“We have to do a great job on who we’re guarding, when and when not to help, and who’s guarding them because some guys do better than others.” “You have to do a good job of playing him solid, keeping him in front, and making sure you get out to the shooters because all of those guys do that extremely well,” Williams said at Tuesday morning’s shootaround in Brighton. Heading into Game 2, Grant Williams says the Celtics need to do a better job of understanding when and where to provide help defense on Antetokounmpo. He was less effective in the final 24 minutes, tallying 10 points, five rebounds, and five assists, but the Bucks still had a two-point advantage during that time.
The Celtics guarded him more straight-up in the second half when he was doing less driving and kicking and more backing down in the post. “Sometimes we're going to go after him,” said Udoka, “sometimes, based on who's defending him and what position, we want to let those guys guard straight up, especially when he's looking right at you kind of try to bait you, pass out of that double team.” He did most of his damage facing up and kicking out to his teammates for wide-open threes – they shot 6-of-11 on such shots in the first half – which helped the Bucks take a 56-46 lead into the break.
I think we rotated there, and our rotations weren't sharp.”Īntetokounmpo’s monster first half included 14 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists. If he's going to shoot a fadeaway jump shot, we'll live with that shot. “I think we helped unnecessarily at times when we had some good matchups on him. “Those great players that command the double team, you want to pick your poison at times,” head coach Ime Udoka reflected between Games 1 and 2. But in applying such persistent help defense, the C’s opened a window for him to be a facilitator, which led him to a 24-point, 13-rebound, 12-assist triple-double and the Bucks to a 101-89 win at TD Garden. The good that came out of Boston’s Game 1 defense was that it limited Antetokounmpo to a 9-of-25 shooting clip from the field, which was by far the least-efficient effort of his playoff career when attempting that many shots. While it worked in some ways, it hurt them in others, which means they’ll have some defensive adjustments to make heading into Game 2 Tuesday night. The Boston Celtics opted for an ultra-aggressive approach when guarding the Greek Freak in Game 1 Sunday afternoon. If you focus too much on containing him in one area, he’ll likely destroy you in another. BOSTON – Game planning for an unstoppable force like Giannis Antetokounmpo is a pick-your-poison scenario.
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