5x NBA champion reveals biggest championship roadblock to Boston Celtics in east
5x NBA champion, NBA’s 50th Anniversary All-Time Team point guard, and 2002 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Earvin “Magic” Johnson believes the Brooklyn Nets are ‘the biggest threat to the Boston Celtics going to the NBA Finals’ and shared as much on his personal Twitter account on the morning of Wednesday, January 11.
As of today, the Brooklyn Nets are the biggest threat to the Boston Celtics going to the NBA Finals.
— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) January 11, 2023
The Nets recently lost Kevin Durant to an isolated MCL sprain of his right knee and will be reevaluated in two weeks according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The injury was suffered Sunday night against the Miami Heat in a 102-101 Brooklyn road victory.
While it’s unclear if the Nets will be able to maintain their red-hot streak without their 30-point per game scorer, what is clear is that after a 14-1 run since the last time they played the Boston Celtics, Brooklyn has earned the confidence of one of the greatest NBA legends of all time.
The Nets went winless against the Boston Celtics in 2022
6-0. That was the Boston Celtics’ record against the Brooklyn Nets during the 2022 calendar year. That, of course, includes a 4-0 sweep during the Eastern Conference quarterfinals and a game from both the 2021-22 season and the current one.
Does that mean the Cs have the Nets number? It does appear that way. Does that guarantee Boston will have no problems with Brooklyn when they play January 12 and in any future postseason series? Absolutely not.
With players as great as Kyrie Irving and KD, the Nets deserve the kind of respect Magic Johnson gave them. Brooklyn has the third-best title odds as of this writing (per Fanduel), so expect that respect to continue as long as the winning does for Jacque Vaughn and his group.