Let’s hope the Celtics have spent some time looking at the Miami zone
We have the personnel to bust that zone.
I'm sure they will trot out the box and one on Tatum to try to stop him even getting his hands on the ball. Probably PJ or Buckets will be charged with following Tatum around while the rest of the team sits in their zone to stop dribble penetration. Cs just need to remember not to panic and to attack the seams of the zone and trust their offensive philosophy, whether the shots go in or not. We are one of those teams that can shoot 40% and still win as long as we make them shoot less.
The key to breaking the NBA zone is to flash a big to the high post (foul line). You need that big to be able to present some offense (shoot or drive) and be able to facilitate some passing. In 2020, we were stuck with Theis in that role. Now we can put Horford there or maybe even GWill. We should be better prepared for it. Hopefully they have prepared to utilize our personnel better.
Still having flashbacks though of how bad we were in that series but Hayward and Walker were nearly useless by that point, Brad Wannamaker was playing regular rotation minutes, and we didn't have Horford. Plus Williams and Williams have both come a long way since then. We are much improved or should be.
Looking at Miami's roster turnover, they had Goran, Iguodala, Crowder, and Olynyk to go with more or less the same core they have now. Added to that now are Tucker, Oladipo, Dedmon, Vincent, Strus, and of course Lowry. Other than Lowry, I don't think any of the new faces are going to make that much difference from the faces they lost. Lowry did not play all that much better than Smart over the regular season but what he is able to contribute may be a key.