![]() When the Heat have a non-shooter on the floor (generally Bam Adebayo or Cody Zeller), they can trap him more. He harries the weakest defender away from the protection of the herd and ruthlessly eviscerates them in isolation.īoston has to mix up looks against Butler. By giving up easy switches, he gets exactly what he wants. Jimmy Butler is an apex predator hunting the weakest of the herd. Switching them keeps everyone in place to contest. Miami runs way too many off-ball screens to expect to always fight through them. On off-ball stuff, it’s fine and it’s probably the way to go. Related to the above: this is not the series for the “switch everything” defense in on-ball actions. Put your best on-ball defenders on him, fight through or go under screens and live with the results.ģ. But the Celtics can’t get cute and can’t overthink things. That worked worse than putting the extra size on Miami’s best player. The other matchup that Joe Mazzulla went to, which might have been another look at pre-switching was Malcolm Brogdon guarding Butler to open possessions. That worked a bit better, but the Celtics were still too switch-heavy (more on that in a minute). In the second half, Boston went to a more traditional approach with Brown as the primary defender. Or Butler directly attacked Horford without any assistance. Butler then either switched to running screen actions with Bam Adebayo, which brought Rob Williams on a switch. It took him exactly one play to figure out what was happening. However, Butler is way too smart for that. ![]() That sounds good, because if Miami runs a pick-and-roll, it can bring in Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum or Marcus Smart, and the Celtics will just switch. They spent a lot of the first half trying to out-Heat the Heat by pre-switching with Al Horford starting possessions guarding Butler. Boston got way too cute defending Jimmy Butler. It’s just not clear if that’s starting or playing in lineups alongside Horford.Ģ. Williams clearly has a role to play for the Celtics. ![]() Or they had a guard or wing ready to pinch in. The handful of times Boston brought Love into screen actions and drew a switch, Miami had Adebayo ready to help. Williams is about a million times more athletic than Love is, but he’s only a threat from about five feet and in. Horford is still very good, but he’s mostly a spot-up shooter, not unlike Love himself. Love was able to guard either Williams or Al Horford, and neither of them present all that much of a challenge for the aging big man. With Timelord opening games, it gives Kevin Love an out. The other problem starting Williams presented was on offense. The Heat did a good job getting Williams turned around in pick-and-roll and on straight drives to the paint, before dropping it to Adebayo for easy shots in the paint. Williams similarly struggled to guard Bam Adebayo. Butler picked up a few easy baskets and drew a couple of fouls. Jimmy Butler did a good job attacking Williams on switches early on. On defense, things didn’t go quite as well. The Celtics were struggling to make shots and Williams got them several points with his energy and hustle. ![]() He was instrumental in keeping Boston afloat early with his activity on the offensive glass. Williams played well on the offensive end. But that also doesn’t mean it’s the right choice for this series against the Miami Heat. That’s not surprising, as it worked well to help close out the Philadelphia 76ers. Joe Mazzulla chose to stick with Robert Williams in the Boston Celtics starting five for Game 1. ![]()
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