Slowing down the Brooklyn Nets’ record-setting offense is the most daunting task that any defense will have to face in the 2021 NBA Playoffs. The Boston Celtics got the first crack at it Saturday night, and they did one heck of a job standing their ground on the Barclays Center court, despite suffering a 104-93 loss.
Boston’s defense came out of the gate playing on a string, as it limited the Nets to 47 points in the first half, including just 16 during the first quarter. That in itself was quite a feat considering how Brooklyn had logged the highest offensive rating (118.3) in NBA history during the regular season.
The Celtics took a 53-47 lead into the break, but then Brooklyn took control partway through the third quarter. The issue wasn’t that Boston’s defense faltered much; it was more because its offense went stagnant, as it logged back-to-back 20-point quarters in the second half.
Celtics coach Brad Stevens noted after the game that his team will have some work to do on the offensive side of the ball. But defensively, they couldn’t have played much better.
“I think the biggest key today, we held them to 104, and I know they missed some opportunities, but our guys really guarded,” Stevens said. “I think that what we said all week was, scoring in the 90s isn’t going to be good enough. And we’ve gotta do a better job of attacking them with all the switching and being a little bit more purposeful than that … But our fight was right, our competitiveness was right, our focus defensively was right for the most part.”
The Celtics forced Brooklyn into one of its worst shooting performances of the season, as it knocked down just 41.7 percent of its shots from the field. Kyrie Irving was the Nets only starter who shot above 40 percent, as he connected on 11-of-20 from the field. Meanwhile, Kevin Durant shot a sub-par 10-of-25 and James Harden shot a mediocre 5-of-13.
Robert Williams was the main cause of Brooklyn’s struggles as he logged a Celtics playoff record of nine blocked shots in just 23 minutes of action, falling just one block and one rebound shy of a triple-double.
“He's shifting over every single time on every one of our drives,” said Irving, a former Celtics teammate of Williams. “His timing is amazing. It's great to see a big that's active in our game, and he challenges you at the rim every single time. So it’s just gonna test our IQ for the rest of these games.”
Surely, the Nets will try to change their methods of attack moving forward now that they realize how immense of an impact Williams can make. And Williams understands that such will be the case as he gets ready for Game 2.
“We gotta play these guys multiple times,” said the third-year big man. “They pick up on stuff as well as we pick up on stuff. Sometimes you gotta adjust.”
But where the Celtics need to do most of their adjusting is on the offensive end. According to Marcus Smart, that means playing more like they did at the start of the game.
“We’ve just got to continue to move the ball we were in the first half that got us that lead,” said Smart, whose team finished with just a 36.9 percent shooting clip from the field. “We gotta just continue to play. We’ve got to be strategic and optimistic on the fast breaks and transition. And you’ve just got to continue to make them work on both ends of the floor. They’re going to go down and makes some tough shots on the offensive end, you’ve got to make it even tougher for them on the defensive end.”
Although Smart “loved” Boston’s defensive aggressiveness, the loss still left a sour taste in his mouth, considering how he had been hoping to “come in and steal a road win” right off the bat. Instead, the C’s will aim to do so in Game 2, and they plan on returning to Barclays with a vengeance.
“When you get hit in the mouth, you fight back,” said Smart. “So we plan on fighting back.”
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May 23, 2021 at 01:01PM
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Celtics Bring Defensive Fight to Brooklyn in Game 1 - Celtics.com
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