What Needs to Happen for Boston to Advance
By Eric Cross
Games three and four were brutal performances by the Boston Celtics, but this series isn’t over yet. The Celtics can still win this series with some simple changes.
As Boston Celtics fans, we’d all love to just forget that the last two games happened. Unfortunately, that’s not an option. As it stands right now this series is tied at two, but 100% of the momentum is currently with the Washington Wizards.
The Celtics have to be feeling the pressure to have a strong showing at home in game five after games three and four in Washington were blowouts. The Wizards trounced the Celtics by 27 in game three and 19 in game four. For the Celtics to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals, certain things are going to need to happen.
Stop the Long Runs by Washington
This falls on the entire team, including Head Coach Brad Stevens. The Wizards have had at least a 14 point run in every game this series. It’s truly remarkable that the Celtics have even managed to win two games so far against Washington. Boston was up 53-48 early in the 3rd quarter before allowing Washington to rattle off 26 straight points en route to outscoring Boston 42-20 in the quarter.
These runs need to stop happening. It’s inexcusable. What has led to a lot of Washington’s long runs is sloppy play by Boston. The Celtics had 18 and 16 turnovers in games three and four respectively, which lead to a combined 39 fast break points for the Wizards. For comparison, Boston only had 18 fast break points combined in games three and four. Isaiah Thomas and Avery Bradley combined for 10 of the 18 game four turnovers, while Marcus Smart had exactly half of the Celtics turnovers in game three.
During the regular season, Boston was tied with the Miami Heat for the 8th fewest turnovers per game at 12.6. That number has only risen to 13.7 in the playoffs, but this team can’t keep approaching 20 turnovers a game like they have in the past two contests. If the Celtics want any chance of winning this series, the sloppy play needs to stop. Fix the sloppy play and there shouldn’t be another long Washington run. If there is, Stevens needs to nip it in the bud with a quick timeout. If it continues, call another one. Whatever it takes to stop these runs.
Play Kelly Olynyk More (And Amir Johnson Less)
Apparently, the tall, goofy Canadian with the long, flowing hair is a dirty player. Just ask Draymond Green. Whether you consider him to be a dirty player or not, one thing is for certain: Kelly Olynyk gets under the skin of Washington’s players. He’s also the most talented big man on the roster outside of Al Horford. Amir Johnson isn’t getting it done. The Celtics should just stop playing him altogether and start playing Olynyk is the vicinity of 30 minutes a game.
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There is certainly more upside in Olynyk than in Johnson or any other bench big man on the roster. We’ve seen him go on stretches where he can be a highly productive player for weeks on end. With the Celtics fate resting on the outcome of these next three games, you got to play the guys with the greatest amount of talent. However it needs to be done, Olynyk needs to see more than his current 19 minutes per game. It’s worth a shot to see if he has another one of those hot stretches left in him this season.
Give the Rookie Some Minutes
This one might go against conventional wisdom, but the Celtics need some sort of spark. When it came to plus/minus rating, nobody on the Celtics was worse than rookie forward Jaylen Brown this season. When Brown was on the court the Celtics got outscored by a total of 110 points. I’m not saying Stevens should play him 30+ minutes, but giving him some run might bring some life to the second unit.
Brown has shown glimpses of his immense raw talent that made Danny Ainge draft him with the #3 overall pick last June. The one area that many scouts said he needed to work on was his outside shooting. Over the course of the season, Brown has done just that.
| Split | Value | G | FG% | 3P% |
| All-Star | Pre | 53 | 0.427 | 0.304 |
| Post | 25 | 0.494 | 0.379 |
After the all-star break, his three point shooting and overall shooting went up considerably. It’s obvious this kid has a lot of talent. It might be time to turn Brown loose and see what happens.
Shoot Better from Deep
If you’re reading this article Al Horford, move along. This section doesn’t apply to you. It does, however, apply to three of your teammates. I’m looking at you Thomas, Bradley, and Jae Crowder. All three players shot the three ball with regular success during the regular season.
• Isaiah Thomas: 245/646, 37.9%
• Avery Bradley: 108/277, 39.0%
• Jae Crowder: 157/394, 39.8%
However, each player has struggled with the long ball so far in the first ten playoff games.
• Isaiah Thomas: 24/76, 31.6% (Down 6.3% from the regular season)
• Avery Bradley: 23/64, 35.9% (Down 3.1 %)
• Jae Crowder: 17-51, 33.3% (Down 6.5%)
Those might seem like minimal percentages, but the Celtics can’t afford to have all three of them shooting the ball poorly. Thomas is the key player here out of this trio as his volume of shots is much greater than Bradley and Crowder. It all circles back to something I mentioned in my previous article. The Celtics need to run the offense through Horford, move the ball around, and run Thomas off some screens to get him some open looks.
Feed off the Home Crowd
Having been to countless Celtics games, I know how raucous the TD Garden can get, especially during the playoffs. The Celtics need to capitalize on that. Every time Boston and Washington have played this season, whether it was in the regular season or during this playoff series, the home team has been victorious every game.
With two of the last three games of this series being in Boston, that home court advantage is huge. Boston can’t afford to lose on their home court since they’ve shown they can’t win in Washington this year. Home court advantage might not matter to the Cleveland Cavaliers, but it certainly does to the Celtics. Take advantage of the home crowd and get the job done at home.
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It might seem like Boston is in trouble here, but there’s no need to panic quite yet. Coach Stevens has been known to make the right move when needed. He just needs to find the right combination and roll with it. Keep a calm head if you’re a Celtic fan and trust that Stevens will make the right move to get the momentum back in Boston’s favor.