Boston Celtics: 3 more matchups to look for in series vs. Raptors
By Tyler Duff
Boston Celtics matchup vs Raptors: Brad Stevens v Nick Nurse
With clearly two of the top five coaches in this league, this makes for a great matchup.
Nick Nurse deservingly won Coach of the Year in a bit of a landslide. Both coaches are great at empowering their teams and getting the most out of the players they have. They dominate out of time outs and have two of the best defensive schemes in the NBA.
What I love about these coaches is that they don’t over-concern themselves on exploiting matchups. They move the ball and empower their shooters to let it fly.
They also utilize the versatility of their wings to switch just about everything. Something to pay attention to in this series is just how far Brad Stevens goes into the bench.
As I mentioned, my confidence in Boston’s bench is small and I have been extremely frustrated by the amount of minutes Stevens has given some of these guys. This could pay off now that a couple of these guys will need to give solid playoff minutes.
I guess that’s why I’m not an NBA coach.
This matchup is going to come down to the out of bounds and end of game situations. This is where I give a slight advantage to Nurse but could very well wind up being a coin toss.