How the Celtics Are Making It Difficult for Kevin Durant

Boston’s defense forced the Nets star into one of the worst playoff outings of his career in Game 1.

There are 285 players in NBA history who’ve appeared in at least 75 playoff games. Among them, only Michael Jordan has a higher scoring average than Kevin Durant, a two-time Finals MVP who might possess the most frightening offensive repertoire basketball has ever seen.

But in Game 1 of his first-round matchup against the Celtics—and a defense that’s overstocked with speed, length, athleticism, experience and toughness—Durant was a shell of himself. He needed 24 shots to score 23 points and turned it over six times. There was no rhythm, or overwhelming stretch where he dominates the game and takes what he wants.

According to Basketball Reference’s Game Score metric, which offers “a rough measure of a player’s productivity for a single game,” this was the fifth-worst playoff game of Durant’s entire career. Looking at his box score plus/minus, which measures the points contributed on a per 100 possessions basis relative to what an average player would produce, it was the worst.

Boston had much to do with that, executing an unambiguous game plan that ordered all five players to treat Durant like the all-time great he is. Their goal wasn’t to contest every shot Durant took (which they nearly did) but instead to limit how many he could get. They denied everything. When he came off a simple pindown or cross screen, they didn’t just switch and let him catch the pass clean. They made the moment feel like an earthquake, with nearby defenders abandoning their own assignment just to collide with Durant’s body.

They top locked him, fronted the post with help over the top and turned every step into a wrestling match. Nothing was given. When Al Horford was on Andre Drummond, he spent most possessions trying to guard Durant at the same time, zoning up in space or even hard doubling him off the ball. Here the Nets eventually draw a foul, but not before they have to audible from an initial down screen into a Kyrie Irving pick-and-roll.

The Celtics didn’t renounce their switch-everything scheme, but they also declined to let Durant pick who he wanted to isolate against throughout the game. If you’re wondering what the difference between the regular season and the playoffs are, this sequence pretty much sums it up. The Nets run a wide pindown for Durant and have Seth Curry set the screen, bringing Derrick White into the action, hoping Boston will switch. Boston … does not switch.

Throughout all four quarters, when Durant didn’t have the ball along the perimeter, his man usually wasn’t in a typical help position. Instead, he’d face-guard KD with his back to the ball, signaling that Boston was more than happy to let the Nets go 4-on-4.

Airspace was limited. Durant was fouled eight times and granted only a few open looks, nearly all via transition scrambles, preceded by a Celtics turnover or missed layup. Everything else was in a crowd, with arms poking in, bodies flying from behind and drives that were cut off by help defenders. There were instances when Durant skipped a pass and then watched a teammate try to attack from an ostensibly thin second side, but those openings were slammed shut in a nanosecond by players who know how to close out going full speed without losing their balance.

When two were on the ball, Durant made obvious passes that Boston was ready for. When he penetrated past the initial layer of defense, help was waiting. The Celtics didn’t care about Bruce Brown.

“Nothing against Dragic, but it was KD to the rim wide open or Dragic with a three,” Marcus Smart told the Boston Globe about the play below. “I’m taking my chances, and I’m picking KD.”

Going one-on-one against Jayson Tatum, his primary defender, was no picnic, either. There aren’t too many players alive who can hit a turnaround over Durant on one play and then come down and block his fadeaway. (Tatum also swatted a side-step three by Irving with a little more than six minutes remaining in a one-possession game. He’ll make several All-Defensive teams in his career.)

As a whole, this is what the Celtics have done all season long. Tatum, Smart, Horford, White, Jaylen Brown and Grant Williams all have terrific instincts on the ball, help the helper and play like a grabby NFL secondary that knows a yellow flag can’t be tossed on every single play. Holding, bumping, shoving. Here’s Williams, late in the third quarter, still refusing to cede a millimeter.

Fouls are treated as the cost of doing business. Durant will drill insanely difficult shots because that’s who he is, but if every possession going forward is as much of a grind as what he went through in Game 1, this series may not last long.

At the same time, there were also a few plays in which Boston’s aggressive strategy backfired, be it on a late driving layup by Irving where Horford refused to budge off Durant in the strongside corner or an earlier dunk by Claxton, wide open underneath the rim because Tatum and Horford were glued to Brooklyn’s best player.

The blueprint to neutralize Durant over the course of 48 minutes might not exist. But the Celtics came close in Game 1, nearly executing a mentally and physically exhausting game plan to perfection. That’s the good news. The bad news is they still almost lost, and, in all likelihood, Durant won’t play as poorly again. The Nets have yet to turn him into their point guard, which helped him eviscerate the Bucks during last year’s second round (a series Milwaukee eventually won, despite KD’s frequent abuse of a dropping Brook Lopez). Even when no mistakes are made and maximum effort is applied, this man will humble you.

But if any team in the league can accurately say it’s built for this type of challenge (even without Robert Williams III), it’s the Celtics. Defenses around the league have every reason to be anxious over Durant. At the same time, great offensive talents have every reason to feel the same way about Boston’s defense.