Brad Stevens on Jaylen Brown: pic.twitter.com/aKYtAhevRs
— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) May 3, 2018
I have no doubt Philly is going to come out with both barrels tonight. If Utah and New Orleans showed us anything is that a team that lost big in Game 1 will come out playing very hard the next game.
Not having Jaylen in the starting lineup hurts because he’s a matchup problem who can help make the Sixers pay for being overly aggressive.
The Celtics have to watch two things tonight: turnovers and fouls. They just can’t let an energized Sixers team turn them over, get out in transition, and either (a) bomb away open transition 3’s or (b) live at the line and get into the penalty early. Obviously there’s the added “we don’t have enough guys to make up for a lot of foul trouble” element. The bench is thin enough, thanks.
I’d expect a lot of blitzing the ball handler on pick-and-rolls, so the Celtics should slip a lot of screens and get Philly into a lot of quick 4-on-3 situations where guys in the paint are scrambling.
If they really are aggressive about blitzing, I’d suggest a “slide” slip like the Warriors run with Klay Thompson.
Put Al Horford in the left corner and bring Jayson Tatum up to set the screen for Terry Rozier (with the other two Celtics occupying defenders in the other corner). Then you run this for Tatum:
We’ll see how the Celtics play it, but this is a good way to counter if Philly decides to blitz Rozier since Tatum’s defender would make a move toward’s Rozier first.. giving Tatum (you can run this with Horford too) a chance to shoot, drive and kick to the corner, or drive and find one of the other two Celtics cutting backdoor.
If Jaylen plays (he’s officially a game-time decision) they can run this against a Sixers team dying to force turnovers and get out into transition. Obviously this is just one idea but the whole point is that Philly wants to return to what got them here, and that is forcing turnovers, getting Simmons running downhill, and hitting transition 3’s to get their shooters hot.
If the Celtics can quickly counter Philly’s opening shots, it might be enough to frustrate a young, inexperienced team. We’ll see how it goes.
Side note:
Sixers team co-owner Michael Rubin will be bringing freed rapper Meek Mill to Boston tonite for Game 2 of the Sixers-Celtics series, a team source confirmed to ESPN's Sal Paolantonio.
— Ian Begley (@IanBegley) May 3, 2018
OK. If the Sixers want to make something of this, then the Celtics have an easy counter for this too:
https://twitter.com/i_the_rebel/status/992097566991859712
or
Great idea @Khashie… Split screen Meek in Sixers gear with this tweet tonight https://t.co/U2kfEl7JrI
— John Karalis 🇬🇷 🇺🇦 (@John_Karalis) May 3, 2018
I know it doesn’t matter that Meek is at the game… but this is The Garden and any enemy that walks into that building should face the wrath of the playoff crowd.
Remember, everyone… Joel Embiid doesn’t think the building is very loud. I thin he needs to be proven wrong.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
