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Grant Williams’ star has been rising all season, and now it’s shining brighter than ever, thanks to his prominent role within the Boston Celtics defensive scheme.
Throughout Boston’s opening playoff series against the Brooklyn Nets, Williams often switched onto the perimeter to guard Kevin Durant or Kyrie Irving – two of the NBA’s most skilled scorers.
When he matched up with those superstars, Williams held them to some uncharacteristic shooting. Over 68 partial possession, the Celtics’ third-year big held Durant to 24% shooting from the field, and over 27.1 partial possessions guarding Irving, the maverick guard shot just 32%. Of course, when you limit some of the game’s best offensive weapons, your stock will rise, but now, against the Milwaukee Bucks, Williams is proving his first-round performances weren’t a fluke.
Yet, despite his stellar defensive performances against Durant, Irving, and now Giannis Antetokounmpo, it’s Williams’ growth as a competitor that’s earning him the plaudits from media members and fans alike.
“He is the ultimate competition; whether it’s board games or whatever is going on out there on the court, he just wants to win. And I think that is all you ever want in a basketball player, and it’s exemplified by the way Grant Williams wants to win. If he’s excited about a rock, paper, scissors battle, I can’t even imagine what he’s like in the locker room,” Chris Forsberg recently said on NBC Sports Boston shortly after naming him the ‘MVP of the playoffs so far.’
Williams Shares His Thoughts on Guarding Giannis
According to NBA Stats, Grant Williams held Giannis to 40% shooting during the Celtics’ second meeting with the Bucks, forcing the superstar forward to become a facilitator instead. Giannis managed to assist his teammates four times while guarded by Williams, but with Boston’s game plan of not allowing the superstar to get to the rim, we can take the third-year big’s performance as a win.
“I view it as guarding him on an island where it’s just you and him. You have to do your job. For us, that’s how we viewed it for this game to see how it would go. He tried being a lot more aggressive in the second half, getting downhill and creating for himself, but it’s just one of those things that you have to hunker down and trust in the work you’ve done and do your best to contain one of the best players in the world,” Williams told the media following his excellent performance defending Giannis.
Both Williams and Al Horford represent the Celtics’ best chance of limiting Giannis, both in transition and in a half-court setting. The superstar forward is known for using his physicality to bully his way into opponents’ restricted area. Still, both of Boston’s sturdy big men are strong enough to absorb the contact without being knocked off their line.
As such, the Celtics opted to stick with Milwaukee’s shooters in their second meeting, forcing Giannis into some tough spots and limiting his impact as both a scorer and playmaker – resulting in the Bucks taking just 18 three-point attempts, as they rely on Giannis’ scoring gravity to generate opportunities for others.
Giannis is Used to Physical Defense
Defenses always come into games with a game plan of limiting an opposing team’s star player. Jayson Tatum is usually Boston’s beneficiary of such treatment, and for the Bucks, Giannis is consistently the target.
However, Boston’s plan of forcing Giannis into man-to-man matchups is rare, as teams would prefer to get the ball out of his hands as quickly as possible. Still, the Celtics’ logic makes sense. If you stop the superstar forward from getting downhill and take away his passing lanes to shooters, his impact on the game will be wildly limited.
“It did not change much. Same activity, same physicality, same individual pride. It doesn’t really change much. I’ve seen it pretty much my whole career. But the only thing (it changes) is it’s tougher to find your teammates because the pass is going to be late,” Giannis detailed when asked about how Boston’s defense altered his ability to impact the game.
It will be interesting to see how the Bucks gameplan for game three as they try to stifle Boston’s latest adjustment and get Giannis in positions where he can continue to be impactful. Of course, the Celtics will be hoping to welcome back Marcus Smart, who missed game two with injury, and in an ideal world, his presence is another addition to Boston’s lock-down defense as they look to take command of this series away from home.
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