Your assessment: How C's defended Giannis last night

[donawalt]

Well let me start off by saying what I am sure many are thinking, last night was a great win, knocking off the formerly undefeated Bucks. I am also very pleased with how the offense looked - great shooting, many uncontested shots based on high ball movement, many contributors, in general pretty good clock management, and good games from the guys who most need to deliver - Kyrie, Hayward, Al.

That said - I was worried how good Giannis looked. I wonder how lethal he could be against the C's in a playoff series. Giannis was 13-22 last night, yet only 2 assists - the C's did cut off his passing, mostly it seemed by not double teaming him. Baynes had no luck defending him, Baynes does much better against Embiid than Giannis.

If the C's had kept the 15 point lead or so in the 4th quarter I would be much less concerned, because then I am thinking Giannis can't make up the difference no matter how well he does if the C's are that much better. (I will say the lead seemed to evaporate from dried up shooting not defense, but still that will happen. Does last night indicate the C's can't beat Giannis unless they set records for 3 point shooting, a likely bad plan for a playoff series?)

So - I am a little worried - are you? Do you think the C's can get an answer to Giannis, or did we see the max damage he can do against the Celtics and the game plan was executed pretty perfectly, shutting everything else off? Will the Celtics have to score 115 a game to beat the Bucks this year? It's feeling like playing Giannis/Bucks will become the same as playing LeBron/Cavs - not a great thought but Giannis is a budding MVP caliber player IMHO.

Thanks for your thoughts!

[CF033]

To me the Celts let off of Giannis a bit to defend against the Bucks' three point shooters. So it was probably somewhat by design that he scored that many points. Also, with Jaylen out of the game that hobbles our D pretty significantly. Part of me wanted to see RW try to defend Giannis- he is just as athletic.

Overall I'm not worried and think that in the end we will be able to take the Bucks. We're still pretty far from 100% as a team and were down Jaylen Brown last night. Once we're running on all cylinders I don't think we'll need to make 24 threes to win.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

Did they defend him? I must've missed that play.

Seriously, though, I didn't watch enough of the game (just highlights) to be able to give a thorough evaluation of how they defended him. Judging by the highlights, the only one who could slow Giannis was Giannis.

[nickagneta]

The Celtics basically did what they did in the playoffs last year. They didn't double Giannis. They tried to limit his shot creation for others, and let Middleton and Giannis get their's while shutting down everyone else, especially running them off the three point line.

And they did it without Brown who may make an All-Defense team this year. I am not worried about Giannis in the playoffs at all.

[Birdman]

Need a big who can protect the rim!! Just drive to basket against the Celtics and u win..it will cost us this year..Baynes just too slow

[DefenseWinsChamps]

The principle that CBS employs is teamwork-oriented. If he can force opponents to score one-on-one and limit threes, and if the Celtics are scoring as a team instead of one-on-one, then the Celtics are more likely to win.

This especially works against teams that only have one guy that can go one-on-one at a high level. Let Giannis score 35, and then force the other Bucks players to create for themselves, instead of being able to play off Giannis. Every time Brogdon, Bledsoe, Lopez, Divencenzo, Snell, Dellavadova, or Illyasova (and to a lesser extent, Middleton) try to score one-on-one against the length and IQ of the Celtics, it is a good defensive possession. This defense doesn't look great when the other team is making improbable shots, but it's the only kind of defense teams can play in the modern NBA.

Obviously, this gets tougher when the other team has multiple players that can score one-on-one at a high level.

CBS thinks Brown, Smart, Morris, Horford, and Semi (and also Williams) can defend one-on-one without fouling. He puts them on an Island to defend the other team's best player, encourages the opposition to stagnate their offense and go one-on-one, and then lives with the results.

[DefenseWinsChamps]

I also wonder if CBS will save the wrinkle of Williams on Giannis for the playoffs.

[donawalt]

Forgot about Jaylen Brown, good points all. Also - Theis missed the playoffs last year against the Bucks - I wonder what he would add to the mix, he is pretty agile but not in Giannis' league - just another body to make his shot selection challenging...

[hodgy03038]

I thought Ojeleye actually played him pretty well. The numbers don't show it but he made life more difficult. Now if we had Brown & Theis PLUS Ojeleye it would have been better. There is no way that Morris/Baynes can cover Giannis and even Horford is a tough matchup for us so without 2 key defenders I think we did pretty well considering if our defender even looked at Giannis they gave them a foul. He's getting the STAR treatment. BTW, I don't see Williams even being able to stay in the same zip code as Giannis on defense and would probably foul out in 10 minutes. He is too green and he has never seen an athlete like that before IMO.

[LilRip]

Hopefully the playoffs will allow us to get more physical with Giannis and make it harder for him. It seemed like he was getting every call he wanted out there. I don’t think there’s much a team can do to defend against Giannis at this point. He’s absolutely dominant in the paint.

I’m excited to see a GSW-MIL match up to see how they fare. If Bucks can somehow prevent the floodgates from opening, I can’t see how GSW can defend them either. Of course, GSW could just start burying 3s, score 140 and it’ll be a wrap.

[SCeltic34]

The Celtics basically did what they did in the playoffs last year. They didn't double Giannis. They tried to limit his shot creation for others, and let Middleton and Giannis get their's while shutting down everyone else, especially running them off the three point line.

And they did it without Brown who may make an All-Defense team this year. I am not worried about Giannis in the playoffs at all.

Agreed for the most part, but I'm actually worried about Giannis in the playoffs.  He's among the most unguardable players in the league, and on top of that he gets the benefit of a loose whistle from the refs.

Agreed that as long as we can limit the others we'll be fine.  I had no problems with how we defended Giannis last night, though I wonder if it would be a good idea to give him different looks if we face him in the playoffs (i.e. not switch on every PnR).  I was more disturbed on how we let Brogdon hurt us, and their bench shot >50% from the field in total.

[SCeltic34]

Also TP to the OP, welcome.

And shout out to Semi "Bucks Killer" Ojeleye.  I haven't forgotten your contributions from the 7 game series last year.  He had a great game for us yesterday.

[gouki88]

As others have said, I think CBS is okay with Giannis getting his 25-30, as long as we can limit the effectiveness of their shooting.

This is even more the case under Budenholzer, who has them shooting a lot more than Kidd did

[SHAQATTACK]

just make him shoot out side past 12 feet and its a victory .  He ll do most of the work to miss the shot himself .   The like Semi guarding him.  No need to block his shot , waste or effort just st muscle him out side the paint ,  he ll choke most of them.   Putting a short dude on him keps him busy trying to control rhe ball,  entices him to shoot the easy look over the short dude. ...looks like an easy shot ......he falls for i every time .   BRICK !

[Chris22]

It is tough to defend a guy who gets three steps and gets to change his pivot foot any time he wants.