We wanted to preview the first round of the playoffs with a series of roundtables with the staff. The first question posed to the group is What storyline are you most interested in for the Nets series?
Adam Spinella: While most of the attention will go to Kyrie Irving, the on-court prioritization of defensive gameplans from Ime Udoka is what I’m fascinated to watch. A “switch everything” lineup can leave the C’s exposed with a less-than-ideal defender against two of the greatest scorers in the world in Kevin Durant and Kyrie. With Robert Williams out and more minutes for Daniel Theis, that scheme leaves the C’s exposed in many lineups. I’m watching closely to see how Udoka toggles the strength of this team in their switching and the postseason urge to avoid negative mismatches. There are other ways around it — trapping Durant, for example — and those wrinkles could be a nice ace in the hole for the Celtics late-game.
Will Bjarnar: There’s an interesting juxtaposition between the paths both of these teams took to get to this point. For the Celtics, getting here — “here” being the two seed, being considered realistic title contenders, posing as a legitimate threat to any team in the NBA, etc. — was messy. It was chock-full of adversity and frustration; of genuine contemplation regarding whether or not the team’s presumed star duo could play together; of questions like, “wait, why’d we hire this guy?” But their turnaround, perhaps the most well-documented and celebrated triumph in recent memory for the Celtics, has rewritten the script on what is possible for this team. Because by all accounts, they weren’t supposed to be here.
The Nets, on the other hand, were supposed to be “here” — wherever “here” is for the idealized version of that team — from the jump. A core of superstars, a bright coach, a supporting cast full of scrappy swingman types. This iteration of the Brooklyn Nets always felt tailor-made for a…
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