Boston Celtics: drive-and-kick with Kemba Walker is C’s secret weapon

Though viewed as a score-first guard, Boston Celtics All-Star Kemba Walker’s distribution skills are a massive strength for Cs.

Throughout his first season with the Boston Celtics, Kemba Walker proved to be an unbelievable fit within Brad Stevens’ system.

Playing in 56 games the All-NBA point guard saw himself boasting some of the best statistical averages of his career. In 31 minutes a night, Walker put up 20.4 points, 4.8 assists, 3.9 rebounds, and just under a steal per game on 43 percent shooting from the field and 38 percent shooting from deep.

Known more as a scoring guard, it’s not surprising to see the 30-year-old as a key cog in Boston’s three-headed monster, also consisting of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, that rings in as the only trio to average 20+ points per game.

During this year’s postseason, the perennial All-Star’s successes have flowed right along, as he finds himself averaging career highs seemingly all across the board: 23 points, five assists, four rebounds and 1.2 steals per game on 50 percent shooting from the floor and 35 percent shooting from deep.

Behind his excellence, the Celtics currently find themselves undefeated in the 2020 postseason and, with that, up 1-0 on the defending champions, the Toronto Raptors, in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

Game-one was quite a showing for the shamrocks, as they never found themselves trailing by the end of any quarter and ended up winning the contest by a score of 112-94.

While the entire squad seemed to be firing on all cylinders, one of the main catalysts in Boston’s triumphant performance was the impressive distribution from Walker, as he managed to rack up a playoff career-high 10 assists.

His impressive court vision was on full display, as he managed to set up his teammates for clean looks seemingly all game. This, in large, was accomplished due to his impressive driving skills — shoots an impressive 61 percent when at the rim.

Keeping the defense on their toes, as they know how effective he is when driving the lane, Walker is able to draw defenders which, in turn, will inevitably leave someone open, where the veteran then can hit his teammate for an easy score.

We saw this happen all throughout game-one. Whether the recipient was Marcus Smart in the corner or Daniel Theis in the mid-range, Walker’s drive-and-kicks proved to be tremendously effective against Toronto’s defense And, as a result, wound up giving the Boston Celtics easy scoring opportunities.

Especially with the fact that the All-Star’s knee was reportedly tweaked Sunday, we should hope to see him put more emphasis on distributing the ball in tonight’s game.

It proved to be quite productive in game-one. Why not aim to replicate things in game-two?

While Kemba Walker’s best known for his scoring prowess, perhaps the team’s greatest secret weapon In round-two could be his ability to initiate drive-and-kick opportunities.