Nets (0-0) at Celtics (0-0) Round1 Game1 4/17/22

[CelticSooner]

The funny thing about it is Horford had the easier play. It was basically a dunk with Dragic flying in too late. Nets were scrambling and ball watching while hoping for a brick. Just bad defense outside of doubling Brown.

[Ed Monix]

What’s the source on this?

My apologies for not providing it.

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Source: Jack Perkins (@purehoop)

Los Angeles, CA

https://opensea.io/collection/playoffs-2022

[mobilija]

This is awesome!

Also it's been discussed but yeah, KD and Kyrie practically did nothing on that defensive possession. Durant in particular was just standing. Probably smart that Ime didn't call timeout and let the Nets regroup on defense.

For mediocre defensive teams that aren't good at scrambling it's always good to keep them on the back foot with scramble plays, because they're not good at scrambling. For example, they threw 3 players (Dragic, Brown, Cryrie) on Jaylen as he drove to the rim, so he cut towards the free throw line (right there there were 3 players open - Smartacus, Tatum and White) and passed it to Smartacus, which caused both Brown and Claxton to close out and leave their feet when he pump faked, which left Horford with just Dragic in front of him with Cryrie at the weak side block, with Durant just standing at the top of the key defending nobody (probably Tatum but he wasn't even near him). Smartacus could have passed to Al but he saw JT (who had been open at the perimeter for about 5 seconds) cutting to the basket on the weak side and there was no way Cryrie was going to stop him, he did a good impression of a turnstile with his hand out to simulate where you put the token in 

No doubt he would have been crucified if they had not converted the score but they did so all is well. It's the kind of decision where the rightness of it is determined by the outcome - they made the shot so it was the right call, if they missed it that would have probably been the headline "Ime fails to call timeout and Cs lose" but I still think it would have been the right call even if they had missed.

Yup, just go to the last Toronto game thread...no time out called to end regulation and to end overtime. People were blasting Ime for it.

[LilRip]

Wow! What a game!!! Just watched it on league pass. Tatum is a superstar. Brown looked tense to start but really came on late and I’m looking forward to his performance in G2. Horford was great. Smart came up big. And the defensive gameplan vs KD was terrific.

The sequence at the end was just great. Jaylen Brown overpowers Bruce Brown in a 1-1 matchup, then the double on Kyrie + Tatum’s lockdown D on KD, then the beautiful passing sequence on the last possession. It’s so rare to see 3 passes like that, let alone a layup for the buzzer. This team is so locked in and the growth JB and Smart showed on that play was amazing