The Boston Celtics being up 2-1 on the Philadelphia 76ers isn't necessarily surprising, but how they've gotten there is. After Game 1, the Sixers have made the Celtics earn their victories, which is surprising given that they're without Joel Embiid while Boston is fully healthy. However, anyone familiar with Nick Nurse's history with the Celtics knows he can make them uncomfortable.
Nurse has prior experience coaching against the Jays in a playoff series, and he has been pretty successful in knowing not necessarily how to stop them, but how to stop the Celtics from thriving when they are on the court.
He did this when the Celtics played the Toronto Raptors in the bubble in 2020. To be perfectly fair, Kemba Walker's knee was breaking down, Gordon Hayward was out with an ankle injury, and Boston's best big was Daniel Theis. Even so, they had the talent advantage over the Raptors.
In fact, at one point, the Celtics were an OG Anunoby buzzer-beating three from going up 3-0 on the Raptors, but once he hit that just barely over the fingertips of Jaylen Brown's extended arm, Toronto knew how to make them uncomfortable throughout the entire series, and it turned into one of the most epic Celtics playoff series ever, let alone with the Jays.
It further proves just how good a coach Nurse is. It helped that Boston's health was laughably bad, which hurt their depth, but he knew how to exploit it. Even worse, because Toronto gave Boston literally everything they could handle, the Celtics were running on fumes by the time they faced the Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Nurse is doing it again with the Sixers
Going up against Boston again, Nurse has successfully made Neemias Queta and Sam Hauser non-factors. It helps that Derrick White's jumper has gone completely ice cold, but nonetheless, it has all fed into Philadelphia making Tatum and Brown work to win after Game 1 made it look like this series would be a laugher for Boston.
The Jays took the Celtics home in Game 3 against the Sixers, but both still played 40-plus minutes and had to assert themselves in the fourth to get barely enough distance to reclaim their series lead.
It's what superstars do, and that's what they did back in 2020, but six years later, fate is beginning to play out again as it did in the bubble. It's possible the Celtics don't lose another game in this series, just like it's plausible every win is pretty much exactly like the one they had last night.
That's what Nurse can do. He has that Erik Spoelstra trait of executing the right strategy with the right personnel to make Boston struggle. Not many coaches can do that because those two are too good to overcome pretty much strategy.
But it's clear Nurse is among the very few people who can't stop them and the Celtics in their tracks, but can definitely slow them down.
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