Should Brad substitute more for Isaiah during this series?

[Alleyoopster]

FYI: Only saw the last 1.5 quarters. So, I may not be the best to judge.

Normally, Isaiah uses his height to his advantage and somehow manages to outplay his opponent(s). Didn't see that tonight. Seemed like Cleveland exploited him both offensively and defensively. Should this continue I wonder if he should play a lesser role...at least for this series.

I say this in the context of our experience during the recent Big 3 era. We witnessed years where Doc would repeatedly keep the same player rotation no matter what the game circumstances. A second team player or players could be lighting it up all night and/or making stop after stop. Doc never budged. He'd robotically kept the same line-up. Used to drive me up a wall. Bet we lost at least 30 games that way. The good news is Brad's rotation is not always set. Thus, he is far better in this regard.

As for Isaiah, there are times when the opponent's height seems like an insurmountable obstacle. Yet, we've seen him persevere time after time. Tonight was not of those times. Maybe if the series continues this way I wonder if Brad should consider sitting Isaiah if another player or players are doing better. Any thoughts? 

[droopdog7]

How exactly does he use his height to his advantage?  IT is successful in spite of his height, not because of it.

[CelticsElite]

How exactly does he use his height to his advantage?  IT is successful in spite of his height, not because of it.

ESPN Sports Science did a piece of Isaiah basically he bend down to below 2 ft 11 inches while dribbling

[mr. dee]

Maybe Brad should give IT a more breather and give Rozier more minutes so he can finish the 4th strong.

[Ilikesports17]

Isaiah has huge flaws and our offense is so predicated off of his dominance that when he isn't a dominating force on offense our entire team is crippled.

He's a huge liability on defense as well.

Basically, if he isn't clicking and he is in the game , we suck.

He wasn't clicking tonight. Problem is, we can't reduce his role. We just don't have the firepower without him. We need him to figure out how to dominate offensively. There is no other option.

[tarheelsxxiii]

Even when he's off, he commands a lot of attention on every possession.  We're successful in spacing the floor because of his ability to score inside and out, in the halfcourt and in transition.  We are who we are, no adjustments will put us over the top here.  But we knew before the season started that there's no parity in the league -- CLE vs. GS.  It is what it is.

[mr. dee]

Isaiah has huge flaws and our offense is so predicated off of his dominance that when he isn't a dominating force on offense our entire team is crippled.

He's a huge liability on defense as well.

Basically, if he isn't clicking and he is in the game , we suck.

He wasn't clicking tonight. Problem is, we can't reduce his role. We just don't have the firepower without him. We need him to figure out how to dominate offensively. There is no other option.

This isn't entirely true. We won some playoff game with Isaiah not putting up an impressive statline. Like people say, our success are dependent on our bench production, especially Kelly. When he's doing good, the entire team is performing well most of the time.

[HICeltic]

IT looked tired today, short on a lot of his shots. I'd be okay with giving Rozier more minutes.

Overall, the bench needs to be a factor in this series. Especially with the amount of minutes the starters have played this postseason.

[obnoxiousmime]

The Celtics are a flawed team and the Cavaliers are on a different level than the Wizards. Saying the Celtics' bench needs to be a huge advantage is just proof the starting lineup isn't good enough. They have to go with Thomas because there isn't anybody else, but he's not really good enough to be the first (or only) option on a contending team. That and his defense is a liability.

Still, there's no shame in losing to LeBron. He's just that good.