How the Cavs forced the Celtics to be uncomfortable

The Cavaliers found a way to make life hard for Boston in Game 2 and they couldn’t adapt. 

The Boston Celtics in Game 1 dictated their offense, playing into their strengths by forcing the Cleveland Cavaliers to mimic their pace to stay afloat. The Celtics were shooting early and often, spreading the Cavaliers out defensively and forcing a lot of quick decisions off of switches.

This was a drastic change from their previous series, where the Cavaliers were able to force the Orlando Magic to beat them from the perimeter. As the Magic struggled all season from three, this played right into the Cavaliers’ favor, helping dictate the outcomes of the games.

With Boston, the Cavaliers appeared to have the habits developed against the Magic linger. The lapses off switches, and willingness of Boston to play into their strength. Boston in the regular season had the second-best three-point percentage (39.3%) and shot the largest volume of threes (43.7% of all attempts).

Game 1 resulted in the Celtics taking 46 threes, which had a compounding effect not only on the Cavaliers’ defense but resulted in issues for the offense as well. With every made three by Derrick White (7-12), Jaylen Brown (4-6), or Payton Pritchard (4-10) the Cavaliers’ defense became a frantic and erratic mess. Meanwhile, the Cavaliers’ offense would attempt to match shot for shot with Boston, playing right into the Celtics’ favor and Cleveland playing out of their own.

In Game 2, there was a tonal change to Cleveland’s defense. The Celtics were generating most of the clean looks, especially with the guards, off of switches. The Cleveland guards, especially Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell, were struggling to fight through, typically going under, allowing for a second of space. Last night was a different story, the guards were relentless, not allowing players like White to get to his spots easily, forcing contested shot attempts.

With Evan Mobley having a career-defining night on both ends, the Celtics were desperately trying to pull him away from the rim. Similarly, the guards wouldn’t allow Mobley to be attached to the small ball-handlers of the Celtics, committing to not allowing the switch, almost eliminating a clean look at the rim.

While the guards remained aggressive, the defensive effort from the wings (Max Strus, Isaac Okoro, and Caris LeVert) was crucial as they didn’t often need much help against the likes of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. The effort of staying in front of them and playing aggressively once they were driving wore down Tatum and Brown as they combined to go 14-34 (41.2%) from the field.

This overall tightened effort and emphasis on making Boston’s life from the perimeter hell and staying on top of the switches, forced Boston into straying away from three-point attempts. Boston in the second half especially was forced to have players resort to midrange attempts or take their chances at attacking the rim.

The third quarter was the best display of this defensive effort. Boston was forced to abandon the three-point attempts as they went 0-8 siphoning the offense toward the paint. Boston as a whole on the night shot 33 attempts, one game after shooting 46 threes the game prior.

Of those 33 attempts only 12 were deemed “open looks.” The open looks most times were concessions, almost by design to dare players like Al Horford to beat them (3-7 from three), or those like White and Brown to break their slumps (1-14 combined from three).

Boston is a very talented offensive team, but at times, it feels like their dependence on threes can break them as much as their opponent when they aren’t falling. Boston relying solely on the variance of their perimeter shots falling, feels like a misuse of one of, if not, the strongest starting five in the league. When healthy, the Celtics arguably have five All-Star caliber players.

Game 1 was an example of when the pendulum swings in Boston’s favor. Each three feels like the hole is getting deeper and more insurmountable. Game 2 shows that when their opponent is going to fight tooth and nail to make those attempts as contested as the Cavaliers did, they don’t have many other strengths to fall back on.

When this series is over, we could look back on Game 2 as a game plan executed to perfection. A case of catching Boston on a bad shooting night. It was clear though that Boston recognized the intensity and commitment of the Cavs’ perimeter defense but could not adjust. As the series heads back to Cleveland tied 1-1, the Cavaliers could have their best chance to seize control of a series few were giving them a chance in.