BOSTON — Gary Payton II raised Chase Center to its feet as the Warriors rode an 8-3 run after a slow start. Payton’s return appeared unlikely when he broke his elbow following a hard Dillon Brooks foul early in round two. He already missed Game 1, only available for select defensive possessions, but with Andre Iguodala now injured the guard went full go with the Warriors having dropped the NBA Finals opener. Plays into Payton’s first stint, he ran ahead of Steph Curry and Jaylen Brown, rose up, tucked and rolled, drawing a second foul on Brown.
“My job is usually disrupt,” Payton II said at practice on Tuesday. “Cause havoc and try to take guys out of their rhythm.”
Payton gave the Warriors everything they missed in Game 1. Another layer of reliable defense. A disruptive force. He allowed Golden State to line up in unpredictable looks defensively, moving Draymond Green around the floor to have a more expansive defensive impact. Payton even splashed a three and became a screen-and-roll option for Curry, moving the Celtics’ defense in multiple directions through a 25-2 run that blasted Boston for the best night any offense produced against them this postseason with Payton, Curry, Otto Porter Jr., Draymond Green and Andrew Wiggins on the floor. They found their five.
Now, the Celtics move into adjustment mode, both teams searching for their best looks trying to gain the stylistic advantage over the series. Boston set a tone in Game 1 by piling up stops and moving into free-flowing ball movement on the offensive end. In Game 2, they missed dump-off passes, fell for Green’s bluffs and settled against Golden State collapses and rotations, their main method of protecting the basket. The Warriors adjusted toward a more forceful defensive approach, with small ball and pace spreading the floor on the offensive end. Defensive mistakes ensued for the Celtics.
“We’ve discussed all situations,” Ime Udoka told CLNS Media at practice on Tuesday. “We are looking at different lineups and combinations that have worked and know what we can go with against them. Part of it going into it was shaving Al’s minutes down after some major minutes in the last series, and a chance to reevaluate Rob as we went. Those are things that played into some of the things we did in the first few games, but we’re also looking at adjustments with lineups and rotations.”
Daniel Theis, Payton Pritchard, Grant Williams, Derrick White and Jayson Tatum shared the floor for the decisive run by Golden State. Robert Williams III had proved ineffective and fell following a collision with Marcus Smart at the beginning of the third quarter, exiting the game for good moments later. Boston already trailed by 23 points when the starters with White in the place of Williams III entered to begin the fourth quarter.
Although the Warriors have done more searching for lineups and rotations while reintegrating Porter, Iguodala and Payton II following injuries, the Celtics have been faced with questions about their stalwart rotation they’ve rarely faced all postseason. Their original starting five with Al Horford and Williams III emerged as the best lineup in the NBA this season and started the Finals -23.1 per 100 possessions in 25 minutes, thanks largely to a string of defensive mistakes against Curry to begin Game 1.
Williams III provided solid minutes through the middle portion of the win as a single big, but White replacing him and Horford sliding over to center started this series +10.9 per 100 with a 92.6 defensive rating in 14 minutes. Given White’s defense on Curry, who’s now 4-for-10 in over six minutes when guarded by White, the Celtics could benefit from utilizing White on him from the jump and utilizing Smart on Green to switch onto perimeter players like Curry when Green sets picks for them. Having multiple guards wouldn’t hurt the Celtics’ facilitating issues either.
“We just do our best. Jaylen and Jayson have a lot of eyes on them and nine times out of 10, the best two defenders of a team are going to be guarding those two,” Smart told CLNS. “So me and Derrick got to do a better job of getting our team together, helping those guys out, relieving some of the pressure on them and just playing basketball. That’s part of it. They trust us enough to do it. We trust our capability in it and we know who we are.”
Boston’s best run came in Game 1 with White, Pritchard, Tatum, Brown and Williams III in the game to start the fourth quarter, leaving Smart out is probably not sustainable formula moving forward. White and Smart know how to play together now, with the duo alongside Horford hitting 15 threes in Boston’s Game 1 victory. All three provide ball-handling relief for Brown and Tatum, when empowered. Starting those three would leave Pritchard as the lone backup to White and Smart, who’s proved playable in this series, but only received 15 minutes in Game 1 and 18 in Game 2. He can also handle the ball.
With Williams III limited to 15-20 minutes due to his knee soreness and no backup wing available for Brown and Tatum, the Celtics are choosing between Pritchard and small ball or Theis and continued size to bridge that gap. Udoka increased both of their minutes in Game 2, shaving down Grant Williams’, but by the time the team downsized in the second half the Warriors had already hit their stride.
It’d be intriguing to see Pritchard, White and Smart all take the floor with either Tatum or Brown as a second unit. That mix would have playmakers everywhere, with enough shooting, while Grant Williams can play some center against Green, even though he hasn’t this season or at all in this series so far. The lineup would keep Horford’s minutes down and add to the shooting and interior scoring that group features.
That cuts Theis out of the rotation, who hasn’t provided much, while maintaining Williams III’s lower minutes. Kevon Looney gives the Warriors an outlet to hurt Boston when they downsize, and it may open the door to Jordan Poole and Golden State’s new death lineup catching fire, but Boston needs to give itself some offensive versatility. Its offense hurt its defense last game more than Golden State figuring them out. In the set half court, the Warriors should still have trouble scoring against any of the Celtics’ rotations — scoring 98.6 points per 100 plays in those situations.
“We’re more similar than people may think,” Looney told CLNS regarding the stylistic battle early in the series. “We both do a lot of switching, we both sometimes go with big lineups. We both sometimes we both go with small lineups. So we’ve just been trying to feel each other out, match each other’s physicality, match each other’s speed and athleticism. They made an adjustment Game 1, mid-game, I think we made adjustments for Game 2. So we’ve both got to figure out and see what lineups work the best. I think we used different combinations last game. They did as well. It’s going to be a lot of adjustments throughout the series.”
Looney noted the Warriors aimed to speed up the Celtics, get more physical and make Brown and Tatum play in a crowd in Game 2. They stayed attached to Horford, White and Smart after their explosive debuts. Smart went from 70 touches in Game 1 to 46 in Game 2. Horford’s remained roughly the same, but he didn’t receive a shot attempt until the third quarter on Sunday.
Some of Boston’s second half success this season boiled down to trusting Smart, the team’s best passer, to make decisions on the ball. Tatum often turned the ball over by not finding an initial opening, like a Williams III roll, and other teammates being spread out too wide to retrieve the ball after Golden State turned up the pressure. Starting with Tatum at the top of the arc made him an easy target for traps, while Green met him at the basket early and often.
Tatum has used screens in the past to slip closer to the basket. For Brown, his Game 2 success stemmed from getting downhill and slamming the brakes on Warriors defenders attached tightly to him. Trusting teammates and keeping the ball moving produced a historic night for the Celtics, who Udoka noticed shied away from shooting at the rim in Sunday’s loss.
The team has ball-handlers up and down its roster. Ball control, the line between winning and losing for this group right now, shouldn’t be an issue.
“The nice thing is we can have multiple people bring it up, multiple people initiate the offense,” White told CLNS. “Definitely at times we need to slow it down and get into the sets, something that we can get a good look in every time that we’re comfortable and confident in. Myself, Smart, just understanding the pace and the flow of the game and when we need to really get a good look.”
