I think a strategy could be to play Brissett some minutes while having Tatum or even Holiday play at the 5 for some minutes. One knock on Kornet is the belief that Gafford/Lively might out-physical him and be more effective grabbing boards, but Brissett is a hustle guy who can also grab boards and Tatum is more than capable of playing the 5. And playing small might not be a bad thing for a Dallas team that's poor and a bit slow defensively largely due to Luka.
Or they could also just let Kornet/Tillman combine for maybe 6-10 minutes depending on rotations.
I think Tillman is playable in this series. Yeah we might compromise offense a little but he's a great defender and very capable on switches. For just 6-8 minutes, it's not bad especially if it's timed for when Doncic is out of the game.
Gafford ate up Tatum in the post. You don't want Tatum on him.
Tatums been arguably our worst defender in this series on anyone.
To be fair that speaks volumes about our other guys.
What are you talking about? Tatum has been awesome defensively.
He?s been our 4th maybe even 5th best defender and is being hunted by the mavs?but ok
what are you talking about? sometimes i swear you just make up stuff to be purposely negative. Tatum has not been poor defensively.
The mavs are collectively shooting 60% when defended by Tatum and they?re hunting him.
Again, he?s been at best our 4th best defender and is shooting 30 something percent from the field.
Kendrick Perkins, is that you? Swear the hot takes are getting overboard. Because from the eye test, it?s Tatum that?s making the defensive scheme possible.
To spell it out, the Celtics have made one matchup adjustment and that?s putting Tatum on Gafford (and by consequence, putting Horford on Jones). The Mavs offense wants to hunt Horford and so instead of Gafford setting the screen, it?s Jones. This makes a huge difference. Why?
On pick and pop, it forces Jones to pop above the break where he?s not a good shooter (and the C?s have honestly sometimes ignored him, practically daring Jones to beat them with above the break threes). On pnr, Jones is not a lob threat and Lukas primary defender (like Jrue or White or Brown) can contain Jones when the switch happens. On top of that, if Jones does roll, then Gafford is also there because Gafford has to be at the dunker?s spot to be a threat, which results in a congested lane (or Gafford can drift to the 3 where he?s no longer a threat and can be ignored too).
Meanwhile the other 2 defenders in the corners can stay home because the Celtics defense has essentially created a scenario where it?s 3 on 3 (or sometimes even 3 on 2 if they ignore Jones completely). Luka isn?t able to ?jail? anyone to create a 2v1 at the rim to generate easy points. And there?s no corner kick out option either.
And yes, all this is made possible because Tatum can reasonably defend Gafford without giving up offensive boards. Btw, this is why Tatum?s ability to rebound has been huge as well.
So yeah, maybe Tatum hasn?t been the best on-ball defender but he?s been the teams most versatile defender and the lynchpin of the team defense philosophy. The Celtics are shutting down the Mavs as a team and the reason Luka gets his numbers is because he?s just a great individual scorer who can score on any defense.
Topic: Porzingis injury updates (Update: Dislocated Tendon) (Read 208744 times)