Jayson Tatum put on his superstar shoes and dropped a 50-piece to propel the Boston Celtics over the Washington Wizards in the play-in tournament on Tuesday to advance to the playoffs. And what's their prize? The almighty Brooklyn Nets.
The Celtics are entering this contest as overwhelming underdogs against Big 3 Nets led by Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden. Boston has been largely disappointing the entire season, especially since they just made the Eastern Conference Finals last year, and in three of the last four. It certainly doesn't help that Boston is without All-Star guard Jaylen Brown. Already down one of their most important pieces, it will definitely be a tall order for the Celtics to take out a highly-favored title contender like the Nets in the very first round. Nobody is really expecting Boston to get past Brooklyn, but they could certainly still make this an interesting series given their own offensive firepower and Brooklyn's deficiencies on the defensive end.
With that, here are some bold predictions for the Nets-Celtics showdown in the 2021 NBA playoffs:
Nets vs. Celtics: 3 bold predictions
(1) Jayson Tatum will go mano y mano with Kevin Durant in this series
Durant and Tatum haven't seen each other on the floor since their Christmas Day match-up, where the Nets trounced the Celtics en route to a 28-point blowout. The Nets superstar scored an easy 29 points, while Tatum dropped just 20 points in the embarrassing holiday defeat. It's going to be hard to draw conclusions based on that one face off between Durant and Tatum.
However, Tatum's ascension into superstar status could suggest that he could be ready to go toe-to-toe with one of the all-time great players this game has ever seen. If there's anything positive that Boston can take from this underwhelming campaign, it's probably Tatum's rise to becoming a legitimate superstar. The 4-year forward has become one of the top two-way players in the NBA.
It's very likely that Tatum and Durant will be guarding each other for majority of this series. While Durant has the height advantage, Tatum has just enough length to be able to bother Durant on the offensive end. Sure, it's going to be a tall task for Tatum to contain KD. But Durant will also have a problem in slowing down the Celtics star.
Given Tatum's rise, it's definitely possible that he could play in the same level as the former league MVP when they go head to head for the first time in a series. As he shown over and over this season, his expanded offensive repertoire has turned him into one of the elite scorers of the league. This season, Tatum averaged 26.4 points on 45.9 percent shooting from the field and 38.6 percent shooting from three.
No doubt, Durant will get his. But Tatum will be right there to match it.
The Nets will get tested early
When the Nets went on a 4-game losing streak in the last couple of weeks of the regular season, Kyrie Irving noted how it was a great test for them in the postseason. Brooklyn could be back in the classroom for another test in trying to solve this Celtics squad.
Boston will enter this series with nothing to lose. They probably know they don't have much of a chance against the Nets. Thus, this lack of pressure on their end could help them play much more loose. Likewise, perhaps making this a competitive series at the very least could be their final goal to end their campaign.
There's probably no way for Boston to knock off the Nets in 7-game series. However, they could still make this competitive.
Jayson Tatum could go ham once again and drop a 50-burger, especially with Brooklyn's below average defense. Kemba Walker looks like he is slowly rounding into form and he is certainly capable of leading the Celtics to a win if a game ever comes down the wire. The unpredictable Marcus Smart could go nuclear on at least one night and randomly drop seven threes that helps Boston steal a win.
Nevertheless, the storyline heading into the playoffs is that Brooklyn's Big 3 has not played enough together, having appeared together in just 8 games. It's possible that their lack of chemistry could come to bite them and cost them for a couple of games in this series.
Celtics-Nets will go at least six games
Majority of the pre-series predictions penciled in the Nets to advance to the second round by dispatching the Celtics in five games at most. Some believe Brooklyn will easily sweep past Boston. However, as mentioned above, there could be a couple of games where Boston could probably edge out Brooklyn.
The Marcus Smart game will likely happen at some point and this could propel the Celtics to one win. Maybe Tatum just absolutely balls out of his mind in one game game and his Herculean effort outdoes the Brooklyn Big 3. It's also possible Brooklyn could coast in one of the games and drop one before ultimately locking in to close the series.
Sure, the Nets are undoubtedly a powerhouse and their spot in the second round is all but secure. But the Celtics are no slouch either and will not lay down without any kind of fight.
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