James no easy cover for any defender
WALTHAM — Having already faced Giannis Antetokounmpo and Ben Simmons, the Celtics head into the Eastern Conference finals with a lot of practice defending big, explosive wing players.
And this only scratches the surface of what awaits when trying to guard future Hall of Famer LeBron James.
“It’s very difficult. I feel like these playoffs have been great for our group, because the first round was tough with Giannis, a guy that attacks and you always have to be aware of him, and then (Joel) Embiid and Simmons, and now LeBron,” Al Horford said after practice yesterday.
“LeBron poses all kinds of challenges. He’ll shoot, kind of a complete player. It’s a big challenge, but it’s not about the one-on-one matchup. Against a guy like LeBron, it’s the team. We have to do a job of containing him as best as we can, and get the game to go the way we want it to go.”
Per usual, then, the Celtics will roll out their standard cast approach to covering James, who has averaged an NBA-leading 34.3 points along with nine assists per game in the postseason. James’ production obscures the rest of the playoff field.
Since Celtics coach Brad Stevens’ first playoff team was swept by Cleveland in the first round in 2015, the list is deep of defenders assigned to James: Marcus Smart, Jae Crowder, Brandon Bass, Gerald Wallace, Jaylen Brown and Horford.
New to the LeBron mix tomorrow will be Marcus Morris and Semi Ojeleye, who has become a Swiss army knife defender with his versatility.
“He’s out there doing whatever he wants. It’s nothing against the defense,” said Terry Rozier. “Sometimes you’re not tall enough to block his shot and things like that, but you can try to affect his shot as much as you can by showing hands, being long off the ball and being active, showing bodies and stuff like that. We understand he’s gonna make some crazy plays. That’s LeBron. But we’ve got to try and make it as tough as we can. He’s not gonna make every crazy play every time down. We’ve just got to show bodies and show our energy and length.”
Said Brown: “Definitely not a one-on-one thing, it’s definitely going to be a team thing. One guy, you’re going to have a tough time trying to stop LeBron James with one guy. It’s going to take a full team effort, that’s what we plan on doing.”
Person in the know
Not that there’s much intrigue between these two teams, but the Celtics do have the perfect intelligence officer for all things Cleveland in Kyrie Irving.
Rozier, who said he “thinks” Irving will make the trip when the series shifts to Cleveland next Saturday, has been absorbing as much as possible from his mentor.
“Big time. He’s around,” said Rozier. “I’m pretty sure I think he’s going on this trip. He’s always going to be there for me to talk to, whether it’s something I can get better at, something I can see, things like that. Me being a leader, I know he’s there, so I’m gonna use that to my advantage.”
Irving’s behind-thescenes role is about to expand.
“I spent a lot of time with him yesterday,” Stevens said. “I’m sure he’ll speak to all of our players individually — we’ve all played against Cleveland now a bunch, in the postseason too — the last couple of years. Certainly, in the regular season. Because they’re on TV all the time, we’re watching them every night, just like everybody else is. I think there’s a lot that everybody knows that makes LeBron so great. But certainly, we’ll pick Kyrie’s brain on guys like him and everyone else around him.”
A well-rested Brown
As far as Brown is concerned, he’s moved beyond the minutes restriction that was in place to help recover from a strained right hamstring. No one was helped more by Thursday’s off day than the Celtics swingman.
“These days of rest have really helped me a lot. I’ll be 100 percent ready,” he said.
“(You) got smarter with your movements and stuff like that,” Brown added. “It was kind of weird, because my body was reteaching itself how to run. I’m happy that I played through it because we got the wins that we needed, but now it’s good to get some rest and get ready for Cleveland.”