5 Things Boston Celtics Must Do to Bounce Back Against Cleveland Cavaliers
As most expected to be the case before the playoffs officially started, the Boston Celtics aren't having much success in their first-round series against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The talent disparity is glaring. One side's best three players are LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. Between them, that's 17 All-Star game appearances. The only player in Boston who has participated in an All-Star game is Gerald Wallace, whose lone invitation came in 2010—he hasn't played a second of playoff basketball in more than two years.
Nobody expected the Celtics to win this series, and they won't. But every game has been relatively competitive, and winning one or two isn't impossible. Here's how Boston can bounce back.
5. More Jonas Jerebko, Please
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On/off numbers are only useful with proper context. That said, it really stands out that the only time Boston outscores Cleveland on a per 100 possession basis is when Jonas Jerebko is on the floor.
Jerebko can do a little bit of everything. He's a versatile defender who can space the floor, attack closeout defenders and pass. He creates matchup issues on the perimeter and is useful as a screener in the pick-and-roll, particularly when partnered with Isaiah Thomas.
In 48 minutes of Jerebko's dominance, the Celtics post a +4.2 net rating. In the 96 minutes he has sat on the bench, that figure falls to -19.6, per NBA.com. Taking things to another level, Boston's second most played five-man unit features Jerebko at power forward, Jae Crowder on the wing, Avery Bradley and Evan Turner in the backcourt and Tyler Zeller at center, and it's outscoring the Cavaliers by 17.7 points per 100 possessions.
The sample size here is tiny (15 minutes) and doesn't tell us which specific lineups they had success against, but these numbers are all the Celtics have to work with.
4. Mitigate Evan Turner; Give Us More Isaiah Thomas
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Even though the Celtics were more efficient this season when Evan Turner hit the bench, their offense would melt if he weren't around. He does so much for a team that only has one (seriously, one!) other competent ball-handler in the rotation. It's the reason why he's on the court more than anybody else, along with good size and defensive versatility—Turner might be a little underrated when his man has the ball.
Strange as it sounds, he encapsulates Boston's most glaring weaknesses while simultaneously existing as its third most important player.
Thomas is number one, though. And despite the defensive issues that will eventually prop up playing a 5’9” guy all the time, the Celtics should be focused on maximizing their leading scorer and most powerful weapon.
Boston has been so much better in this series when Turner and Thomas are both on the court, as opposed to just Thomas. That makes sense…and it doesn't. Two off-the-bounce attackers are usually better than one. And Cleveland's defense isn't exactly lights out. But we also are dealing with a small sample size.
The Celtics aren't getting enough out of the three-point line, an equalizing weapon all underdogs must adapt if they're to have a puncher's chance. Thomas is in a slump, shooting under 20 percent from long range, but he can still space the floor and create looks off the dribble. He gets to the line and sucks in defenders.
Thomas shouldn't log six fewer minutes than Turner any more.
3. Recapture Playing Style That Got Them to Playoffs
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What does this mean? Take more threes, and adopt a faster pace. Limit live-ball turnovers, be disciplined with transition defense and focus on the next pass instead of the next dribble.
This is how the Celtics got to the postseason. They aren't a great team by any stretch, but when they follow these principles, they're a major headache.
The Cavaliers are averaging five more catch-and-shoot three pointers per game in this series. This makes sense, being that Cleveland rained fire from downtown more than just about every team not named the Houston Rockets since the All-Star break.
But for Boston to give itself a chance, it needs to level the playing field by dialing up from distance as often as possible.
This doesn't mean pulling up with a hand in your face for the heck of it. It means hunting for the right opportunity, swinging the ball like it's on fire, driving and kicking Cleveland's penetrable defense to death.
Whether they go in is another story, but Boston has the personnel to make Cleveland uncomfortable. Part of this has to do with who gets minutes (where was Kelly Olynyk in Game 3?) and part of it is improving their ball movement.
The only team with fewer secondary assists than the Celtics in the postseason is the New Orleans Pelicans. That number absolutely has to rise if Boston is to survive Sunday's Game 4.
2. Tighten Rotation; Change Starting Lineup
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The Celtics started the second half of Game 3 with Crowder and Jerebko on the floor. It was too little and too late but still a hopeful sign.
For reasons covered elsewhere in this slideshow, head coach Brad Stevens needs to move those two into the starting lineup and play them against Cleveland's top units. It's critical.
Boston's strength all year long has been its depth. But in Game 3, Stevens discovered going 11 deep is a dull knife in the NBA playoffs.
Luigi Datome was a curveball that looped in waste high, smack dab over the plate. Stevens left him in far too long, and Boston's defense was brutalized for 10 crucial minutes. When the number one reason for giving someone playing time is "the crowd will get really loud if he doesn't air ball his next three," please don't do it.
More Olynyk. Less Turner. More Thomas. Less Brandon Bass. If the Celtics are going down Sunday, it should be with an eight-man rotation.
1. Improve Defensive Rebounding
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If you watch just about any random, two-minute stretch from the first three games of this series, one of your first takeaways will undoubtedly be “Cleveland is ruthlessly pillaging Boston on the offensive boards.” It's very true and very sad. So far, the Celtics have only grabbed 70.1 percent of the Cavaliers' missed field goal attempts.
During the regular season, the 30th defensive rebounding team in the league stumbled into 71.6 percent of its opponents' misses. (Flip Saunders, come on down!)
It's a small sample size, but so far, the Celtics are worse than the absolute worst—and they've paid the ultimate price, turning Tristan Thompson into Moses Malone 2.0. Cleveland's backup power forward has hauled in 14 offensive rebounds in three games, which leads the postseason.
(Aside from everyone in Stephen Curry's immediate family, nobody has had a more enjoyable experience watching the first round than Thompson's agent, Rich Paul. Nobody.)
He's hauling in just under 20 percent of all his team's missed shots when on the floor, a monster number. Trying to stop him puts the Celtics in a tricky situation.
Boston's best rebounders can't stretch the floor, creating an impossible balancing act for Stevens. What matters more: controlling the boards or rolling out a legitimate offensive attack?
(Boston's offense has actually performed better than average when Jared Sullinger and Bass share the floor, but we've only seen 23 minutes of them together, and the odds of them keeping it up feel slim.)
My opinion? Stevens should play Jerebko and Olynyk for more minutes than he is, and then he should instruct everyone to gang rebound. No guards should be leaking out in transition in Game 4.
It's their only hope.
All statistics are courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com or NBA.com, unless otherwise noted.
Michael Pina is an NBA writer who lives in Los Angeles. Follow him on Twitter @MichaelVPina.
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