Two games and you forgot how he played all year?
He has no help again. He's trying to do whatever he can when facing basically all he defensive attention from the second best defense in the NBA. It's not his fault.
good points. watch the hawk defense. they basically dare the celtics to shoot from outside. they know our best shooters are injured. that means they pack the middle and make it very hard for IT to drive to the basket.
they also focus on him when he has the ball. they pressure him and take it for granted that the rest of the team is not an offensive threat.
so far, i tip my hat to atlanta's defensive plan. it is working.
Atlanta is definitely guarding us that way. Dare anyone else to make shots. This sums it up:
https://twitter.com/AdamHimmelsbach/status/722849076170108928As much as I have loved these Stevens teams, I have always had that nagging worry because the whole system is kind of based on a lie: that you can't leave our well spaced players unguarded. This was a worse problem last year even, but this year AB and Olynyk (Crowder to a lesser extent) stepped up as shooters. Of course, right now we are missing those two shooters and it really shows.
I am impressed with Atlanta. They are playing great basketball. Millsap and Horford are playing amazing defense. They are deep. They can shoot. They look maybe ready to actually challenge Cleveland. We will have to see.
Anyways, it's disappointing. I think a lot of articles summed things up for me when they said this was a deep and balanced team, but losing a piece or two can ruin things regardless. Especially your two legit shooters. Zach Lowe also had a good piece about how the Hawks defense is basically designed to overload ball side and give up the three point line on the weak side to any shooters there. That's how you hurt Atlanta but the C's just absolutely can't shoot off ball right now.
If IT had room to work he would be playing well. I just think he had a great year. And I say that as someone who has always doubted him but in the mid point of this year he just started playing such smart basketball. He is getting put in a very unfortunate situation for him in his Celtic playoff games so far. Knowing how IT takes slights, I hope he just uses it as motivation for the future.
