Boston Celtics: 2 teams the C’s would love to avoid in the first round

Potential Boston Celtics opponent No. 1) Brooklyn Nets

The first opponent the Boston Celtics should keep their eye on is the Brooklyn Nets.

Brooklyn has had a roller-coaster type of year overall.

After starting out with a hot 23-9 to start the year, they’ve quickly fallen down the standings to where they currently sit in the play-in tournament.

There are a few reasons why Brooklyn has fallen.

First, the trade of James Harden to Philadelphia had an enormous impact. They received back Ben Simmons in the trade, who has been in street clothes since coming to Brooklyn. He continues to nurse a nagging back injury, which leaves his availability in the playoffs in question.

Availability leads us to the next reason.

Kyrie Irving is an unvaccinated player, and was not able to participate in any home games because of his decisions. Irving also has a history of being unreliable.

With these two reasons, from a talent perspective, the Nets have been short on talent this year.

So why should Boston want to avoid them?

Although Brooklyn is slated to play in the play-in tournament, Kyrie Irving is now able to play in all games, thanks to New York’s vaccine mandate being lifted. With Kyrie now in the mix full time, he and Kevin Durant make up one of the best duos in the league.

Those two alone have the potential to knock out anybody.

Durant is a 2x NBA champion and is arguably the best scorer in the league–he could average 30 points in his sleep.

Irving, a champion himself, has shown he can come up clutch in big moments himself–just ask the Golden State Warriors.

Boston beat Brooklyn in three out of their four meetings this year, two of which were without Irving and Durant. Their most recent win versus the Nets back on March 6th came from the heroics of Jayson Tatum, who went on to drop 54 points.

Tatum won’t be doing that every game.

Robert Williams will also likely be out for the entire first round.

Without him, the Celtics will have some problems covering the paint and making up for his absence.

Daniel Theis and Al Horford are slated to share those minutes, though the former is limited as a player while the latter’s age is a cause of concern. Neither of them can truly provide what Williams brings to the table, so Durant and Kyrie should have an easier time scoring.

In short, the Boston Celtics should want to avoid the Nets. Their star power, experience, and ceiling should scare the entire Eastern Conference.