Boston Celtics Will Live With Cavaliers Shooting

The Boston Celtics Want the Cavaliers to keep shooting after they hit 59 percent of their shots in game four.

The Boston Celtics left game four with a nice idea of how well this Cleveland Cavaliers team can shoot. It was all about the big three, and they lead to a playoff high 59 percent shooting from the field and 45 percent from three.

The Celtics clearly saw that the Cavaliers are more than capable of punishing them and winning with their jump shots, but that is still exactly what the Celtics want. With an offense as good and as talented as this one, the Celtics need to focus on making things more difficult, rather than hoping to shut them down completely.

The Celtics know that outside shots are the lesser of two evils, and they cannot let game four change their approach of focusing everything on locking up the paint, while trusting their individual defenders on the perimeter.

The Cavaliers have some of the best outside shooting in the league, and trying to force them to rely on that shooting is extremely dangerous. That being said, Kyrie Irving may be the best finisher at the rim, and LeBron James is the most unstoppable force of speed and strength.

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If the Cavaliers are able to penetrate, there will be no cold spells. As long as the Cavaliers are getting into the paint easily, they will be scoring easily, and that could quickly lead to things getting out of hand.

The Cavaliers could also easily got hot from outside. The Celtics saw how impossible Irving is to cover when he finds that range. The Cavaliers have the kind of shooters that if they get hot, even contesting them well will not make a difference.

The Celtics know that the Cavaliers can get hot from outside, but they also know it will be difficult for them to maintain that throughout an entire game. The Cavaliers will not have slumps if they continue to get in the paint. Shooting on the outside, however, is much more difficult to maintain, and that difficulty is what the Celtics need to be concerned with.

This does not mean that the Celtics will be leaving players wide open. If the Cavaliers are getting wide open shots, it will be a blowout just as quickly. The Celtics know they need to do a good job across the board on defense, but the way they play and where they bring their help will all be predicated on making it as difficult as possible to get inside.

A lot of things need to happen for the Celtics to have a chance to win this game, and right at the top of the list is not allowing the Cavaliers to blow by them for open layups. It usually is only a matter of time before James forces the issue, and Irving can finish through the utmost traffic.

That being said, the Celtics need to make sure it is a lot harder for the Cavaliers to get shots in rhythm inside the paint. If the Cavaliers feel as though they can get easier looks on the outside than the inside, then the defense has already done a great job.

The Cavaliers offense is always inevitable to an extent. There is no shutting them down for an entire game, but the Celtics have seen what kind of disaster comes if they do not shut them down for at least portions of the game.

Keeping the Cavaliers out of transition will also be a major factor. There is only so much the Celtics can do to stop layups going against the best quarterback wide receiver combo in all of Cleveland. The Celtics know that any mistakes in transition will be punished, and the Celtics cannot afford to give them that offense.

The Celtics need to keep the Cavaliers in the half court, but that only helps the issue. In game one the Cavaliers’ dominance in the paint had very little to do with transition. The Celtics already know turnovers are insurmountable against the Cavaliers, and it is more important than just those quick scores.

The Celtics now know that if they play to their capability, then they will have an opportunity to win. That being said, the very best the Celtics have to offer cannot compete with the best the Cavaliers have to offer. Getting a win only happens if the Celtics can combine their great play, with the Cavaliers struggling in certain areas.

Through four games one thing has been made clear, the Cavaliers will not struggle if they are driving into the paint with success. The Cavaliers will only start to struggle if their offense becomes about hitting contested outside shots.

Next: Taking a Page From the Cavaliers Book

The Celtics need to control what is within their reach in this series, and they have shown an ability to force the Cavaliers to rely on the shooting. If the Celtics get into game five at TD Garden and the Cavaliers come out and shoot close to 60 percent again, then you tip your cap to a team that sometimes just cannot be beat.

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