Celtics vs. Nets: Jayson Tatum and an all-star defense have distinguished Boston as the team to beat in the East.

 

With a 109-103 victory in Game 3 of their first-round series on Saturday, the Boston Celtics effectively ended the Brooklyn Nets' season. No team in NBA history has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a series, and that is the situation the Nets are now in. This one is over, and I'm not sure I've ever witnessed a more impressive first-round performance.

Without a doubt, the Nets are a flawed team. However, this is about as difficult a first-round matchup as a 2-seed will ever face. We're talking about a fully healthy Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving who can't find an inch of space against this Celtics defense.

Durant only attempted 11 shots on Saturday and is shooting 36% with 17 turnovers in the series. Jayson Tatum is suffocating his space in isolation, and if Durant tries to put the ball on the floor, there's a second, if not two, defender collapsing on him to deflect passes or force him to stop in his tracks, pivot all over, and look for a bailout. To be honest, it's all Durant can do to get a clean pass at the start of a possession in the first place.

The Nets are out, but perhaps Steve Nash would've been wise to let Durant bring the ball up the court, or at least come for an early DHO, and initiate pick-and-roll when it was clear he couldn't get going in isolation Game 3; at the very least, that would eliminate the fight to receive the pass and give him some downhill momentum to get into his jumper instead of just catching on the wing or at the elbow with Tatum/Brown draped all over him

But, listen, it's not that easy. There are no simple solutions against this Boston defense. In this series, Durant has brought the ball up and has been harassed to death as soon as he crosses half court. I wouldn't be surprised if Durant doesn't want to dribble against this pressure more than Nash doesn't want him to initiate. Rest assured that whatever the Nets do, Boston will adjust. In any case, it would be an exaggeration to say that this is the most bottled up Durant has ever been in a playoff series.

Meanwhile, Irving went 0-for-7 from 3-point range on Saturday and is now 10-for-30 in the last two games of this series. The Celtics have decided not to let Durant beat them, but that doesn't mean everyone else, Irving or not, is getting wide-open looks as a result.

Boston's defense hits the trifecta: it has elite individual defenders like Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Marcus Smart who can legitimately frustrate perhaps the best isolation scorer in history one on one, it has the versatility and length to switch any and all actions, and it has the discipline and desire to rotate all over the place to cover the shooters who should theoretically be left open due to all of the double teams.

The Celtics can be found everywhere.

For a long time, this Boston defense has been one of the league's main talking points, and it's still better than advertised. Tatum is also taking another step forward. You can talk about Durant getting all the attention, but Tatum isn't being ignored, despite scoring 39 points on Saturday and averaging 29.6 points for the series.

Tatum has been forced to be a volume scorer by the Nets (he needed 29 shots on Saturday), but the point is that he is able to get those shots on his terms. It's what we've come to expect from Durant, who isn't supposed to be a guy who can be forced to pass for an entire game, let alone the majority of a series.

On Saturday, Tatum and Brown outscored Durant and Irving 62-32. Of course, Boston's defense is not the same as the Brooklyn defense that Tatum and Brown are facing; it's not an apples-to-apples comparison.

But that's the point: the Celtics, both individually and collectively, are a two-way problem, which is why I believe they should be considered the favorite to win the East. I'm sure the Bucks, Heat, and Sixers will have something to say about it, but this Boston team is something special right now. With Robert Williams back, they are prepared to defend Giannis Antetokounmpo to the best of their ability in a likely second-round matchup, and Khris Middleton may not play in that series.

There isn't a single weakness on the Celtics right now. The elimination of the Nets is now a formality, and Boston is clearly on its way to bigger and brighter stages as the playoffs progress.