Boston Celtics: 3 bold predictions for the C’s first round playoff series
Boston Celtics bold prediction No. 2: Jayson Tatum & Jaylen Brown will both score 40+ points in one game this series
The hype surrounding from this series largely comes thanks to the power duos each team has at their disposal. For the Nets, it’s Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving; for the Celtics, it’s Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. All four guys are some of the best at their craft, and throughout a seven game series, they are all going to get their points one way or another.
For the most part against Brooklyn, Tatum has done the brunt of the scoring. This is simply because the Nets have no one that can properly guard him. Maybe if Simmons makes a return to action that’s a different story, but banking on him to not only return, but be able to lock up Tatum after missing the entire season, is asking a lot of him.
Over a seven game series though, team’s adjust and adapt to what’s going on, and Brooklyn is going to throw a number of different looks at Tatum in order to slow him down. When they do, that’s when Brown is going to have to step up. Similar to Tatum, no one on Brooklyn can really slow him down, and whichever guy has the hot hand is going to be given the keys to the offense.
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The key to the series may be what players not named Tatum and Brown do for Boston, but you are going to be expecting to get about 50 points combined from these guys one way or another on a nightly basis. The problem is the same goes for Irving and Durant. How these four guys compete against each other is going to determine the outcome of games, even if the bench units are extremely important.
Whereas both Tatum and Brown are a top many of the NBA’s defensive metrics standings, Irving and Durant are not, and I think that’s going to be huge in this series. We have seen the Nets get torched by Tatum before, and once they give him more attention, it’s going to fall on Brown’s shoulders to deliver. Both guys are going to drop 40+ points in one game along the way, which will play a huge part in helping the Celtics offense go toe-to-toe with the Nets.