Boston Celtics: 3 adjustments C’s must make in order to win Game 2

Boston Celtics adjustment No. 3) Get Robert Williams more involved on offense

After sitting out the previous four games, and 13 of their last 18 due to a left knee ailment, Robert Williams was inserted into the starting lineup for Tuesday’s Eastern Conference Finals tip-off and was given the green light to log some serious minutes.

It didn’t take long for the breakout center to make an impact for the ball club, as he was seemingly all over the place through the first two periods of action, heading into halftime with a stellar log-line of 12 points, five boards, and two blocks on a perfect 5-of-5 shooting from the floor.

With him down low, we saw Boston often charging towards the rim where they’d either lob it up/ dish it down to Williams or, because of his presence, a defense would look to prevent such plays and, in turn, let up a swift finish at the rim for someone else.

This scheme was working to a tee, and it was evident both from the eye test as well as in the game’s statistics, for 42 of their 62 first-half points came in the paint.

And then, in the second half, the team just kind of steered away from this approach, getting Time Lord just three looks during this stretch while combining for a lackluster 14 attempts down low where they converted at a putrid 21 percent clip, which was a stark contrast to their highly effective first half where they totaled 28 attempts and converted them at a 75 percent clip.

The most troubling thing about this whole ordeal is the fact that Boston seemed to just shift away from what was working in the first half without a real reason for why.

During the series against Milwaukee, fans of the organization were shouting from the rooftops that they needed to drive more and attack the rim rather than hoist up 3-pointers, and, in the first 24 minutes of action in Game 1, the shamrocks proved that this approach has the ability to guide them to great successes.

In Game 2, they must look to follow this same approach and extend it well into the second half, for, if they can efficiently finish in and around the paint, it should only make things easier for them at the perimeter, and a good way of trying to accomplish this goal is by getting Robert Williams more involved on offense, be it through the pick-and-roll, by tossing lobs at the rim, or, simply, dishing it down to him where he can either look to flush it home or kick it back out to an open teammate by using his incredibly underrated passing skills.