelord.

Give me a damn break.

[KamikazeK]

Honestly Celtics are lucky Ben Simmons isn't playing.

If we had Ben this wouldn't be close. He would make things very tough for Tatum and there wouldn't be enough scoring anywhere else.

Nets can never get an injury luck. Past 2 years were got **** by injuries. Then this year too.

Lineup should really be:

Simmons, Kyrie, Harris, KD, Drummond. Would be great defensively.

So afraid of Beta 1 point Simmons!!!!!!!!

You can be afraid of KD/Kyrie who sent you packing last year. Never forget.

Did you ever look at the roster Boston was fielding in that series? Acting like that series has anything at all to do with this series, or this team, is hilariously stupid.

Boston in the playoffs last year did not have Brown. They did not have Horford. They did not have Theis, or White, or anyone. They started Romeo Langford. Tatum was on an island alone in that series. It's just a completely different team in every way this year and you're a fool if you don't realize that.

[Fencer reregistered]

We were beating the Celtics with or without a few games of Rob Williams and everyone knows it. Give me a break.

The series wasn't close.

The Bucks was decided by KD's big toe.

We were missing Rob, brown, and kemba.
You can argue you still may have won but to act like that series wasn't a sham due to injuries is just biased

Its not "we may have won."

We were winning the series. We were the far better team.

And the Celtics were basically .500 all year despite having Brown/Tatum/Williams healthy for most of the season. Nets with KD this year had the #1 seed in the East.

Kemba isn't even good so pretending that made a big difference is comical.

Completely different from the Bucks series. We had a higher seed and were winning by far till Kyrie got undercut by Giannis.

The Celtics are 26-8 since they made substantial changes at the trade deadline. That includes Timelord's injury. In 2 of the losses, Tatum, Horford and Timelord were all out. In 1 of them, Brown was out too. And by the way, the Cs kept both of those road games close against teams that are higher in the seedings than the Nets.

[Hello Brooklyn]

Ok so you're blinded by homerism then. Good to know which posters to avoid

Im blinded by homerism yet youre acting like the .500 Celtics had any shot beating the Nets last year?

The team that was an inch away from beating the reigning Champions.

Stop projecting. Only homer here is you.

You literally just said kemba was bad and act like he wouldn't have made a difference. Dude put up

19.3 and 5 assists on 49/36/89 efficiency and led the league in charges drawn for most of the season.

Brown was averaging 25/6/3 on 53/40/76

And we can just discount that maybe those losses made a difference in addition to timelord.

Give me a damn break.

Yeah how did he play in the playoffs before getting hurt again?

12 points on 31% shooting from the field.

Him being injured probably helped you if anything.

Again just because you bad team last year was injured doesn't mean they had any chance of winning anything. They were not a good team when healthy.

Everyone can see that except a homer like you.

[bisme37]

The Nets were definitely a better team than the Celts a year ago when they beat us.

Our starting lineup last season was Tatum, Brown, Kemba, Fournier and Tristan Thompson lol. Brown was injured and didn't play vs Nets, and Kemba sucked and was ruled out a couple games in. Rob was also injured for that series. Meanwhile the Nets had KD, Ky and Harden all healthy and playing, as well as a better supporting cast than they have now.

I don't really get C's fans who won't admit the Nets were the better team a year ago. Tatum's main healthy sidekick was Evan Fournier lmao.

I also don't get why Nets fans keep bragging about it as if it has any impact on this series. It's two vastly different teams.

[bisme37]

Also, please stop calling each other homers you guys. It's not the most egregious insult in the world but when you're saying it to insult and dismiss the other person, yes it counts as an insult and borders on a personal attack. And regardless of forum guidelines, I think most of the people enjoying this thread would really like it to not become a middle school locker room. Thx.

[jordb2k7]

Im blinded by homerism yet youre acting like the .500 Celtics had any shot beating the Nets last year?

The team that was an inch away from beating the reigning Champions.

Stop projecting. Only homer here is you.

You literally just said kemba was bad and act like he wouldn't have made a difference. Dude put up

19.3 and 5 assists on 49/36/89 efficiency and led the league in charges drawn for most of the season.

Brown was averaging 25/6/3 on 53/40/76

And we can just discount that maybe those losses made a difference in addition to timelord.

Give me a damn break.

Yeah how did he play in the playoffs before getting hurt again?

12 points on 31% shooting from the field.

Him being injured probably helped you if anything.

Again just because you bad team last year was injured doesn't mean they had any chance of winning anything. They were not a good team when healthy.

Everyone can see that except a homer like you.

I agree with you I don’t know that Kemba would have made much of a difference at that point. He’s not swinging the series. Regardless it doesn’t matter a fully healthy Celtics team last year against your fully healthy nets team that you guys had, C’s had no chance in that series.

It’s a new year and now things have changed. I don’t think you can compare these at all since both teams look a lot different.
With that said none of it really matters now because so much has changed.

[ajones9219]

Im blinded by homerism yet youre acting like the .500 Celtics had any shot beating the Nets last year?

The team that was an inch away from beating the reigning Champions.

Stop projecting. Only homer here is you.

You literally just said kemba was bad and act like he wouldn't have made a difference. Dude put up

19.3 and 5 assists on 49/36/89 efficiency and led the league in charges drawn for most of the season.

Brown was averaging 25/6/3 on 53/40/76

And we can just discount that maybe those losses made a difference in addition to timelord.

Give me a damn break.

Yeah how did he play in the playoffs before getting hurt again?

12 points on 31% shooting from the field.

Him being injured probably helped you if anything.

Again just because you bad team last year was injured doesn't mean they had any chance of winning anything. They were not a good team when healthy.

Everyone can see that except a homer like you.

Lol dude nobody is saying the Celtics would have won anything last year. They were a flawed team like Brooklyn is this year. You're the one pounding your chest for beating an injury riddled team last year and then act like the Bucks series doesn't count due to injuries.

Regardless it has nothing to do with this year where Boston is just flat out more talented. Put your head in the sand if you want.

[Floody100]

The last 10 pages has turned into a bunch of children arguing with each other

[1st banana]

Is it Sunday yet?