Boston Celtics: 3 keys to beat the Brooklyn Nets in Christmas Day game

No. 2: Limit bench scoring

As great as Jeff Teague has been playing, the Nets have a much better second unit than the beaten-up Boston Celtics. Without Teague’s hot three shooting, the Celtics only had 15 points off the bench. The Nets had 34 without their top bench scorer, and including him, 54. Their backups make the Nets such a challenging team to beat each night, so the Celtics need to do their best to stop them as much as they can.

Caris LeVert may be the harder to guard. He can score many ways and facing one of the Celtics’ two backup guards; neither known for their defense. Then, in the paint, the Celtics will need to find a way to stop Jarrett Allen, a starting center on most NBA teams. Celtics may be more confident guarding him with Robert Williams and Grant Williams on the floor. Both of which play physical defense and are frustrating to face.

And yet, the Nets have more weapons that can seemingly appear out of nowhere on the floor. The Celtics will have to do a much better job than they have against Milwaukee at switching on and off defenders. Especially against the Bucks bench, there were way too many open looks from the corner that the Celtics gave up due to miscommunication. As well as their starting rotation plays, if they can not hold down the Nets bench, this game could be ugly for Boston.