NBA Playoffs Game 4 Live Thread: Brooklyn Nets vs. Boston Celtics, 7:00 PM EST

As the saying goes; it’s all over but the shouting. The Brooklyn Nets are a mess, the Boston Celtics are playing fantastic basketball, and at the end of the day results will likely read as such.

Will Brooklyn steal one and keep from being swept? Maybe.

At the end of the day, though, this offseason is going to be messy and confusing.

And for that I'm sorry.

WHO: Brooklyn Nets (0-3) vs. Boston Celtics (3-0)

WHEN: 7:00 p.m. est

WHERE: TNT (national), YES (local), WFAN-FM/AM (radio)

Game preview.

Simmons would have solved just about every problem that has popped up in this series for the Nets. With the Nets likely about to get swept, his absence looms even larger and is the perfect lead in to another offseason of uncertainty in Brooklyn. To some, playing someone that’s been out when the team is down 3-0 would be foolish or malpractice. I get their logic, but fuck that. If you’re healthy, ready to contribute, and not at risk of further injury, then you should play in the playoffs.

The Nets have spent all year biding their time until the playoffs, and now that they’re where they wanted to be all along, they’re about to get knocked out in unceremonious fashion. This entire season should cause the organization to reflect on: how they communicate injuries and timelines with the fanbase, how serious they take the regular season, accountability, roster construction and maximizing their financial strengths, what future they see themselves building, etc. Failure often leads you to reassess everything, so we’ll see where the road takes us from here.

The playoffs are when all of your regular season habits show itself, and for the Nets, that means incredibly dumb turnovers. The Nets coughed it up 18 times in Game three and Boston got 37 points off of those turnovers. Playoff series are won on the margins, and Brooklyn has lost on the margins each game. They just haven’t taken care of the rock and it’s bitten them in the butt over and over again. And to make matters worse, their turnovers are live ball turnovers which have lead to easy Boston buckets. If they want to pull off the impossible, they have to start there.

For more on the Celtics check out CelticsBlog.