The Brooklyn Nets took a 125-119 loss to the Boston Celtics in Game 3 of the first round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs on Friday night, as Jayson Tatum put up a game-high 50 points to go along with seven assists and six rebounds.
It was a game Brooklyn started off strong, as they led 19-4 in the opening minutes before Boston came storming back to take a 33-32 lead after one.
Boston controlled the game from there, as they took a lead as many as 17 in the third quarter. However, it always felt like the Nets would eventually come back and win this game, as they were in a prime position many times to take over at the right time, but the Celtics always had an answer every time Brooklyn got going.
There are several things the Nets need to address heading into Sunday night.
Crash the Glass
Tristan Thompson dominated the offensive glass in this one, as he grabbed nine of Boston’s 13 offensive rebounds on the night. Thompson had 10 second-chance points on the night.
Nobody was on Thompson when Thompson made his way to the paint to put himself in position for the putback slam. You have to keep your eyes on him at all times, as you should know he’s going to take advantage of your weak efforts to crash the glass.
Blake Griffin should know that he got burned by Evan Fournier on the drive, so instead of watching him on the drive to the basket, he should’ve had the awareness to block out Thompson on his crash to the rim. You can’t give him that type of momentum towards the rim.
The Nets were collectively outrebounded 46-37 on the night.
Guard the Three-Point Line
Brooklyn and Boston actually shot the three-ball very well in this one, both sinking in 16 triples apiece on very similar percentages.
However, there were too many instances they were burned when guarding the 3-point line.
What exactly is Kevin Durant doing on that switch? While Marcus Smart shot a modest 33.3 percent on pull-up threes this season, you should know that he shot 40.1 percent on those attempts just a season ago, and you’re giving him way too much space to get a clean shot attempt off.
Durant not respecting Smart in that instance caused the Celtics to take the lead after being down by as many as 15 in the first, as that gave them the momentum swing they needed to take control of the game.
This was an ugly defensive possession. Kyrie Irving is too focused on Smart being the inbounder and the action going on at the top of the key, but is seemingly unaware about what Fournier is doing off the ball, as he gets to the corner with ease and knocks down the three. The Grant Williams screen takes both Harden and Nicolas Claxton out of the play as well, as that frees up Fournier.
Irving should’ve rotated to Fournier before he got the ball, but Harden also should’ve done more to stick with his man. Credit to Williams for setting the screen to swallow up both defenders, though.
Stop Switching Smaller Defenders onto Tatum
There were way too many instances in this one where Irving was switched onto Tatum on post-up opportunities, but when you consider that Irving is just a 6-foot-2 guard under 200 pounds and Tatum is 6-foot-8 with 15 pounds on him, that has all the makings of Tatum getting baskets with ease.
Irving should not be the only one guarding Tatum on a post-up opportunity. Switches happen throughout the course of the game, but Durant or Claxton should’ve came over to help Irving on that particular opportunity, as all Tatum needed to do is bump Irving a few times, get him off balance and knock down the turnaround jumper.
There were several possessions the Nets actually guarded Tatum very well, but it was just one of those nights. Still, whenever you see Irving or another smaller defender switched onto Tatum, you have to help them.
Irving guarded Tatum for two minutes of game action, as Tatum shot 4-of-8 while guarded by Irving.
Durant struggled to keep Tatum in check as well, as Tatum shot 4-of-6 on him in the 5:43 minutes Durant spent on Tatum. In Game 1, Durant held Tatum to just 1-of-3 shooting while guarding him in 6:44 minutes of game action. In Game 2, Durant limited Tatum to 0-of-2 shooting in 3:08 minutes spent guarding him, but Tatum only played 21 minutes in that one, as he left early after being poked in the eye.
Jeff Green was clearly missed in this one, as he would generally take on Tatum on defense by using his length and lateral quickness to prevent him from getting any easy shot attempts off. It will be an adjustment to figure out who the best switching options will be on Tatum moving forward.
Irving Needs to Shoot More
Irving finished with 16 points on just 6-of-17 shooting from the floor, as he was playing in front of a hostile Boston crowd for the first time since he left in 2019.
Irving seemingly had trouble getting into the flow of things, as there were many instances he was hanging out in the corner waiting for a pass or passing off the ball in a lot of instances he should’ve looked to create his own offense.
Irving passed the ball 51 times in Game 3, which only led to two assists. In Games 1 and 2, Irving passed the ball 35 and 40 times, respectively.
Don’t get me wrong, passing the ball is a great thing, but when you’re the fourth player to ever average 25+ points per game on 50/40/90 shooting splits and a guy that can beat your defenders off the dribble, pull up at any time or even post up defenders your size, you have to go shot hunting and find looks that will put points on the board.
He missed a lot of shots that he’d normally make, as he blew several layup attempts at the rim or just missed a bunch of jump-shot attempts despite having enough space.
While Irving didn’t have a great performance, his post-game comments suggested that he wasn’t too bothered by the boos from the Celtics crowd.
“It’s basketball,” Irving said. “I’ve been in a few environments in my life. As long as it’s just strictly the nature of basketball out there and nothing extra I’m cool with it. Going to get some preparation with the team tomorrow and get ready for Sunday. [I] just want to keep it straight basketball.”
Nets head coach Steve Nash seemed to think that Irving wasn’t too bothered by the crowd either.
“I don’t think the crowd limited Kai,” Nash said. “I don’t think so.”
With the Celtics bringing back a near full capacity crowd on Sunday after allowing just 25% capacity on Friday night, let’s hope that the crowd reaction towards Irving is strictly boos and nothing that mirrors the incidents that happened in Philadelphia, New York and Utah.
Irving is too great of a player and has a great enough head on his shoulders to not be able to figure things out moving forward. He’ll be back in no time.
Harden, KD Looked Great
Despite the flawed performance from the Nets, they still got 41 points on 11-of18 shooting and 10 assists from Harden and 39 points on 13-of-24 shooting from Durant, as the Nets hung around just long enough in this game to think they could still pull off the win with just their talent alone.
Harden became the first Net to drop 40+ points in a playoff game since Vince Carter, as Carter did that in a loss to the Miami Heat in Game 5 of their second-round series in 2006, as that ultimately ended their season.
Look for the Nets to make adjustments and come out with more energy in Game 4, as they almost certainly don’t want to extend this series past five games.
