Nets vs. Celtics Game 1 score, takeaways: Brooklyn star trio burns Boston in second half en route to 1-0 lead

The Brooklyn Nets built a roster that they felt was ready to compete for an NBA championship once the playoffs tipped off. We still have a ways to go until a champion is determined but, from all indications, their opening night playoff game went according to plan. 

Despite falling behind early on, thanks largely in part to struggling to make shots from the perimeter, the Nets and their starting lineup full of stars were able to take the lead early on in the second half and never looked back as Brooklyn ultimately cruised to a 104-93 victory in Game 1 of their best-of-seven series against the Boston Celtics. 

Boston was hot from the perimeter to start the night, but as the game went on their shooting got cold and that allowed Brooklyn the opportunity to overcome their deficit and build a lead of their own. In the end, the Nets' trio of All-Stars combined for 82 points to give Brooklyn a 1-0 lead in their opening round series against Boston. Here are the three biggest takeaways from Brooklyn's win.

1. Easy offense
The Nets didn't make their first 3-pointer until nearly the end of the first half. They scored only 16 points in the first quarter. All three of Brooklyn's stars got off to among their coldest starts of the season. Yet when the dust settled, they won this game by double digits. So what happened?

Well, aside from some improved overall shooting luck, Brooklyn's stars started doing what stars do on cold nights: they got to the foul line. Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving combined by 26 free-throw attempts in this game. That's what got them through their early offensive struggles. Brooklyn kept its offensive afloat at the foul line, and then, in the second half, their shots started falling enough for things to return roughly to normal. 

This is part of what makes playing against Brooklyn so terrifying for defenses. There's just no easy solution. There's not one player to double or any schematic advantage a coach can draw up. Even when their shots all stop going in, their ball-handling and basketball IQ is so high that they can manufacture enough offense to keep games close until their shots start falling. Beating them means playing a basically perfect game. Boston didn't do that, but if they'd avoided the dumb fouls that plagued them in the second half, they might've been able to walk away with the victory. 

2. Playoff problems
Playoff offense can be remarkably simple with the right matchups. If teams find a hole to pick at, they'll do it until the hole is filled. Boston found quite a bit of success going at Blake Griffin. On this play, for instance, Irving managed to push Jayson Tatum back to nearly half-court, but he uses it as an opportunity to call for a Tristan Thompson screen. That gets him the switch onto Griffin, who just can't beat him in a footrace to the basket. 

When Kemba Walker draws him in this pick-and-roll, he manages to force Griffin into an overplay that results in an open jumper. 

Unsurprisingly, after his first shift in the third quarter, Griffin didn't return to the game for the rest of the second half. Brooklyn was deep enough to make that adjustment. Boston was not. They had no choice but to continue using Jabari Parker for the sake of offense, and Brooklyn's stars went right at him. On this play, Irving comes to set a screen for Harden, but Harden waves him off. He already has the matchup that he wants on Parker, and he takes him to the rim. 

The standard for defense in the postseason is significantly higher than it is in the regular season. If you give teams a weak link to attack, they're going to do it constantly. One of the important lessons from this game for Brooklyn is that Griffin's defense might be hard to protect against better teams. Boston, without Jaylen Brown, just doesn't have enough bodies left to protect Parker. He has to play, and that's going to make the Celtics that much easier to defeat. 

3. Is crowd noise impacting shooting?
The average NBA game had 224.2 points this season. Sunday's first three games averaged just below 210, and that included an overtime matchup between the Heat and Bucks. All three home teams struggled significantly behind the arc. Milwaukee went 5-of-31 on 3-pointers, the Clippers shot 11-of-40 and the Nets went only 8-of-34 from downtown. 

The sample here is tiny, and at this stage, there's no reason to read too much into this, but a possible explanation here might have to do with crowd noise. Take Brooklyn, for instance. The Nets hosted over 14,000 fans after New York dramatically relaxed restrictions in those areas. The Clippers only started allowing any fans into the Staples Center on April 18, but today, they had between 5,000-7,000 fans in the building. 

This is a storyline to watch throughout the postseason as teams continue to increase capacity as vaccination numbers rise. Could the increased crowd noise have something to do with declining shooting numbers? It's a possibility. After all, teams shot nearly a full percentage point higher on 3-pointers this season (36.7 percent) compared to last season (35.8 percent). Something is behind that, and if numbers decline throughout the postseason as fans return to games, we might have our answer. 

Boston Celtics Notebook: Brad Stevens will turn to corporate knowledge to solve Celtics offensive woes in Game 1
The one weak spot for the NBA title favorites in Brooklyn was supposed to be on the defensive end. It was anything but that in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals from the Celtics perspective. T

he visitors failed to crack 21 points in three of their four quarters against the Nets in the postseason opener as the Celtics only managed to crack 90 points in the closing minutes of the 11-point defeat. Boston’s 93 points were the fifth-lowest total by a Nets opponent this season and ruined a stellar defensive effort against the Nets firepower.

1. The Celtics held the Nets as in-check as you can possibly expect in Game 1. Brooklyn shot well under their season average at 41.7%. For a large portion of the game, the Nets couldn’t buy a three. While, Brooklyn missed some open ones, Boston’s defense was very good. They were active, they were engaged and they contested most shots.

Unfortunately, the Celtics offense couldn’t match the defensive play.

Boston shot just 36.9% from the floor. It wasn’t a case of the Nets forcing the “other” guys to beat them either. The Celtics main scoring trio of Jayson Tatum, Kemba Walker and Evan Fournier combined to go 14-of-46 from the field. And there were a lot of open misses in there too.

The Celtics missed a chance to steal Game 1. They did a lot of good stuff, and can feel great about their effort. But if they had shot it just at their normal levels, this would be a 1-0 series lead for Boston.

2. Part of holding the Nets offense down was personnel-based. The Celtics were able to go at Blake Griffin enough that they played him off the floor. It started early on. This is a good example of Jayson Tatum drawing Griffin on a switch and getting downhill against him:

Getting good offensive players off the floor is as good as defending them well. Boston did a nice job of that in Game 1.

3. It might get a little lost in everything else, but the Celtics did a terrible job on the boards. Brad Stevens talked about the need to control the glass before the series started, and his guys didn’t handle their business well.

Because the Nets shot poorly, it didn’t show up in second-chance points, but Brooklyn grabbed 14 offensive rebounds. For an offensive team as good as they are, you can’t give the Nets extra looks like that. If that happens again in Game 2, Boston will get blown out.

4. Let’s get to Robert Williams because he was dominant off the bench for the Celtics. He scored 11 points, grabbed nine rebounds and blocked a franchise playoff-record nine shots. Here’s a small sample of Williams’ blocks.

Williams gets beat off the dribble by Kyrie Irving here, but he’s so athletic that it doesn’t matter:

This one is pure hustle. Williams is about even with the ball in the backcourt at the start of the play. He finishes it by blocking Bruce Brown at the rim:

When James Harden gets his step-back jumper blocked, it usually happens from behind. Because Williams gets up so high so quickly, he’s able to pull off the pretty rare fete:

5. Robert Williams also had a pretty big impact on offense. He grabbed five offensive rebounds to give the Celtics extra chances. This one is a good example of Williams’ hustle and skill. The first tip is to keep it alive. The second one is controlled in the direction of Aaron Nesmith:

Williams has also become one of the preeminent vertical spacing threats in the league. The pass only needs to be in the general vicinity of the rim for Williams to dunk it:

Williams played 22:40, which is probably close to the max minutes he can play. He’s gutting through a painful turf toe injury and he and the team have said it’s about his pain tolerance. For Boston to have a chance, they need the talented young big man on the floor and he’s delivering.

6. Brad Stevens largely went with an eight-man rotation. Robert Williams, Aaron Nesmith and surprisingly Jabari Parker got the bulk of the minutes off the bench. Williams was great. Nesmith looked fine in his first playoff game. Parker was the biggest surprise of Game 1. Payton Pritchard got just a cameo appearance and looked slightly overwhelmed. If Kemba Walker and Evan Fournier continue to struggle to make shots, Pritchard may need to play more to help open up the floor.

7. As noted above, Jabari Parker was the surprise of Game 1. He was competitive defensively and delivered some really solid offense. Parker was able to attack some mismatches to create scoring chances. Once he was feeling good, he confidently pulled this three-pointer with no hesitation:

In the second half, Parker continued making plays. This was solid defense against Kevin Durant. Parker comes up with the strip and immediately sprints the floor for the dunk:

For Boston to make this a series, they need unexpected contributions. They got that from Parker Game 1.

8. Something to watch from a Game 2 adjustments standpoint is how Boston defends Brooklyn. The Celtics made a ton of low to no-resistance switches in Game 1. These regularly left Tristan Thompson on an island against James Harden. Perhaps the idea was to bait Harden into playing isolation ball versus keeping the ball moving.

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