Getty Marcus Smart, Boston Celtics
Ime Udoka has continually discussed how he wants the Boston Celtics to ‘hang their hat’ on the defensive side of the floor, and since January, his team has taken his words to heart.
The Celtics ended the regular season as the best defensive team in the NBA and have continually shown their versatility throughout the post-season, shutting down the Brooklyn Nets en route to sweeping the series, containing Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks, and most recently, holding the Miami Heat to 82 points in game four of the Eastern Conference Finals.
Even without their Defensive Player of the Year in Marcus Smart, the Celtics have remained steadfast in their attempt to shut their opponents down. According to JJ Redick on a recent episode of SportsCenter, there is a simple reason Boston has been so dominant on the defensive side of the floor – they have multiple elite defenders on their roster.
“They won game two in the Milwaukee series 109-86 with Marcus Smart out. And what a luxury to have seven great individual defenders on a roster. Marcus Smart goes down, Robert Williams comes back into the roster, and his impact was so good. I thought Al Horford had one of the best five-point games I’ve seen in my life; his defense on Bam (Adebayo) was great.
Robert Williams, too; he adds an element to their offense, just being a verticle threat, getting behind the defense. But yeah, the Celtics have a depth and luxury of having multiple defenders on their team that can guard. We even saw Payton Pritchard getting some stops too. You love to see it,” Redick said.
Williams Hopeful of Playing in Game Five
Robert Williams continues to be a game-to-game decision for the Celtics coaching staff as they look to manage a knee issue that continues to limit the big man’s availability. However, when Williams has been on the court, the Heat have struggled to find routes to the basket due to the Lousiana native’s rim protection and shot-blocking ability.
On May 24, the Celtics released an early update on their injury report, noting that both Williams and Marcus Smart were questionable for their May 25 contest against the Heat, but luckily, there is still plenty of time for that to change.
With the Celtics building such a large early lead against the Heat in game four, Boston could afford to be cautious with the number of minutes Williams played and opted to pull him from the rotation early. After the game, Boston’s big man told the media his knee wasn’t the reason he sat for most of the second half.
“Obviously, a great feeling of being out there. Being back on my guys. The knee feels great, you know, feels good. Obviously, just checking on it tomorrow, see how it’s feeling recovery-wise,” Williams told reporters.
Hopefully, we will see the All-NBA Defensive Second Team center in the rotation for game five as the Celtics look to take control of the series.
Game Five is the Pivot Point of the Series
With both the Heat and Celtics owning two victories apiece, the series now boils down to which team can win two of the next three games. Game five is set to take place in Miami before heading back to Boston for game six, and due to their first-seeded finish in the regular-season, game seven (if required) will be in Miami.
As such, the Celtics would do well to enter game five with the same sense of urgency that they approached game four with because whichever team tastes victory in that game will command the series and harness all of the momentum heading into game six.
The Celtics have been in this situation before, as they were down 3-2 against the Milwaukee Bucks before reeling off two straight victories to progress into the Eastern Conference Finals, but with game seven being on the road, they will need to finish this series in the next two games if they want to avoid a potentially perilous situation.