Why Celtics’ Second-Round Playoff Opponent Should Fear Boston
Making the Orlando Magic disappear after five games in the first round of the NBA playoffs spoke volumes about the Boston Celtics.
Boston didn’t just understand its mission; the team demonstrated the championship qualities that make the Celtics the team to beat this postseason. Sure, they didn’t match last year’s regular season win total (64), and the rare hiccups that Boston collided with, at times, suggested that the dominance we witnessed last season had faded a shade down. But if Round 1 with Orlando was any indicator, that couldn’t be further from the truth, and in fact, the Celtics look even better than before.
It wasn’t a perfect, spotless five-game battle against the Magic, but that’s what helped. The Celtics were tested in more ways than one, and in response, Boston sent a message to the rest of the league — a loud one that required no words. They’ll now await the winner of the New York Knicks-Detroit Pistons first-round series before discovering their Eastern Conference semifinals foe.
Here are three reasons the Knicks or Pistons should operate with caution before meeting the Celtics for Game 1 next Monday:
Jayson Tatum’s aggression is unstoppable
Once the “MVP” chants broke out at TD Garden on Tuesday night, the Magic knew their season had reached its end.
Tatum missed Game 2 with a wrist injury, returned after logging the first playoff DNP of his career, and returned with immediate vengeance. Orlando pulled out all its tricks and continued its over-the-top defensive aggression, but none of it fazed Tatum. The six-time All-Star scored 30-plus points for the final three games of the series, and logged a historic 35-point, 10-assist double-double in the closeout — Tatum joined Larry Bird as the only other Celtics player to score 30-plus points three straight times in the playoffs.
Much of the reason behind Tatum’s criticism last playoffs centered around his pass-heavy approach to get teammates involved whenever teams would double or triple-team him defensively. It was an efficient and rewarding adjustment that paid dividends, but also netted the 27-year-old loads of backlash even though it was the Celtics who hoisted the Larry O’Brien Trophy when it was all set and done.
Boston was a plus-42 across Tatum’s 116 total minutes throughout the series.
Perhaps he’s kept a Steve Kerr dartboard inside his locker before pregame warm-ups?
Boston can adjust if the three-ball isn’t falling
The Celtics didn’t just defeat the Magic, they did so without the assistance of their greatest strength: 3-point shooting.
Boston led the league in threes made (17.8), attempted (48.2) and ranked 10th in percentage made (36.8%) during the regular season. But that wasn’t the case once Orlando arrived at TD Garden, which forced the Celtics to overcome their live-by-the-three, die-by-the-three philosophy to ensure they’d punch their ticket to Round 2.
Instead of allowing their 11.8 dip in 3-pointers made — 10th among playoff teams — against the Magic to overrule their destiny, the Celtics tweaked their offense. They hunted baskets inside the paint, leveraged the likes of Kristaps Porzingis’ 7-foot frame, Al Horford’s dad strength and Jaylen Brown’s crafty ability to get to the rim. When the opportunities were necessary, Boston returned to its 3-point-hungry ways and mustered up a game plan that Orlando had no chance of competing with.
New York and Detroit underperformed against Boston in the regular season
This should go without saying, right? How can you be confident when you weren’t able to figure your opponent out several times in the regular season?
The Knicks went 0-4 against the Celtics, and the Pistons went 1-3. Boston averaged 125 points against New York and 118.5 points against Detroit, and the defending champs shot over 45% from the field in both regular-season series. That’s not an encouraging sample size for Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau or Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff to reference once it’s time to analyze film.
Thibodeau is best known for running his team’s motor into the ground with shrunken playoff rotations and Bickerstaff suffered a second-round elimination just last year, as the former head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers. It’s also worth keeping in mind that the Knicks went 15-23 versus teams with .500 or above records. The Pistons? They went 12-27. And the Celtics? They went 24-13 — the third best in the NBA.
In the confidence department, the Celtics already have the upper hand.