“Boston made it a point that ‘Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving will not beat us’” - Draymond Green says he’s very surprised that the Brooklyn Nets got swept by the Boston Celtics
The Boston Celtics and their first-round sweep of the Brooklyn Nets have been arguably the largest surprises of this year's NBA postseason thus far. Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green weighed in on the greatness seen from Boston on Tuesday’s episode of “The Draymond Green Show”.
Draymond Green was surprised Brooklyn got swept by Boston Celtics
Green commented on the Boston Celtics' phenomenal performances, as well as the Brooklyn Nets' dramatic collapse
The Warriors star said:
“Boston made it a point that ‘Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving will not beat us’”
The Boston Celtics capped off their sweep on Monday night, where they sealed off Game 4 with a 116-112 victory.
The Celtics finished the 2021-22 NBA regular season in 2nd place in the Eastern Conference with 51 wins to 31 losses. As a result, they were matched up against the Brooklyn Nets. What was supposed to be a close series ended rather quickly as Jayson Tatum and company swept the Nets 4-0 in the first round of the playoffs.
Across the series against Brooklyn, Jayson Tatum averaged 29.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, 7.3 assists, 1.8 steals, 0.8 blocks, and 3.3 made three-pointers. Tatum quite literally showed up everywhere on the court, on both ends of the play, in every scenario he possibly could.
On top of that, he managed to make a point to the rest of the league by shutting down arguably the greatest scoring duo in the NBA.
After winning their first round, the Boston Celtics are set to match the winners of the Milwaukee Bucks-Chicago Bulls series. With the Bucks leading 3-1, most are betting on Boston meeting the defending champions Milwaukee in the next round of the playoffs.
The round will prove to be yet another large task for Boston, but if anyone has proved they can do it, it is Tatum and his Celtics.
Though the Bucks are defending champions and Giannis Antetokounmpo is playing atop an MVP caliber year going toward defending his crown. However, the Boston Celtics will stand will great confidence after sweeping an offensive great like Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.
KD laced up against the defensive behemoth in the league at the moment, the Celtics, who absolutely shut down both him and Kyrie on offense. Even with the defensive output from Boston, Durant still managed to average 26.3 points, 5.8 rebounds, 6.3 assists, and 1.0 steal per game across the series. Stats like these against a team like Tatum’s Celtics are admirable.
It also shows what the Boston Celtics are capable of to the rest of the NBA. If a player like Kevin Durant can suffer a continuous shutdown like he did while managing to average 26.3 points across 4 games with no victory, it shows how much Boston is cooking.
For a player like Draymond Green, who is known to have a relatively higher basketball IQ than most, to essentially miss the cue on Boston and be caught by surprise shows just how great the Celtics really are. Green is not easily surprised, as he is usually one step ahead of most. If Draymond is speaking on a team’s ability to show the league what is up out of left field, then the league best watch out.
Green is notably a defensive great and supportive leader for Golden State. That makes him a prime candidate to notice the smaller defensive notions and efforts from Boston that are elevating them above their opponents.