Boston Celtics actually played really well defensively
The Celtics lost Game 1 by 11 points, but overall, they played fantastic defensively. Allowing 82 points to the Nets’ “Big 3” may not seem like great defense, but Boston rotated really well and Robert Williams played arguably the best complete game of his career even though he is dealing with turf toe!
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In this game, Williams not only had 11 points and 9 rebounds, but he set a new Celtics’ playoff record for blocks in a game with 9 blocks against the Nets in Game 1! Between him blocking shots left and right in the paint and Boston collapsing into the paint on Brooklyn’s drives, the Celtics should really be happy with the way they played defensively in this game.
Quite honestly, Boston did not lose this game by much even though it was a double-digit deficit. They were in this game for all 48-minutes and a big reason why they lost this game was because their offense failed them.
The Celtics only shot 36.9% from the floor and both Tatum and Walker combined to shoot 11-36 from the floor. They are going to play better in Game 2 on the offensive-end of the court and if Boston can continue to play great defense, then they could be able to steal the next game in Brooklyn in this series.
