After some minor scares, both the Boston Celtics and Washington Wizards were able to escape their first round series in the 2017 NBA Playoffs. Both teams looked equally dominant at times and totally vulnerable at others.
The second-round series between these two teams promises to be a good one. There is regular season history between the Celtics and Wizards, from a nose-touching altercation featuring John Wall and Jae Crowder to the Wizards dressing for a proverbial funeral IN THE REGULAR SEASON, there is no doubt that there is animosity in this matchup.
The actual basketball matchup is nearly as interesting. Both teams feature dynamic backcourts that are set to be the star power of the series.
The Wizards have the athletic dominance of John Wall, bursting into the defense to score at the rim or dish it out to his teammates. Averaging 29.5 points and 10.3 assists per game, not many players have had the same sort of impact on their teams in the playoffs that Wall has. His dominance by every metric has been staggering, with a sky-high true shooting percentage of 62.3 percent, the best mark of his postseason career by far, while he also assists on 48.8 percent of teammates’ field goals while on the court.
On the other side, the Celtics are led by Isaiah Thomas, the more deliberate player scoring from anywhere on the court, despite his small stature. Thomas exploded onto the scene as an MVP candidate this season and he has not slowed down in the playoffs. Dealing with tragedy as he mourns the loss of his sister (the Celtics expect him to play in game one after her funeral if he feels comfortable doing so), Thomas has continued his dominance on the basketball court, averaging 23 points and 5.7 assists per game.
Thomas has not shot the ball well from deep, hitting only 20 percent of his attempts from beyond the arc. It’s not likely that his struggles will continue as he shot 38 percent in the regular season. Progression to the mean is coming, and the Wizards should worry.
Beyond Wall and Thomas, the supporting casts will be the key to the series. Wall will need Bradley Beal to continue complementing him in the backcourt while the Celtics hope that Avery Bradley can slow down the three-point marksman.
Each team has one major advantage that they will hope to exploit.
For the Wizards, that’s an edge on rebounding, an issue that has plagued the Celtics all year and was the main catalyst in their two losses to the Bulls. The Wizards were 13th in the league over the regular season in rebounding their own misses, while the Celtics were the fourth worst team at cleaning up the glass. That hasn’t improved in the playoffs; the Celtics ranked dead last in the first round, grabbing only 70.4 percent of the Bulls’ misses.
Meanwhile, the Celtics will hope to use their depth to their advantage. The C’s managed to outscore the Bulls by 3.8 points per 100 possession while their superstar point guard was on the bench. Meanwhile, the Wizards’ bench has been a cause for concern all year. Acquiring Brandon Jennings and Bojan Bogdanovic has helped but neither has been a major difference maker. The Wizards are a -4.7 per 100 possessions with Bogdanovic on the court and a -14.5 with Jennings.
It will be an interesting chess match between Brad Stevens and Scott Brooks; one will have to decide how comfortable he is going deep in his rotation while the other must balance crashing the boards with protecting from transition opportunities. But in the end, the series may come down to what the two stars do: John Wall and Isaiah Thomas pitted against each other in an epic matchup.
