Fans who watched the Nets and Celtics' first round of G1 were lucky, because not every Jingo Iron Horse story has a hollywood movie-perfect bloody ending, but G1 achieves this effect. Kyrie Irving turned things around with the Nets, while Jason Tatum set the stage on fire with a dramatic whistle-and-roll layup.
114-115, the Celtics narrowly won at home. The kills were unexpected, but the result of the Celtics' narrow victory and the battle of wits between the two sides during the game were not surprising. The first round of the nets and Celtics meeting is an accident, with the strength of both sides, in the Eastern Conference semifinals or even the Eastern Conference Finals to meet again is the best result, only because of the Nets' fall, the two sides of the encounter ahead of the first round, but this does not change the reality that the two sides are equally strong.
Steve Nash and Yuduka are not as "generous" as Coach Lu, they have not retained the habit of testing opponents with the first game of the series, and the two managers who are habitually fierce with the main force are almost full of strength in the first game. On the Nets side, Kevin Durant fought for 41 minutes, Irving played 42 minutes, and the Nets 5 played more than 30 minutes.
On the Celtic side, Yuduca was more ruthless, with Tatum fighting for 45 minutes, Jaylen Brown playing 40 minutes, and even 35-year-old veteran Al Horford playing 41 minutes. The Celtics stuck to the seven-man rotation most of the time, and Pritchard only played 8 minutes, and the significance of his playing was only to let Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart down and catch their breath.
The two sides set up a posture, pulled full strength, and the rest is a competition of strategy and execution. As expected before the game, the Celtics laid out a highly targeted defensive strategy for Durant. In the first round of last year, Durant averaged 32.6 points per game against the Celtics with a shooting rate of 54.6%, and both sides took unlimited changes, resulting in Durant and Tatum showing a confrontational posture. But this year the Celtics are not prepared to let Durant singles again.
At the end of the regular season, Durant assisted in doubles in quick succession, and he did a good job of facing the clip. But the Celtics are, after all, the league's most efficient defensive team, and their defensive execution is better than other teams. Tatum heavily countered Durant, with Horford (or Theiss) at any time to let go of Bruce Brown (or other non-spatial points) for big delays or simply wrap up Durant. Over the years, one of Durant's major weaknesses is that the center of gravity of the dribble is too high, the number of dribbles is easy to be broken, the Celtics' pinch always appears in the second and third strokes of Durant's dribble, Durant only has 3 assists today but has 6 mistakes, and most of his mistakes come from being picked up when dribbling.
Usually, Durant can still send the ball into the basket in the face of two or even three people, but today's catch-up with Durant is not smooth, and he has not won many free throws, and the Celtics' defensive strategy is a success.
But even if Durant didn't play at his normal level, the Nets still narrowly won the game. Compared with today's data, the Nets' offensive efficiency, effective shooting percentage, and free throw shooting rate are ahead of the Celtics, Irving gave this in the final quarter, shooting a lot of fairy balls, it is said that this should be a winable game, but why did the Nets lose?
Leaving aside the final defensive leak and being attacked by Tatum, the Nets mainly lost in size, confrontation, and basket attack and defense in this game. The Celtics, a team that relies heavily on the core 7-man group, does not lose the size of any team, can fight against the can defend in every position, they can not only change the defense indefinitely, but also seize the Nets' weak point attack. The Nets starting lineup has Three Shorts, Brown, Irving and Seth Curry, as well as Dragic and Mills on the bench. The Nets used the three most time-time lineups today, two at three guards and one at four.
As a result, the Celtics were not a team with a high frequency of attacks under the basket, but today the percentage of shots shots under the basket reached 43%, which is much higher than the season average. The Celtics weren't originally a team that was good at grabbing offensive rebounds for a second offense, but today the second offense scored 18 points.
Back on the defensive end, Bruce Brown also provoked the Celtics before the game, saying that without Robert Williams, the Celtics' defensive intensity under the basket would decline, and the Nets would frantically attack the box. But it turns out that Bruce Brown underestimated Horford and Theis, as well as the Celtics' defensive intensity on the outside, and today the Nets only had a 24% shooting percentage under the basket, and they relied on the hot mid-range shooting to maintain the suspense of the game.
In the last 50 seconds of the game, the Nets were played with dragic, Irving, Bruce Brown, Jaylen Brown and Tatum's two basket attacks, which were a demonstration of Celtic's size advantage. At this time, the Nets miss James Johnson, who has been laid off, and Ben Simmons, who is recuperating from injury.
Of course, the series has only just begun. From the Celtics' point of view, their fierce playing style can maintain the lower limit, and it is difficult for them to improve until Robert Williams returns. From the perspective of the Nets, the Nets also have a change of moves.
Durant's ability to adjust is worth looking forward to, as a veteran who has experienced hundreds of battles, Durant cannot be plagued by pinch attacks all the time. Durant's offensive efficiency, assists and room for improvement are the most critical for the Nets.
In terms of rotational lineups, Nash still has room to optimize. Heavy centers like Drummond are not effective against the Celtics, while Clarkston, who can run and jump and switch defenses, is better on the floor, and clarkston has the possibility of going into the starting game for a longer time in the next game. Including playing the Celtics in the playoffs last year, but Blake Griffin, who was deprecated in the first game of the year, he also has the possibility of returning to the rotation to help the Nets make up for the physical disadvantage.
But in the end, the Nets' ultimate weapon to compensate for the size disadvantage is Simmons. According to people familiar with the matter, Simmons recovered smoothly from the injury and will begin training with the Nets this week, and he may return in the third game as early as possible. If Simmons, who is 2.11 meters tall, can play 20 minutes in one game, playing the role played by Bruce Brown on both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, the Nets will not have that big disadvantage at least in terms of size.
Judging from the current situation, this series is likely to play the sixth or even seventh game. The next Nets are sure to change, and it's curious how the Celtics will respond. One of the variables of this series is when Simmons and Robert Williams will each return, and the second variable is the physical fitness problems of the core players of both sides under such great intensity. Regardless of who wins or loses, this set of duels is likely to be a classic series that will go down in history.