The Celtics/Nets First Round Schedule Is A Bit Insane And Could Very Well Impact How The Series Goes
How'd everyone sleep? OK, I know, who the hell was even capable of sleep last night. Not me. Way too excited to even consider sleeping from now until Sunday. There's really nothing like playoff anticipation, and as someone who gets legitimately excited for Summer League games and every game that follows, you'd think I'd be used to this shit but nope. Just remember, there are plenty of fanbases across the league that are living without this excitement and anticipation feeling this morning. That has to suck.
Once we learned that the first round matchup was indeed going to be BKN, the next question was how would the schedule look? I have to be honest, I did NOT expect what we got. In fact, I can't remember the last time this happened. I'm sure it has, but I have an idiot brain and find myself to be a prisoner of the moment. A quick look at this schedule and you see what I mean. Can you name a time where a series has had 2+ days off in between Games 1, 2, AND 3? That feels insane. Just look at how this compares to every other series in the league for the first round
Nobody has it. Compare that shit to what's going on in the DAL/UTA series where they only have 1 set of a 2+ day break. That sucks for them considering Luka's injury. Same with TOR/PHI (one), or MIA/8th seed (one), or PHX/8th seed (one). I don't know what the reasoning is to weirdly have the Celts/Nets series be broken up like this with so much built in rest but I'll tell you what. I don't exactly hate it
2 games in 15 days at this time of year is rather ridiculous. You just don't see that all that often I feel like so to be the only series in the entire playoff field with that type of format feels a little crazy. There are going to be a ton of important factors that will help dictate how the BOS/BKN series will go. Most of them initially were about the players, matchups, schemes, lineups, shit like that. But now that we know how the schedule will look, I don't think you can overlook it as a pretty big contributing factor.
On the Celtics side, there are two ways to look at it. First, the Celts playing as few games as possible while Robert Williams recovers is huge. For example, a Game 5 would be 28 days from his surgery date. While I am someone who deep down does not think we see Rob in this series, I am not ruling out a "break the glass" type of emergency situation if we get to that point later in the series given how spread out it is.
But the real benefit here is what this will do for Al. We've watched all year what a different player Al becomes when he's rested. All you have to do is look at his production on the season with each different amount of rest
Look at his 2 Day rest numbers. A nice little 9.9/7.7/2.9 on 52/46% splits with a 64% TS%. That's….significant. Why? Well one of the biggest factors for this Celts offense will be how Horford does as a secondary scorer. His ability to hit his wide open safety valve threes are going to tell us a lot about how the Celts will do in this series. You saw how many open looks the Cavs got last night. Al is going to get those same looks and it's imperative that he knock that shit down. So I would say starting a series off where he gets 2 days off in between each of the first 3 games goes a long way in increasing the chances that his jumper is solid. Remember Playoff Al? The one that shot 58/51% in 18 playoff games as a Celtic in 2016-17? That's the type of Al that can exist with this much rest.
Here's the thing though. This schedule might actually benefit the Nets even more. Having the games spread out like this is going to be huge for someone like Seth Curry. He's clearly not moving right as he deals with that ankle injury, so having a good amount of time to recover and get treatment could go a long way in how he looks in this series. That jumper could be much more of a problem if he has strong foundation and his legs are good. While he's not a great defender, having less of an ankle injury should make him move a lot better which certainly isn't nothing.
There's the reality that Kyrie will have time to recover as he continues to adjust playing as a full time player, something his body hasn't had to do all year. You're kidding yourself if you don't think that will matter. The NBA playoffs are a grind, especially if you maybe don't have your normal conditioning given you had to sit out half the games.
Then, there's Ben Simmons. I think this schedule definitely increases the chances he plays in this series. Shit, it might guarantee it depending on the reporting. Here's the thing with Simmons, he's such an unknown right now because nobody has seen him since he was choking away a playoff series against the Hawks. Let me just ask you this. Even if you can scheme against him in a series, there's no denying that a healthy Ben Simmons does improve the Nets defense. Even if he can only give them 15-20 minutes a night, he's still a huge dude with great length and All NBA defensive skill. Do you feel better or worse about Simmons potentially guarding Jaylen or Tatum compared to like, Seth Curry or Bruce Brown? I'm not saying the Celts will struggle with Simmons, I'm just saying it's a contributing factor that might not exist had the Celts/Nets not had such a huge break in between games to start the series. I think its being a little naive to think Simmons would make zero impact, so obviously that matters.
In a series that is filled with incredible storylines, don't overlook this one. With so much rest, both sides should be performing at their absolute peaks. Or, there's always the possibility of losing your rhythm. That's what makes it so interesting. Both teams are rolling a little bit right now, and as we know rhythm is so important in the NBA. All I know is I cannot wait until Sunday and then trying to make it through that many off days in between games is going to be literal torture. Either we're all going to be going crazy because the Celts look great and have a series lead and we just want them to play right away, or we'll have to deal with multiple days of hot takes if they lose.
Playoffs man, there's nothing like em.