It’s almost as though it was meant to be, isn’t it? The Boston Celtics will, indeed, take on the Brooklyn Nets with the series tipping off on Sunday at 3:30 ET in Boston, and with no shortage of storylines worth considering. There’s Jayson Tatum vs. Kevin Durant; Kyrie Irving vs. Boston; underdogs vs. ... wait, who even is the underdog in this series? (You’re kidding yourself if you say it’s the Celtics, but there’s plenty of chatter already pointing toward that being a reality.)
But what, specifically, will it take for the Celtics to avoid a Nets upset, seeing as that’s what it would be if the Nets — despite their slight advantage in the superstar department — somehow made it out of this series?