It didn't take long for the bulletin board material to start flying ahead of the much-anticipated first-round NBA playoff series between the Boston Celtics and Brooklyn Nets.
After the Nets beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in the play-in tournament Tuesday night, Brooklyn forward Bruce Brown talked about how the Celtics were easier to attack on defense because center Robert Williams III is injured and likely won't play in Round 1.
"Now they don't have Robert Williams, so they have less of a presence in the paint, and we could attack Al Horford and (Daniel) Theis," Brown said. "So them not having Robert Williams is huge."
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Williams hasn't officially been ruled out of the first round. And with the way the schedule breaks down, maybe we see him toward the end of the series.
As you might expect, Celtics head coach Ime Udoka was asked Wednesday about Brown's comments.
"We still have two high-level defenders back there, big guys with Daniel (Theis) and Al (Horford)," Udoka told reporters. "We have layers to our defense, so not it's not like we're getting blown by (on the perimeter) and Rob is protecting. We still have Marcus (Smart), Jaylen (Brown) and Jayson (Tatum) and everybody else in between.
"We know how (Brown) scores and how he attacks in a lot of drive situations. We can take that away with how we want to guard it. They think it's attack time because Rob's out, but obviously we've played quite a few games without him now and have been good enough and beat some good teams."
Williams had an amazing season defensively and was one of the main reasons why the Celtics led the league in defensive rating, opponents' 3-point percentage and opponents' 2-point percentage. He's an elite interior defender.
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But he's not the Celtics' only quality defender. Far from it, actually. Marcus Smart is the favorite to win Defensive Player of the Year. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown also are excellent perimeter defenders with their impressive quickness, strength, length and versatility.
This series should be a close one, and it wouldn't be surprising if seven games were needed to determine a winner. The Celtics are a really good team and the Nets aren't your typical No. 7 seed.
It's going to be an entertaining battle, and the intensity will be even higher thanks to Brown's trash talk.