Everything has been looking up for the Brooklyn Nets recently – Kyrie Irving is finally eligible to play in home games, Ben Simmons appears on his way to returning at some point in the playoffs, and Bruce Brown has seemingly become a surprising spark on offense over the last few weeks.

All of those good feelings went out the window on Sunday afternoon when Celtics star Jayson Tatum buried the game-winning layup past Kyrie Irving at the buzzer to give Boston a 1-0 lead over the Nets in their 1st-round playoff clash.

When looking back at how the game unfolded, tw0 reasons stand out to me as to why Nets coach Steve Nash deserves the lion's share of the blame for the Nets' heartbreaking loss to begin their 2022 playoff run.

The first thing that stands out is the fact that the Nets took just 24% of their total shots within four feet of the basket.

With Robert Williams currently out, the Celtics have no one on their roster who can be an impactful rim defender. Without Williams on the floor this season, the Celtics are surrendering an extra 4.8 points per 100 possessions.

NBA players are scoring just 0.90 points per shot attempt with Williams as the closest defender – which is the lowest points per shot attempts allowed in the NBA this season (Utah's Rudy Gobert is second, allowing 0.93 points per shot attempt).

The Nets shot 67% on shots within four feet of the basket this afternoon, so it's a surprise that Nash did not put more of an emphasis on trying to get shots at the basket (Boston shot 26 shots at the rim compared to Brooklyn's 18).

The second reason why I believe Steve Nash deserves a lot of criticism today is the fact that the Nets had both Goran Dragic and Irving out on the floor in the last minute of the game.

Nicolas Claxton delivered a very solid performance for the Nets on Sunday.

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Claxton finished the game with 13 points, eight rebounds, and three blocks in 31 minutes but showed his lack of experience during the final possession of the game.

Claxton found himself scrambling out to double-team Marcus Smart on the perimeter along with teammate Bruce Brown which allowed Tatum to head to the rim nearly uncontested and score the game-winning layup.

Per Cleaning The Glass, the Nets are two points worse per 100 possessions with Dragic on the floor this season. Dragic is also averaging just 93.4 points per 100 shots attempts (15th percentile) and is also turning over the ball on 18.2% of possessions in which he touches the ball (2nd percentile).

Having Dragic on the floor for 26 minutes in a playoff game seems like a recipe for disaster, and not conducive to any modicum of success whatsoever.

For the Nets to survive the #1 team in the NBA by net rating over the last two months, Nash will have to be better as a coach.

Otherwise, this Nets playoff run will end up being very short-lived.