The Celtics season is over and the playoffs are here. The excitement in Boston for the play-in game is about as high as seeing Cam Newton start for the Patriots Week 1.
Here are the 8 things I’m looking forward to as the Celtics postseason begins:
1. Jayson Tatum shooting early and often
First up for Boston is Tatum’s “brother” and “biggest cheerleader” in Bradley Beal. This matchup was one of the more entertaining ones of the regular season. I expect Tatum to play more iso than ever, especially when guarded by Beal. That’s a matchup Celtics fans should love anyway.
Tatum needs to be aggressive from the jump. Too often he takes too long to assert himself as a scorer. His shooting splits and net rating are the worst, by far, in the first quarter compared to the rest of the game. That can’t happen in the playoffs with Jaylen Brown out.
On the downside, Tatum is shooting only 28% from deep in three games this season against Washington. That number is surprisingly worse over his career vs. Washington (11 games) at just 24.5%.
2. Evan Fournier in the playoffs and now in a larger role
Fournier’s arrival in Boston was certainly rocky. He struggled shooting the ball and battled COVID -- something he admits is still a process to recover from but is improving day-by-day.
Fournier is shooting a career high 41% from three with Orlando and Boston this season and an even better 46% with just the Celtics. It’s pretty incredible considering Fournier didn’t make a three until his third game with the team.
He’s made three trips to the playoffs with three first round exits to No. 1 seeds. Orlando was bounced in the first round in back to back seasons with Fournier averaging 12.6 points per game on 35% FG and an abysmal 29% from deep. Fournier is playing with his most talented team in his career and I’m looking forward to seeing him be the team's third scoring option.
3. Aaron Nesmith’s development
I have no doubts about rookie point guard Payton Pritchard entering the playoffs. He is a player who is calm, cool and collected in any setting. I can’t say the same for Nesmith. Rookies in the playoffs are often attacked and I’m not sure how Nesmith will respond on the biggest stage of his young career.
4. Contributions from the bench
After a tumultuous season, there should and will be roster spots in the rotation up for grabs in 2021. These playoffs can go a long way for guys like Grant Williams, Semi Ojeleye and Romeo Langford to earn trust from Brad Stevens in another playoff appearance. With Brown going down, those three will likely be direct benefits along with Nesmith.
5. Kemba Walker being “matchup hunted”
In last year’s playoffs, Walker was often hunted in matchups. The Toronto Raptors and Miami Heat obviously know Boston likes to switch everything. And I mean everything. Walker and the Celtics too often surrendered to the defense exactly what they wanted -- a ball screen forcing a switch creating a mismatch with Walker guarding the ball handler.
Walker has really played well in his four games since returning from the oblique injury. (50% FG and 46% from three). If Boston has any chance of a first round upset, they need this type of Walker.
6. The difference in Timelord/Tristan Thompson as the bigs compared to Thompson/Luke Kornet
Luke Kornet is just a guy in the NBA. He tries on defense but he's not a great athlete and provides zero offense inside the paint. If he’s not hitting three’s in pick and pop situations, he’s not really useful at all. The return of Robert Williams is huge for this team. Kornet stinks.
7. How inexperienced lineups will fare
Coming into Tuesday night’s play-in game, Boston’s most used lineup with the available players is Walker-Smart-Fournier-Tatum-Thompson. That group has played together a grand total of 39 minutes over 4 games.
Stevens will puzzle fans with his lineups even with a full strength roster, which by the way never happened in 2020-21. Be prepared to see lineups that have never played together in the regular season to see some time here in the playoffs.
All I request of Stevens is to not play Carsen Edwards in the fourth quarter unless it’s a blowout.
8. What Tuesday night’s result means for the future of Bradley Beal
With a loss to Boston Tuesday night, Washington could be looking at an 8-seed at best or a trip back to DC to watch the playoffs at home. The Wizards have not won a playoff series since 2016-17 when they beat Atlanta before losing to Boston in the Conference Semifinals.
The Wizards missed the playoffs the past two seasons. I wonder if Beal would be more inclined to ask out if Washington flames out of the postseason. Beal has just one more season on his current contract at $34 million with a player option for 2022-23 at $37 million.