Brooklyn Nets: 3 keys to victory over the Boston Celtics
1. Turnover Battle
The Nets win the turnover battle, they win the game.
Following Brooklyn’s first game this year, almost no one within the NBA community voiced any complaints or displeasures regarding the team’s performance. This certainly makes sense given the result, but whether they were broadcasted or not, Brooklyn still made some troubling mistakes while playing the the Warriors that might not fly against the Celtics.
You’d never guess it, but the Nets actually turned the ball over more than the Warriors, doing so 20 times despite maintaining a sizable lead from start to finish. Last year, no team averaged a turnover rate higher than 16.5 per game.
Nets are doing this with three more turnovers than assists.
— Law Murray 📱 (@LawMurrayTheNU) December 23, 2020
Warriors offense looking critically painful.
This was Brooklyn’s first game, though, with a rookie head coach and a new roster assembled under him, so cutting the team some slack undoubtedly feels justified. Nonetheless, if the Nets hope to take down their divisional rival this Christmas, they must protect the rock more effectively this time around.
Against a disciplined team coached by Brad Stevens, expect the Celtics to take advantage of any sloppy play or self-induced mistakes by the Nets without hesitation. Against another NBA Finals-aspiring Milwaukee Bucks team, Boston already accomplished this, forcing 16 turnovers en route to a thrilling victory in their season opener.
Giannis had seven turnovers tonight. The Celtics, as a team, had six.
— Taylor Snow (@taylorcsnow) December 24, 2020
More importantly though, the Celtics committed only six turnovers themselves in that game. Having acknowledged this established strength for Boston and apparent weakness for Brooklyn, it feels more than reasonable to expect the Celtics to exploit it early and often. To combat this, the Nets must clean things up while playing at a sharp pace.
