The Two-Man Game That’ll Salvage The Celtics Season
It’ll take some time for the Celtics to move past not having Robert Williams (knee, out 4-6 weeks) around. But softening that blow has to be the roles played by head coach Ime Udoka and Marcus Smart.
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It felt too good to be true.
The Boston Celtics were beating the snot out of teams at home and on the road.
Jayson Tatum was playing like the best player on the planet, racking up back-to-back Player of the Week honors in the month of March - something no Celtics player had ever done.
Jaylen Brown’s attack-the-rim game was on high, turnovers down.
Payton Pritchard and Derrick White were getting it done off the bench, Grant Williams’ growth continued, and…life could not have been any happier for Green Teamers.
And now, they’re a Robert Williams III injury away from seeing it all fall apart, the dreams of a deep playoff run potentially dashed out almost as quickly as they formed.
But all is not lost, even after Boston has lost each of the two games it has played without Williams in the lineup following his torn meniscus injury to his left knee that, following surgery, will keep him off the floor for at least a month.
What’s notable about this team all season has been their improbable turnaround.
And while there are many who have had a hand in the team’s ascension to this point, the two men most responsible for the Celtics’ impressive play of late, have been head coach Ime Udoka and Marcus Smart, the team’s de-facto leader.
Why those two?
Let’s start with Udoka, who is in his first season as the Celtics head coach.
His job has to do with more than just calling plays and time-outs.
Udoka was charged with changing the way two of the better young talents in this league, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, played the game.
They were both morphing into being elite scorers, but have become more pass-friendly at the urging of Udoka while still managing to score a lot of points.
Prior to his injury, Williams had transformed his game from being a high-flying, shot-blocking big with so-so defensive skills, into the basketball equivalent of Hall of Fame safety Ronnie Lott by the way he covered both the area he was charged with defending but also sliding over when necessary to help a teammate who might be beaten off the dribble.
Keeping the team’s attention on getting better for the playoffs, will be one of Udoka’s greatest challenges for this team that has to finish out the regular season and part of the postseason with no shot at having their best five players on the floor together.
Udoka is going to have to lean on his Big Three talking points.
Share the ball
Switch up defensively but only when necessary
Let Smart be the team’s playmaker.
Udoka will need to get creative with his lineups, turn to players who have had limited roles, and hope that they can deliver when the opportunity to play more presents itself.
That has been the story behind Smart who has been given the freedom to lead this team as the primary playmaker.
And to his credit, he has taken on a greater leadership role with this team even though he doesn’t have the title of captain - no one does - of late.
As good as Smart has been, he’ll have to be even more impactful without Williams around which will go far in Smart’s campaign this season to be the league’s Defensive Player of the Year.
Despite being the best defensive player on the league’s best defensive team, Smart is not considered one of the favorites for the award.
But if Boston plays good defense in Williams’ absence and Smart continues to lead that charge, his Defensive Player of the Year stock will surely spike in the eyes of voters.
And that may be good enough for Boston to have that deep meaningful playoff push and stick around in the postseason long enough for a potential Robert Williams III appearance which would be yet another too-good-to-be-true moment for this season’s Boston Celtics.