Isaiah Thomas Knows How to Beat the Blitz
Isaiah Thomas broke down the Wizards’ attempt to slow him down by embracing the shooting around him
There was a lot of concern entering these playoffs that things would get a lot harder for Isaiah Thomas to score at the historic standard he set in the regular season, something the Boston Celtics depended on more than anything else. So much of what he does has to do with getting behind defenders in the paint, and exploiting bad matchups his speed is able to create. Come playoff time, however, teams tend to play tougher on the inside, leaving much less room for Thomas to attack.
In game one, the Washington Wizards were successful in keeping Thomas away from the rim. He did minimal damage scoring on the inside, and he only got to the free throw line six times. The Wizards did their job in blitzing Thomas, forcing him to find another way to be productive.
Of course, the shooting makes a huge difference. The Celtics can live without Thomas penetrating if that means he is hitting outside shots, but that was not the whole story in game one. When things were getting tense in the fourth quarter, Thomas was driving more than any time before, exactly because the Wizards were having everyone crash into him. Thomas took the strategy that was supposed to stop him, and he found out how to exploit it.
The Celtics were able to get every and any look they wanted, because Thomas realized how vulnerable the defense is when they try to clog the paint for him. It is a make or miss league, but in this one the Celtics were hitting the great looks that Thomas created, and that is how they need to continue to attack.
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The Celtics realize that they are going to be a streaky shooting team, but that will not stop any of these shooters from taking these open looks. Stevens has done a masterful job of designing an offense whose main purpose is to create open looks. The Wizards have to try and stop Thomas in the paint, but now they see what happens when they oversell that too much.
The Wizards certainly have to make adjustments on Thomas after game one, the problem is they may not have an answer. If the Wizards want to stop Thomas from burning them in the paint every time, they have to bring help onto him. Once that help comes, the Wizards are opening up in the way that the Celtics benefit from the most.
It is also not only about Thomas. Thomas has done a phenomenal job of realizing when there is too much traffic in the paint, and he finds someone to dish it to every time. The rest of the team does not stop there. The Celtics have willing passers all over the court, and even if Thomas’ pass does not find the most open man, the Celtics will have four other players that will always be ready to make that extra pass to find the advantage created by Thomas.
Stevens has also made sure that he always has ready shooters on the court. Thomas has players around him that understand what he is doing when he attacks, and even down to the depths of the bench, everyone has been ready to take the open shots that Thomas has done a tremendous job creating.
The Celtics have been the most prolific three point shooting team in the playoffs, and that is exactly how they want it. Teams cannot afford to let Thomas have his way in the paint, but it does not threaten anything the Celtics want to do to get around that.
Teams may be okay with giving the Celtics the extra three point shots because the Celtics have missed so many open looks. The Celtics, however, are not letting the open looks change their approach. The Celtics are at their best when Thomas is creating the open looks from beyond the arc for his teammates, and blitzing Thomas is the paint is enabling that.
There is always going to be risk for a team depending so much on the three point shot, but the Celtics have unwavered in their ability to get the open looks. As long as the Celtics are getting the open threes, they will keep taking it. As long as Thomas keeps driving to the paint, teams will have no choice other than to take some attention away from the three point line.
Thomas is not only proving that he can still score with the elevated defensive intensity in the playoffs, but he is also proving that he can do a lot more than just score. Teams playing the Celtics have an easy choice when it comes to who is the top defensive priority, the problem is that Thomas is now taking whatever the defense is focusing on stopping, and finding a way to turn that into an advantage.
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Ultimately, the Celtics are going to be a make or miss team. They will live by the three and die by the three but the true potential of this team is when all those three pointers are falling, and given how successful the Celtics have been in generating those open looks, nothing in the approach will change in trusting the multiple shooters on the court to hit their open shots.