Terry Rozier’s ball protection might be the most important part of the Boston Celtics offense so far in the playoffs.
The Boston Celtics have a commanding 2-0 lead over the Milwaukee Bucks, and they won game two in dominant fashion. Last night, the Celtics played at a level that many doubted was possible with their injuries, but their young talent continues to step up at every step of this process.
Jaylen Brown certainly lead the way yesterday, with a tremendous 30 point performance, but Terry Rozier has been as important as anyone to this offense in two games. The Celtics do not have many ball handlers, and they are going to have to lean on Rozier no matter how he is playing.
The Celtics need him to be aggressive as a scorer and a play maker, but the most important thing is establishing trust. Rozier can get wild and take difficult shots at times, but that is no longer hurting how much Brad Stevens can trust him for one simple reason: turnovers.
The Celtics cannot afford to be throwing away opportunities, and they need ball movement to generate open looks across the board. Even if Rozier can still work on his shot selection, he is leading the way as a distributor, and he has somehow managed to play 78 minutes without a single turnovers.
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By any standard, Rozier’s ball protection is out of this world, and probably at an unsustainable rate. Rozier will eventually give up the ball. For now, however, he is dictating everything when he has the ball in his hands, and the Bucks have no answer on defense.
The most impressive part might be that Rozier has remained just as aggressive. Rozier is never hesitant, and he is not afraid to put himself in any position. The players around him are also always in the right places, but Rozier is mastering the mental part of this game as much as the physical part, and that should terrify opponents.
The Celtics knew they had to get an advantage in their back court in this series, but I doubt they imagined Rozier would have brought this much of an advantage. He is not doing anything to hurt his team, and is abusing a back court who should get to know his name really quick.
The Bucks were actually one of the better teams in the NBA at generating steals this regular season. The one way they really use their length is to disrupt, and that was the one bright spot on their defense.
In the playoffs, the Bucks defense has looked helpless, because they are not able to generate turnovers, and really have not proven that they are capable of doing anything else to take the Celtics out of their game.
The Celtics have a lot of different scoring options right now, because they are able to trust Marcus Morris, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum as offensive creators. Shane Larkin is there, but Al Horford is really the only other ball handling option. Horford has shown a great ability to facilitate, but they still need their back court to help generate the movement.
Right now Rozier is generating that ball movement as well as anyone has this season, and he is the one making sure that they do not lose their rhythm because of turnovers. The Celtics may not be able to function this well against a stronger, more disciplined defense.
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The Bucks, however, have done nothing to demonstrate that they can slow down Rozier and break this great rhythm of the Celtics. For now, Rozier is going to dictate a major portion of this offense, and even if his shot is not falling, his ball protection might be the most important part of the entire Celtics offense right now.