NBA Playoffs 2017: 5 keys to Wizards vs. Celtics matchup
By Chazz Scogna
The Washington Wizards visit the Boston Celtics for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference sSemifinals. Here are five keys for both teams.
Do you hear that sound in the distance? Focus on it. It’s the cracking of knuckles and the sharp breaths from people shadowboxing … and also the cheers of joy and giddiness.
The Boston Celtics and the Washington Wizards will meet in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals — the same day the Los Angeles Clippers and Utah Jazz square off in Game 7 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals — two days after both the C’s and Wiz wrapped up their first-round series. Don’t you just love NBA schedules?
The series could be the NBA’s best and most volatile. (Think Wizards-Hawks series, only the Celtics and Wizards already hate each other.) The potential for this series could be summed up in one, appropriated line from Rodney Dangerfield: I went to a fight and a basketball game broke out.
That’s hyperbole, but of the four games between these two teams this season, we’ve gotten fines, finger pokes, and funeral games. More, they split the series with the home team winning all four games. So if the Wizards want to win the series, they’ll have to win at least one road game.
So here’s to what will be the most hostile series of the NBA Playoffs so far and here are five keys to the matchup. In the famous words of ringside announcer Michael Buffer, “Ladies and gentlemen, let’s get ready to rumbleeee!”
5. Keep a cool head
An intangible like keeping a cool head should be self-explanatory. But the blood between both of these teams is so bad that it has to be emphasized. The tension will add to the excitement to the series for the fans. (Who doesn’t want to see another funeral game?) For the players: Keep. Your. Cool.
Back in November, Wizards point guard John Wall was ejected for a flagrant-2 foul on Celtics guard Marcus Smart. The ejection came in the fourth quarter with the Wizards up big, but a regular season game in the first full month of the season pales in comparison to a game that could decide a trip to the Conference Finals.
Unless Wall dropped his edge or Smart stopped being the king of the pests, there will be scuffles and near-altercations. The peskiness doesn’t end at Wall or Smart, either. Markieff Morris may go full Markieff Morris with his post-game comments again, Avery Bradley is already tired of trash talk, and Celtics wing Jae Crowder literally stuck his finger into Wall’s nose.
The ramifications behind an ill-advised ejection are obvious, but the Wizards would suffer worse if they’re on the wrong end of an ejection. They lack the depth to lose a starter. One game can swing a series, and in the playoffs, one game is too steep of a price for something as dumb as a frustration flagrant — just ask the Golden State Warriors what one game can do in a series. Again, for the players in the back: Keep. Your. Cool.