Tatum, Jayson (1998- )

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      Bucks’ Physical Play Makes Celtics Suddenly Look Average

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      Giannis Antetokounmpo overcame early struggles to post a triple double against Boston, which had looked impressive in its sweep of the Nets.The task of stopping a player like Giannis Antetokounmpo — has there ever been a player like Giannis Antetokounmpo? — represents something of a collaborative quagmire.You need a player at once big and strong and nimble enough to stay in front of him. You need others, preferably long-armed men, pestering him with their hands from the periphery. Then you need someone to stand tall and protect the rim from the inevitable onslaught.The Boston Celtics have all of those things. They showed as much last week, in spectacular fashion, when Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and the rest of the Nets were swallowed up in their quicksand defense. And, still, it may not be enough.On Sunday, Antetokounmpo led the Milwaukee Bucks to a comprehensive, 101-89 win at Boston in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinals matchup, quieting, for a night, the hype bubbling around the Celtics after their impressive four-game sweep of the Nets.In the process, in making one of the N.B.A.’s hottest teams look normal for a night, the Bucks were also making a point: The national basketball conversation — that nebulous thing that floats across television and social media and newspaper columns — may inexplicably overlook them at times, but they are the defending champions, and they employ one of the world’s most spectacular athletes.The league’s Most Valuable Player Award this year may be seen as a two-man contest between Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets and Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers. And soap operas and train wrecks may draw the focus of fans to other big-market teams. But all the while, Antetokounmpo and the Bucks are going about their business as one of the most formidable clubs in the league.For Antetokounmpo, then, this series represents an opportunity: How better to burnish your towering reputation than against the league’s most feared defense?“He keeps reading the game,” Bucks Coach Mike Budenholzer said of Antetokounmpo, who overcame some early struggles to register a triple double: 24 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists. “Sometimes it’s scoring it. Sometimes it’s sharing it. He knows he’s got to do both.”The Celtics made a loud entrance onto the playoff stage last month with a flock of long-limbed, athletic defenders working together in the switching, scrambling, disorientingly aggressive defensive system of their first-year coach, Ime Udoka.Durant seemed perplexed by it all. After the series, he willingly sang Boston’s praises.Durant and Antetokounmpo enjoy similar statures in the N.B.A. They are both virtuoso artists. But they work in different mediums. If Durant is a painter with a palette of fine watercolors, Antetokounmpo is a sculptor wielding a mallet and a chisel.If Sunday was any indication, the physicality of Antetokounmpo and the rest of the Bucks’ roster could represent a key difference between the first and second rounds for the Celtics.When the Celtics tried to funnel Antetokounmpo this way or that, he simply skipped around them, a sports car swerving through traffic. If Boston’s defenders — large men, all of them — tried more physical methods to throttle him, they bounced feebly off his body.Midway through the fourth quarter, the Celtics appeared, for once, to corral Antetokounmpo into a dead end. Looking around and realizing he was trapped — “I’m going to get stuck,” he said he told himself — he flipped the ball off the backboard and snatched it out of the air again for a two-handed dunk over Jayson Tatum’s head.“That’s pure talent, pure instinct,” Budenholzer said. “He’s a great player. He does things that are unique and special and timely. That’s one of those plays where you’re just happy he’s on our side.”More important than one superstar’s solo work, though — and another potentially crucial difference between the circumstances of Durant and Antetokounmpo — were the contributions of Milwaukee’s supporting cast.Antetokounmpo, driving for a basket, posted 24 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals in Boston.David Butler Ii/USA Today Sports, via ReutersThe spotlight on Antetokounmpo has sizzled brighter in the absence of Khris Middleton, the team’s second-best player, whose participation in this series remains in doubt after he injured his left knee in Game 2 of the first round last month. A three-time All-Star who averaged 20.1 points and 5.4 assists per game in the regular season, Middleton commands plenty of attention with his ability to create his own shot and score in isolation.With him watching the game from the bench in a navy blue jacket, so much more of the Celtics’ focus could flow toward Antetokounmpo, with the ball spending so much more time in his hands.But those bemoaning Middleton’s absence may be overlooking the Bucks’ remaining cast of trustworthy satellite contributors, players capable of sinking a shot after a defense has collapsed on Antetokounmpo.Jrue Holiday, celebrated often for his defense but a formidable scorer when called upon, chipped in 25 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists. Grayson Allen led the Bucks’ reserves with 11 points, making three of six 3-point attempts.“I try to be as simple as possible,” Antetokounmpo said. “My teammates were there, they were open and they were knocking down shots.”Still, all of these players, the entirety of the Bucks’ universe — their offense, their defense, their collective mood and personality — revolves around Antetokounmpo.How much fuel does he have to burn? He played all but a few seconds in the first quarter, took a short break at the start of the second and got some reluctant rest in the third after an ill-advised fourth foul. Otherwise, he huffed through 38 punishing minutes, earning respite at the end only because the game was clearly decided.Afterward, he let out a long groan as he folded himself into a chair to talk to reporters.“Maybe I’m weird,” Antetokounmpo said when asked whether he felt roughed up. “I thrive through physicality. I love feeling beat up after games. I don’t know why. My family thinks I’m a weirdo.”For a Celtics defense still smarting from a steamrollering, these may be ominous words. More

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      One Final Look at a Nets Season That Fell Short

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      Exhaustion had replaced exhilaration by the time the Nets took the court for Monday’s fait accompli playoff game against the surging Boston Celtics.The early-season excitement surrounding the Nets and their glittering roster faded through a season’s worth of head-butting against the Murphy’s law adage that anything that can go wrong usually will.Gone, too, were the packed rows of New York celebrity onlookers, like Mary J. Blige, Spike Lee and Aaron Judge, who attended Game 3 at Barclays Center, perhaps trusting — despite the preponderance of evidence of the contrary — that a quick win on Monday would propel the Nets back into the series.Even Ben Simmons, who had stood out from the sideline earlier in the series because of his kaleidoscope outfits, was not there.Michelle Farsi for The New York TimesMichelle Farsi for The New York TimesThe Nets fans who attended Monday’s game seemed subdued, perhaps drained from one season that felt like many more because of the array of off-court distractions. Celtics fans, who witnessed their team undergo the midseason revitalization that Brooklynites expected of the Nets, arrived ready to pour salt into festering wounds.Boston — too cohesive, too lengthy, too tenacious — simply slammed the door on a Nets season derailed from the start.Michelle V. Agins/The New York TimesKyrie Irving missed most of the season because he refused to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. Kevin Durant, bothered by a knee injury, missed more than a month.The Nets plummeted with an 11-game losing streak. James Harden forced a trade to Philadelphia that returned, among others, Simmons — the centerpiece of the deal who never took the court.Often alone shouldering the load throughout the season was Durant. During the playoffs, he crafted his best performance of the series on Monday with 39 points.Michelle Farsi for The New York TimesMichelle Farsi for The New York TimesMichelle Farsi for The New York TimesBut Jayson Tatum’s two-way performance throughout the series neutralized Durant. Boston fans serenaded Tatum with chants of “M-V-P” in Brooklyn before he fouled out on Monday with 2 minutes 48 seconds remaining and the Celtics leading by 6 points. Their final lead was just 4 points — just enough for victory. And too much for the Nets.Michelle Farsi for The New York TimesIrving is now in line for a contract extension. Most of the Nets’ veteran rotation players are scheduled for free agency. No one knows when the injured Simmons will play. But the story of this season may not so much be how it ended, but whether the Nets’ stars have been left with enough to find a way to start again.Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times More

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      Nets Eliminated by Celtics in NBA Playoffs

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      The early playoff exit was a stunning end to a season that began with championship dreams behind Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.The Nets were expecting to vie for N.B.A. championships, and perhaps some day they will. But that day is not now, and another abbreviated postseason appearance ended on Monday when the Boston Celtics defeated them, 116-112, to complete a four-game sweep in their first-round playoff series.It was a fitting finale to a disjointed season for the seventh-seeded Nets, who spent months cycling through a motley cast of characters. They were undone by injuries and absences, by a mishmash roster that could not unearth a coherent brand of basketball, and, finally, by a superior opponent that put its suffocating clamps on two of the planet’s best players.The Celtics produced the league’s top-ranked defense in the regular season, and they proved it was no fluke against Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. Ime Udoka, the Celtics’ first-year coach, was one of Coach Steve Nash’s assistants in Brooklyn last season, and he applied his institutional knowledge throughout the series.Next up for the second-seeded Celtics is the winner of the first-round series between the Chicago Bulls and the Milwaukee Bucks. The defending champion Bucks have a three-games-to-one lead entering Game 5 of their series on Wednesday.The Nets, who had the second-highest payroll in the league this season, will try to recalibrate. Nash, who was hired by the Nets in 2020 without any head coaching experience, has now presided over two early postseason exits. (The Nets lost to the Bucks in the Eastern Conference semifinals last season.) Irving, who can become an unrestricted free agent, has said that he intends to re-sign with the team. But he appeared in only 29 regular-season games this season because of his refusal to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.The season was also interrupted by a midseason trade with the Philadelphia 76ers, who acquired James Harden in exchange for a package that included Ben Simmons, Seth Curry and draft picks. Simmons arrived in Brooklyn with a balky back and said he had been dealing with mental health issues for months. He never appeared in uniform.As for the Harden experiment, it was a bust. Harden, Durant and Irving played together in just 16 games over two seasons, including the playoffs.Before Game 4, Nash reflected on the Nets’ tumultuous season and spun it forward, saying it had made the team “better” and “stronger.”“We took the challenge and we all grew from it,” he said. “And at some point, those challenges will afford us a lot. We hope that we don’t have to face so many going forward, though.”Durant missed 21 games after spraining his knee in January, then played heavy minutes late in the regular season as the team scrambled for a spot in the play-in tournament. After Durant attempted just 11 field goals against the Celtics in Game 3, Nash acknowledged that fatigue may have played a role.Kevin Durant of the Nets had 39 points, 7 rebounds and 9 assists in Game 4. After taking just 11 shots in Game 3, he had 31 attempts in Game 4.Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times“Kevin’s had to play 40-plus minutes for five-plus weeks after missing six, seven weeks,” he said, adding, “I’m sure that’s taken a big toll.”And there were the team’s highly publicized absences. Simmons watched the first three games of the series from the bench in street clothes. Harden now plays in Philadelphia. And Joe Harris, one of the team’s best shooters, had a bone particle removed from his left ankle in November. When his rehabilitation had a setback, he underwent another surgical procedure in March that ended his season.Against the Celtics, the Nets missed Harris’s length on defense along with his ability to stretch the floor as a 3-point threat. As a result, the Celtics could be even more aggressive about sticking multiple defenders on Durant whenever he touched the ball.The series itself was a swift descent into futility. After the Celtics’ Jayson Tatum won Game 1 with a buzzer-beating layup, Irving used several profanities to describe his interactions with fans who were sitting courtside in Boston. (The N.B.A. subsequently fined Irving $50,000 for making obscene gestures.) After the Nets got thumped in Game 2, Irving heaped praise on the Celtics’ young core, telling reporters that “their time is now.” And after he struggled in Game 3, Durant sounded baffled at his postgame news conference. What could he possibly do to keep the series alive? He did not have any immediate solutions.“Maybe shoot more, maybe be smarter,” he said in a slow monotone. “Catch the ball closer to the rim. Play faster. Catch and shoot more.”Durant said he would try to “figure it out” by studying more film ahead of Game 4.Now, the Nets have an entire summer to search for answers.Nets fans during game 4.Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times More

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      The Nets Need a Miracle. Or Two. Or Three. Or Four.

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      No N.B.A. team has won a playoff series after losing the first three games. That’s the Nets’ challenge now, and Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant don’t look ready.As an unmistakable feeling of desperation closed in on the Nets, Coach Steve Nash reached toward the deepest recesses of his bench on Saturday and summoned a former star in twilight. Blake Griffin shed his warm-ups, along with some cobwebs, and reported to the scorer’s table.Griffin, 33, has a bum ankle and a surgically repaired knee that at a previous stage of his career — back when he was dunking over midsize sedans as one of the faces of the N.B.A. — had a full allotment of cartilage. But he had not caught a whiff of playing time in 21 days, dating to the regular season. Now, with the Nets trailing the Celtics in Game 3 of their first-round playoff series, Nash turned to Blake for something, anything — a spark, a lift, maybe even a miracle.The Nets were willing to take what they could get, and for a few glorious minutes at Barclays Center, Griffin delivered. He sank a couple of 3-pointers. He grappled for rebounds. He even tried to defend Jayson Tatum as the Celtics hunted for favorable one-on-one matchups against him.Miracles alone do not win playoff series, much less championships. And while there was a time, not so long ago, when the Nets were celebrated as the latest superteam that seemed bound for great things, they have discovered the hard way that titles cannot be store-bought or hastily cobbled together after months of injuries and dysfunction.The Nets turned to Blake Griffin for the first time this series on Saturday. But a few quick 3-pointers and rebounds from him weren’t the miracle the team needed.Michelle Farsi for The New York Times“I just felt like we didn’t have the right spirit throughout the entire game,” Griffin said after the Nets’ 109-103 loss, which pushed them to the brink of an early off-season.Boston, a team that has been ascendant under Ime Udoka, its first-year coach, can close out the Nets with a series sweep on Monday night, and it is probably only a matter of time before this one gets wrapped up regardless: No team in N.B.A. history has come back from a three-games-to-none series deficit.Aside from that inconvenient truth, the Nets appear acutely aware that the Celtics are a more complete, cohesive team. Just listen to them. Griffin cited the Celtics’ top-ranked defense. (“This is a great defensive team,” he said.) Kevin Durant cited their length. (“I just think they got more size than us,” he said.) And Nash cited their ability to drive to the basket. (“We haven’t been able to contain the basketball,” he said.) This is not a winning formula for the Nets.On Saturday, the Nets offered up plenty of small moments that typified larger problems. But consider one of their final possessions, as Durant dribbled against the Celtics’ Grant Williams with the hope of creating some space. Finding none, Durant threw a bounce pass to Kyrie Irving that was intercepted by Tatum, who raced away for a dunk that punctuated the win. It was the Nets’ 21st and final turnover of the game.“Poor decision-making,” Nash said. “Not connecting simple passes, and they’re going the other way.”The Celtics have smothered Durant, limiting him to 22 points a game on 36.5 percent shooting. On Saturday, he tried just 11 field goals. His postgame news conference sounded vaguely like therapy.“I’ve just been thinking too much, to be honest, this whole series,” he said.Kyrie Irving struggled in Game 3, missing all seven of his 3-point attempts. He finished with 16 points in the loss.Michelle Farsi for The New York TimesAfter shooting 4 of 17 from the field in Game 2, Durant had come into Game 3 wanting to find his teammates more often and “let the ball find me” within the flow of the offense, he said. But he was already questioning himself as he scrutinized another miserable box score in a series full of them.“I probably should’ve took more shots,” he said, adding: “In my mind, I’m just trying to see how I can help everybody. Sometimes, I end up taking myself out of the game.”Durant was not the only star who struggled. Irving shot 6 of 17 from the field and missed all seven of his 3-point attempts. Nash blamed fatigue for part of their woes. Irving is fasting for Ramadan. Durant has been supplying huge minutes for weeks — first when the Nets were scrambling to secure a spot in the postseason, and now as they try to survive against a superior opponent.“They’ve both got to be tired,” Nash said. “Fasting can’t be easy, you know? If I go play tennis and I haven’t eaten, I feel like I’m going to fall over. So I can’t imagine how he feels in an N.B.A. playoff game.”At the same time, the series has offered contrasting approaches to team building. The Celtics’ core is largely made up of players whom they drafted and developed, a list highlighted by Tatum and Jaylen Brown. That list also includes Marcus Smart, the N.B.A.’s defensive player of the year, and Robert Williams, the fourth-year center who returned to the rotation on Saturday about three weeks after knee surgery.The Nets were constructed with a championship-or-bust approach, but inconsistency on and off the court has made a deep playoff run seem out of reach.Michelle Farsi for The New York TimesIn that way, the Celtics are reminiscent of contenders like the Golden State Warriors and the Memphis Grizzlies, teams that developed continuity and chemistry by sticking with their young players.The Nets went the other way, acquiring high-priced stars like Durant and Irving while trading away their draft picks and prospects. It was championship or bust from the start. Sometimes that experiment pans out. The Los Angeles Lakers, after all, won the championship in 2020 by following a similar script. But that seems to be the exception these days, and the Lakers have since crumbled into a pile of very expensive and aging dust after mortgaging their future to try to win now. The Nets may not be far behind.The Nets, of course, have had a particularly disjointed season, and even before the start of Game 3, Nash was rattling off an abridged list of the challenges his team had faced: not having Irving for much of the season because he refused to be vaccinated; trading James Harden to the Philadelphia 76ers; losing Durant for six weeks because of a sprained ligament in his knee. Nash said he was not making excuses, but. …“We’ve had very few pockets with everyone able to play,” he said.At this point, they may have only one of them left. More

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      The Nets May Be in Trouble. But They Still Have Kevin Durant.

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      The brilliant Durant who so often appears in critical moments? He’s been missing in the playoffs against the Celtics. “I just got to go out there and play,” he said.BOSTON — Kevin Durant had no room. He admitted as much. Whenever he had the ball against the Celtics on Wednesday night, and even when he did not, defenders were crowding his space, shadowing him, draping themselves all over him like Saran wrap. They were on the perimeter, and in the paint, and at the elbow. How was it possible that only five of them were on the court at once?“They’re mucking up actions when I run off stuff,” said Durant, who singled out the Celtics’ Al Horford for “leaving his man to come over and hit me sometimes.” Durant went on: “Just two or three guys hitting me wherever I go. And that’s just the nature of the beast in the playoffs.”It was nearing 11 p.m. as Durant offered up his post-mortem of the Nets’ 114-107 loss to the Celtics in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series, and he did not necessarily seem concerned. In fact, his analysis came off as dispassionate: Here were the facts, and it was his job to remedy the issues as the Nets seek to rebound from their two-games-to-none deficit in the best-of-seven series. It heads to Brooklyn for Game 3 on Saturday night.“It’s on me to just finish it and figure it out,” he said. “I’m not expecting my teammates or the defense to give me anything. I just got to go out there and play.”Durant is having an atypical series. In the Nets’ loss in Game 1 on Sunday, he shot 9 of 24 from the field and committed six turnovers. In Game 2, he shot 4 of 17 from the field and committed six turnovers. The Celtics, with their length and toughness, produced the N.B.A.’s top-ranked defense during the regular season, and now they are putting the clamps on the best all-around scorer on the planet. It is no fluke.“When you’re a great scorer, or you’re a consistent scorer, you’re used to seeing open space, and you’re usually shaking guys with one or two moves,” said the Nets’ Kyrie Irving, who had his own problems, scoring 10 points while shooting 4 of 13 from the field. “But with this defense, those two or three moves, guys are staying on your hip.”You may have heard this already, but the Nets have had a turbulent season. At one point, James Harden played for them, until they traded him away for Ben Simmons. Irving was not allowed to play for the Nets, and then he was — but only on the road, up until about a month ago. And stay tuned: Simmons may actually make his debut for the team in this series. The bottom line is that the Nets have never had much cohesion.It would be a mistake, of course, to count them out. Durant and Irving are capable of doing extraordinary things all by themselves. But the Celtics are determined — they trailed on Wednesday by as many as 17 points before mounting a comeback — and they have two stars of their own, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, who have finally unlocked their own brand of chemistry. Irving sounded like their publicist.“I’m not surprised at all,” Irving said. “I just think the timing is right. Their window is now for these young guys that are on this team that have matured. They’ve been through series together, they’ve been through seasons together, and they’ve been through battles together.”On Wednesday, the Celtics were ready for a fight. A couple of hours before the game, Marcus Smart, the team’s starting point guard, made a statement when he showed up to the arena wearing a bedazzled boxing robe with the acronym “D.P.O.Y.” splashed across the back. In a pregame ceremony, he formally accepted the N.B.A.’s Defensive Player of the Year Award from a cast of luminaries that included Gary Payton, who was the last guard to claim the award, for the 1995-96 season.Durant shot just four of 17 from the field in the Nets’ Game 2 loss to the Celtics on Wednesday.Michael Dwyer/Associated PressStill, pretty much everyone in the building expected Durant to bounce back from his struggles in Game 1, and for good reason. Last season, he averaged 41.8 points in the four games that followed playoff losses for the Nets. Ime Udoka, the coach of the Celtics, was acutely aware of that statistic. He cited it before Wednesday’s game.“Just understanding what he’s going to come out and try to do,” Udoka said. “We all know that.”Udoka, especially. Last season, he was one of Nets Coach Steve Nash’s assistants. Udoka has institutional knowledge, and he has been putting it to use.“They switch everything,” Durant said. “They’re basically playing a zone so it’s easier for every player. They don’t have to chase over screens, don’t have to fight through stuff. Just use your length, sit in the lane and help.”At his postgame news conference, Durant kept glancing at the box score as if it were a riddle he needed to solve. He made a few observations. He observed, for example, that the Celtics had seven players score at least 10 points, which was indicative of their balance. He also observed that “they made a few more shots than us.”Solutions were not forthcoming — not yet. On the one hand, the Celtics merely maintained their home-court advantage in the series. On the other hand, the Nets are in dire straits: They need to win four out of the next five games, potentially. The math is unforgiving.“To be honest with you, we don’t really have time to be disappointed,” Irving said.Perhaps Durant’s minutes are beginning to take a toll. In the final weeks of the regular season, the Nets needed to scramble to assure themselves of a spot in the postseason, and Durant shouldered a heavy load: 42 minutes against the Charlotte Hornets, 45 minutes against the Milwaukee Bucks, 42 minutes against the Atlanta Hawks. He also supplied more than 40 minutes in the final game of the regular season, a 5-of-17 shooting performance against the Indiana Pacers. It was, in its own way, a sign of things to come against the Celtics.Ahead of Saturday’s game, Durant said he would study film. He expressed faith in his teammates.“The name of our game is just to play extremely hard,” he said.The problem? That’s the Celtics’ game, too. More

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      Boston Celtics Buzzer-Beater Takes Down Kyrie Irving and the Nets

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      Irving, the Nets guard, had a brilliant Game 1 against Boston on Sunday, but the Celtics, led by Jayson Tatum and his buzzer-beater, ended up on top.BOSTON — There was a time when Celtics fans were excited about Kyrie Irving. They can recall the summer of 2017, when Irving forced his way out of Cleveland and landed in Boston, where he delighted in the Celtics’ illustrious past and pledged to do what he could to help the team win.But over Irving’s two seasons with the Celtics, all that communal excitement morphed into a bunch of different stuff: tolerance as he struggled with injuries, then impatience as he criticized teammates, then something that resembled rage as it became clear that he and Boston were bound for a divorce.On Sunday afternoon, Irving was back in Boston, where a fervent crowd at TD Garden christened Game 1 of the Celtics’ first-round playoff series with the Nets by booing Irving at every opportunity. They booed him when he emerged from the visitors’ tunnel for warm-ups. They booed him during introductions. They booed him whenever he touched the ball. And he nearly silenced them with another tour de force in a career full of them.But in the opener of a best-of-seven-game clash between teams with outsize goals, Jayson Tatum sent the arena into a state of pandemonium with a layup at the buzzer that gave the Celtics a 115-114 win. Game 2 is in Boston on Wednesday.“It was fulfilling for us, especially the way we started this year off,” Celtics guard Marcus Smart said. “The resilience we have, the approach we have, the work we put in and learning — we had a lot of games to learn from early in the year.”As the series continues, the Celtics will need to put all that knowledge to use against Irving, who was spectacular in Game 1. He finished with 39 points and 6 assists, and his 3-pointer with 45.9 seconds left put the Nets ahead by 3. In the process, he reminded Boston why the city wanted him in the first place, while underscoring all the bitterness that has followed.Those feelings resurfaced at various points of the game. On at least two occasions, Irving appeared to raise his middle fingers at fans sitting near the court. He said in his postgame news conference that people in the crowd were swearing at him and referring to him using explicit terms.“It’s nothing new when I come into this building, what it’s going to be like,” he said. “But the same energy they have for me, I’m going to have the same energy for them.”He added: “There’s only so much you take as a competitor. We’re the ones expected to be docile and humble and take a humble approach. Nah.”For most of the game, Irving let his play do the talking. The Celtics were undaunted in the final minute, though, and after Jaylen Brown drove for a layup, the Nets’ Kevin Durant missed a long 3-pointer. At the other end, Smart found Tatum, who spun past Irving for a layup with the clock winding down. It was his easiest bucket of the night.“I think that’s kind of a microcosm of our season: guys moving the ball, playing unselfish,” Celtics Coach Ime Udoka said. “It all came together on the last possession.”Tatum finished with 31 points, and Brown had 23. Smart had an astounding all-around game, collecting 20 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals. Durant had 23 points and shot just 9 of 24.For the second straight postseason, the Nets and the Celtics are meeting in the first round. Last year, the Nets advanced in five games in a series that only inflamed the dynamic between Irving, who appeared to stomp on the Celtics’ logo at midcourt, and Boston fans, one of whom chucked a water bottle at him.Irving shooting over Boston guard Marcus Smart, a finalist for the Defensive Player of the Year Award. The Boston fans booed Irving, a former Celtic, throughout the game.David Butler Ii/USA Today Sports, via ReutersThat series also helped spur significant change in the Celtics’ organization. Brad Stevens moved to the front office after eight seasons as the team’s head coach. His job was filled by Udoka, a longtime N.B.A. assistant and Gregg Popovich disciple who seems to have unlocked the collaborative potential of Tatum and Brown. Remember when the Celtics had a losing record, 23-24, in late January? They closed the regular season by going 28-7.Udoka entered the series uniquely familiar with the Nets. Last season, as one of Coach Steve Nash’s assistants, Udoka got to know Irving and Durant — and their gifts.Amid a sloppy, foul-marred start, the Celtics’ top-ranked defense gave the Nets fits, forcing seven first-quarter turnovers. The game’s assembled stars — Irving, Durant, Brown and Tatum — combined to miss 12 of their first 14 field-goal attempts.Irving got going early in the second quarter with a pair of 3-pointers, the second on a pull-up in transition. The game was tied at 61 at halftime before the Celtics began to roll — a jolt that was predictably predicated on their defense. Late in the third quarter, Jaylen Brown blocked the Nets’ Bruce Brown at the rim, then raced away to convert a layup at the other end. Then the Nets took their turn, but Tatum blocked a jump shot by Durant, then hit a 3-pointer to extend Boston’s lead to 11.Irving was virtually unstoppable in the fourth quarter, scoring 18 points on 7 of 9 shooting, which set the stage for the game’s dramatic conclusion.“I don’t know that there’s any atmospheres that are going to rattle him,” Nash said, adding: “The guy’s done about all you can do in the game.”The Nets secured the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs by defeating the Cleveland Cavaliers in the play-in tournament on Tuesday. The Celtics had an even longer layoff, with a full week to prepare, since they closed their regular season on April 10 as the No. 2 seed.Boston’s Jaylen Brown, left, driving against Kevin Durant. Brown had 23 points on 9 of 19 shooting.Maddie Meyer/Getty ImagesThe Celtics were without Robert Williams, their rim-protecting, fourth-year center. Williams was having a breakout season when he tore the meniscus in his left knee last month and had surgery. Udoka said the Celtics were preparing as if Williams would not be available for the series, though Udoka did not rule out the possibility — however remote — of Williams returning. “He’s progressing nicely,” Udoka said.Before the game, the Celtics’ game operations crew spiced things up a bit on the arena’s video board by flashing a quote from Bruce Brown about how the Nets could “attack” Al Horford and Daniel Theis in Williams’s absence. (The crowd booed.) Horford was terrific on Sunday, finishing with 20 points and 15 rebounds, and he was animated throughout the game. Having Williams, of course, would only enhance the team’s championship hopes.The Nets are used to waiting, too. They waited for Irving to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, and when he was unwilling to do so, they waited for New York City to lift its vaccine mandates so that he could play in home games. Now, the Nets are waiting — still waiting — for Ben Simmons to take the court for the first time since they acquired him in a midseason trade with the Philadelphia 76ers.Simmons, who has not played since last postseason, has been dealing with a balky back since arriving in Brooklyn, and no one has any idea what he would look like if he were actually to take the floor against the Celtics. On Saturday, apparently for the benefit of reporters who were monitoring his progress, Simmons dunked at practice.“Make sure you get this,” he said to those who were filming him with their cellphones.On Sunday, Simmons wore mirrored sunglasses on the visitors’ bench as Irving and the rest of the Nets went about their business in a hostile environment. For one afternoon, at least, and by the slimmest of margins, the Celtics were the more complete team. More

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      Ime Udoka Has Convinced the Celtics to Pass the Basketball

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      Ime Udoka, the team’s first-year coach, has convinced his players that sharing the ball is the key to a potent offense. Now the Celtics are climbing in the standings.BOSTON — Ime Udoka has been emphasizing ball movement since the day the Celtics hired him as their coach. At his introductory news conference last June, Udoka apologized to Brad Stevens, his predecessor and the team’s newly appointed president of basketball operations, as a way of softening the blow before he pointed out that the Celtics had ranked near the bottom of the league in assists last season.“We want to have more team basketball,” Udoka said at the time.It was not instant fix for Udoka, whose team hobbled into the middle of January with a losing record. The ball was not moving. A bit of frustration was evident. But even during their struggles, Udoka sensed that his players were receptive to coaching, he said. So he reinforced his pass-first concepts in film sessions and by citing statistics that showed the offense was more potent when the ball zipped around the court.“It took some time,” Udoka said on Wednesday, “but I think they’re embracing being playmakers and helping everyone else score, and I think it’s pleasing to me and noticeable when we play that way.”Entering the N.B.A.’s All-Star break, the Celtics have resurfaced as one of the better teams in the league after winning 11 of their last 13 games, a run of solid play that has vaulted them up the standings, quieted a few of their critics and shown that Udoka’s sharing-is-caring formula can work in their favor.“The turnovers are down and the assists are up because we’re getting rid of the ball,” Udoka said.He made that observation a couple of hours before the Celtics (34-26) had their nine-game winning streak snapped on Wednesday night by the Detroit Pistons, one of the worst teams in the league. It was the second game of a back-to-back for the Celtics, who had routed the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday and were without two injured starters, Marcus Smart and Rob Williams.Still, the loss was a reminder that good habits need to be nurtured, and one the Celtics can stew over before they resume their season against the Nets next Thursday.“There’s got to be an edge to us coming back,” the veteran forward Al Horford said, adding: “This is when the fun starts.”It always takes time for new coaches to incorporate their systems, no matter how talented their personnel. Dwane Casey, the coach of the Pistons, knows the feeling. Before Wednesday’s game, he recalled landing his first head coaching job in the N.B.A., with the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2005. Kevin Garnett, a colorful figure and a future Hall of Famer, made a habit of interrupting Casey whenever he tried to show the team a new play.“It’s not easy,” Casey said. “You want to go in there with all these grand ideas, but you learn pretty quick that you’ve got to be flexible, that you’ve got to learn the players and they’ve got to get a feel for you.”Udoka had to be just as patient in Boston, where the Celtics’ season was less than two weeks old when a loss to the Chicago Bulls dropped their record to 2-5. Afterward, Smart, the team’s starting point guard, used his platform at a postgame news conference to criticize Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, the team’s top two players, for essentially hogging the ball.Early in the season, Marcus Smart, left, called out Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum (not pictured) for not passing the ball. The team has since revamped its offense.Brian Fluharty/USA Today Sports, via ReutersThe Celtics spent subsequent weeks wrestling with mediocrity — two wins here, three losses there — without much continuity. And they found themselves absorbing more barbs after a loss to the 76ers on Jan. 14. Joel Embiid, the 76ers’ All-Star center, stated the obvious: The Celtics were a one-on-one team. Embiid went so far as to compare them unfavorably to the Charlotte Hornets, whom the 76ers had played two days earlier.“Charlotte, they move the ball extremely well and they have shooters all over the place,” Embiid told reporters. “Obviously, Boston is more of an iso-heavy team, so it becomes easier to load up and try to stop them.”Perhaps it was a message that the Celtics needed to hear. Tatum, 23, and Brown, 25, are terrific players, each capable of torching a conga line of defenders by himself. And there are certainly times when they should take advantage of their matchups. But Udoka wants all of his players to avoid “playing in a crowd,” he said, and to exercise more discretion. Above all, he seeks balance: fast breaks, pick-and-rolls, ball reversals.“We have a multidimensional team that can score in a lot of different ways,” he said.Sure enough, the Celtics were rolling by the time they paid another visit to Philadelphia on Tuesday. Udoka delivered some pregame motivation by showing his players that old quote from Embiid — the one about them being “easier” to defend than the Hornets had been. “It stood out to me when he said it,” Udoka said.The Celtics won by 48 points. Doc Rivers, the coach of the 76ers, spent the game looking as though he were in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles.“You can literally see the improvement of the ball movement,” he said. “The old Boston is more isos. This Boston is driving and playing with each other, and that’s what makes them so much tougher.”The Celtics, who are also among the league leaders in defensive rating, made some savvy moves ahead of last week’s trade deadline by acquiring Derrick White, a versatile guard, and Daniel Theis, a defense-minded center.As for the All-Star break, Udoka said he would spend time with his family. But he also plans to dive into film by revisiting the hard times.“Really take a look at the struggles we had early,” he said, “and how we’ve turned the corner.” More

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      The Celtics Are Starting to Get Their Act Together

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      After spiraling toward dysfunction, Boston has righted the ship for its new coach, Ime Udoka.BOSTON — The Celtics have spent recent years as a team of almost. Almost good enough to contend for an N.B.A. championship. Almost mature enough to reach their potential. Almost complete enough to play at a high level on a consistent basis.But a bunch of almosts would have been an improvement from all the questions and concerns the Celtics began collecting at the start of the season. It is never much fun when each game feels like a litmus test — of Ime Udoka’s first season as the team’s coach, of the chemistry experiment between Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, of the growth of the players around them.So when Marcus Smart, the team’s starting point guard, criticized Tatum and Brown for essentially hogging the ball after a loss to the Chicago Bulls on Nov. 1, Boston seemed in danger of spiraling toward premature dysfunction.Since then, though, something unusual has happened: The Celtics have won three of four games to position themselves among the best sub-.500 teams in the N.B.A. before their game against the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks on Friday night.“I think we’ve jelled to some extent,” Udoka said, adding, “We’re learning the intensity and effort it takes to win every night.”Dennis Schroder had 20 points in Wednesday’s win over Toronto. David Butler Ii/USA Today Sports, via ReutersThe Celtics, who improved to 5-6 by defeating the Toronto Raptors, 104-88, on Wednesday, are suddenly defending, scoring, rebounding and winning. For someone like Udoka, who is new to his high-profile job, it could not have happened soon enough. Strange but true: The Celtics’ victory over the Raptors was their first home win of the season. The challenge now is to sustain that momentum.“I don’t think anybody in the locker room is getting antsy about the losses,” the reserve guard Josh Richardson said. “Just trying to progress. I think we’re all starting to find our footing.”There have been growing pains. In their home opener on Oct. 22, the Celtics stunk things up in a 32-point loss to the Raptors and were essentially booed off the court. It was a blowout that came at the hands of a young team that many have pegged as bound for the draft lottery. But Scottie Barnes, the Raptors’ first-year forward, has been a revelation, and he looked like the best player on the court. Udoka bemoaned his team’s lack of effort.Sadly for Boston, that game was not an anomaly. At the start of November, things seemed to bottom out when the Bulls, after trailing by as many as 19 points, outscored the Celtics by 39-11 in the fourth quarter of a 14-point win. Afterward, Smart called out Brown and Tatum in a news conference. It is no secret, Smart said at the time, that opponents are keying their defenses on those two players, especially in late-game situations. The problem?“They don’t want to pass the ball,” Smart said.Brown and Tatum were not thrilled that Brown went public with his observations. A players-only meeting ensued, which is seldom a good sign. Except the Celtics subsequently won two in a row before closing out a three-game road trip with a narrow loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday — a game that Brown missed with a hamstring injury. Still, on Wednesday morning, Brown expressed a feeling that had been in short supply: optimism.Marcus Smart, right, had been critical of some of his teammates this season, but Boston has shown recent improvement. Wednesday was the team’s first home win of the season.David Butler II/USA Today Sports, via Reuters“The spirit of this team is different,” he said, “and we’re going to continue to just keep pushing. I can feel it. I think that things will turn around for sure.”Udoka, too, said before Wednesday’s game that his team was finding its identity, a bit of coach-speak that would have had a short shelf life with another uneven performance.But in their rematch with the Raptors, the Celtics ran out to a 16-point lead by halftime and cruised. They did it without Brown, who was sidelined again, and without a proficient shooting night from Tatum, who was 8 of 24 from the field but finished with 22 points, 12 rebounds and 7 assists. All five starters scored at least 10 points, and Richardson had 15 points off the bench.Robert Williams III, the team’s starting center, said Boston had been building more cohesion thanks to a flurry of team dinners organized by the veterans and a greater emphasis on communication at practice.“I feel like we’re bonding, finding stuff out about each other,” he said.The Celtics have made seven straight postseason appearances, including three trips to the Eastern Conference finals, most recently in 2020. But after the team scuffled to a 36-36 record last season and were swept in the first round of the playoffs, Brad Stevens vacated his coaching job to move to the front office and was replaced on the bench by Udoka.And while the Celtics have been a perennial playoff team, their roster has not exactly been static. They have, for example, cycled through a colorful cast of starting point guards: Isaiah Thomas, Kyrie Irving, Kemba Walker. This season, Smart has been manning the point, with Dennis Schroder — one of the team’s big off-season signings — also supplying heavy minutes.The Celtics’ rotations are a work in progress for Ime Udoka, who has been willing to make changes on the fly.Michael Dwyer/Associated PressThe team’s rotations remain a work in progress for Udoka, who must have known there would be growing pains but has been willing to make changes on the fly. Consider that he appeared determined, at least at the start of the season, to have his defenders switch on screens. He has since become more flexible depending on matchups.“We’re mixing up some coverages,” he said. “We found out what the guys do better than we did in the preseason, and I think, as coaches, we’ve learned as well.”As for Smart, he seemed to have little interest in rehashing his comments about Tatum and Brown after Wednesday’s win. When asked about the players-only meeting and what the past few days had been like for him, he said, “We had a great game.”He added, “We’ve been playing very well.”In the end, perhaps that is all that matters. More