Photo Credit: Brian Fluharty-USA TODAY Sports

Stephen A. Smith Says Celtics Are Bigger Challenge To Nets Than The Heat

With their win over the Cleveland Cavaliers in their play-in game, the Brooklyn Nets have clinched a playoff berth.

After a difficult regular season, with injuries to many players, a big trade and Kyrie Irving only available for away games for most of the season, the Nets, who were heavily favorited to win the title before the season, have reached the playoffs and certainly don’t look like a normal seven seed.

This also is tough luck for the Boston Celtics, who just clinched the second seed on the last day of the regular season, and due to a crazy tie-breaker situation with the Milwaukee Bucks and Philadelphia 76ers, who finished with the exact same record as the Celtics.

Before their series tips off, Stephen A. Smith now talked about the series and who’s the favorite to win. Smith surprisingly went with the Celtics, despite them missing defensive star big man Robert Williams, while also saying that the Heat would not have had as big of a chance as the Celtics, had the Nets clinched the eight seed.

“I do believe that Boston is the bigger challenge to the Brooklyn Nets. It’s because of how Boston plays defense collectively, now some people say Miami, and I get Miami they’ve got a lot of weapons. The difference between Miami and Boston is that I view Boston as having two closers. I see Miami as having a bunch of dudes who can close, but no definitive closer. And we know Broolyn’s got two closers. When I take into account how tenacious Boston’s defense has been, I give Boston a better shot against Brooklyn than Miami in a first-round series.”