CBS considering changes in lineup

[CelticsFanFromNYC]

Brad should stick to a 9 man rotation, at most.

Totally agree. All these different lineup switches  just gets us all these short temporary runs as the cavs get adjusted to them

[littleteapot]

I like inserting Crowder and Thomas as a package deal, taking out Bradley and Turner - lose a ball handler in Turner and gain a better one in Thomas - lose a defender who's a bit out of place against the starters in Bradley and gain one in Crowder who can guard Lebron. It will be tough to hide Thomas against the starters though. I think Stevens needs to have a quick trigger if we go with this. If Thomas just gets killed on D we have to switch things up. Zeller has been really aggressively doubling on Lebron when Turner is out there, I don't think he can do that with Thomas on JR or Irving.

I think overall I'd still slightly prefer the same starters, but switching to our bench early and giving Thomas a few more minutes than he's getting. So far we've been fine starting games so start and end of the 4th quarter seem like where we have to fix things up.

[More Banners]

Give minutes to the keepers.

End the Bass experiment. Start our biggerish front line with Zeller, KO, and Crowder, and play IT and Turner together as much as possible.

[jeezem]

they have to start to play to win, and stop playing not to lose ... it is a subtle difference, but changes how players play in the games.  the first halves of both games were like this.  they played different, aggressive - organized - in their roles.  Second half of both games, they're playing not to lose, meaning - that's what they're thinking about, how do we not lose, not keeping focused, and thinking about how to win.  Likely the nature of a young team.  I'm sure Stevens is going over this with them one way or another.

[crimson_stallion]

I would go with

pg: Thomas    / Bradley
SG: Smart      / Turner
SF: Crowder   / Jerebko
PF: Bass        / KO
 C: Zeller       / Sully

adds defense and offense to our starting lineup with Crowder on Lebron , and Thomas running the offense ( he has actually done a decent job defensively on Kyrie too)

I doubt that Stevens will move Bradley to the bench.  With the exception of Bass, he's basically the only guy on this team with playoff experience.

[Chris22]

On the same topic:
O'Konnor suggests that Bass is removed from starting lineup.

Bass is the unsung hero of the Celtics after another productive season, but against the Cavaliers he has been a zero on offense and the boards, and the team defense has not been as productive with him on the floor. Benching Bass would be the total opposite of a panic move -- it'd be a savvy, calculated decision.


http://www.celticsblog.com/2015/4/22/8471223/brad-stevens-make-a-change-to-starting-frontcourt-boston-celtics-cleveland-cavaliers-playoffs-nba

Bass sucks. Never takes a charge, trots down the court.
Good riddance.

[Csfan1984]

I think it is less about the lineup and more about all the Cs players just being streaky. 2 games in a row not one guy seems to put it together for more than 20mins. Too many mental lapses and poor shooting. You can't be confident with any lineup you put out there.

[BDeCosta26]

I think it's a tough call, but as of right now IT and Smart to start in the back-court with Bradley coming off the bench and playing IT-like starter minutes. You need one of Smart/Bradley on the court to handle Irving, and Thomas is hard to hide on a guy like Smith, but seeing as his role is to just shoot 3s IT might be able to handle it on a consistent basis. He certainly gives a lot of effort on D, it's just hard when your 5'9 and have weak defensive instincts.

Smart/Bradley/Crowder is easily the best defensive back-court we have, but this has been a problem for these guys since they came together. A lack of two-way players. That's why Bradley and Zeller have been so key, AB especially. He's the closest thing we have to a real true two way player. Think of how many Bradley pick and pops you've seen this season. Stevens leans in AB to play big minutes because he's a fairly reliable shooter while being a top-tier defender and no one else, save Smart when he's hot, can say that.

Bradley has to get out of this shooting slump. If he does, we need to start maybe Crowder, though I don't like IT and Turner together too much, and keep doing what we're doing. If not, IT should Start with Crowder, and put Sullinger and Zeller out there. Sully proved his worth last game, he needs to focus on boards and generating offense. KO gets big minutes even if he doesn't start, and save Jerebko for when you need a spark. Bradley is the key though.

[Beat LA]

With only a day between games, changing the lineup wouldn't be the best decision, imo.  Besides, we've been getting off to excellent starts, anyway, so Stevens will just have to identify who's getting done and stick with them down the stretch.  Unless of course there's a mismatch/foul situation that we can exploit...never mind.  We don't do that, anyway, smh.  Sigh.

[Beat LA]

On the same topic:
O'Konnor suggests that Bass is removed from starting lineup.

Bass is the unsung hero of the Celtics after another productive season, but against the Cavaliers he has been a zero on offense and the boards, and the team defense has not been as productive with him on the floor. Benching Bass would be the total opposite of a panic move -- it'd be a savvy, calculated decision.


http://www.celticsblog.com/2015/4/22/8471223/brad-stevens-make-a-change-to-starting-frontcourt-boston-celtics-cleveland-cavaliers-playoffs-nba

Bass sucks. Never takes a charge, trots down the court.
Good riddance.

[Csfan1984]

Well if I had to choose a lineups and their subs right now I'd go
AB/IT
Turner/ Smart
Crowder/Bass
KO/Jerekbo
Zeller/Sully

[LarBrd33]

It's not going to make a difference.   In the first two games, Boston has played as well as they can.  They don't have the talent.   Cavs have a steady stream of consistent scoring that we simply can't match.  If Cleveland has an uncharacteristically terrible game and Boston has an uncharacteristically amazing game (some flukey one where Olynyk and Thomas hit a bunch of circus shots and combine for 60 or something), we could steal one... but just one. 

[celticsclay]

If actual results matched your level of confidence you should be a millionaire placing sports wagers

[LarBrd33]

If actual results matched your level of confidence you should be a millionaire placing sports wagers

I've been wrong many many times.  Here's hoping I'm wrong again.  But I think the next two games are going to be blowouts.  This series will be over this weekend.

FWIW, I doubted we'd lose any by single digits and we managed to lose the last one by a mere 8 points.  Pretty impressive.  Gotta hand it to the team.  They have really overachieved so far.

[BDeCosta26]

It's not going to make a difference.   In the first two games, Boston has played as well as they can.  They don't have the talent.   Cavs have a steady stream of consistent scoring that we simply can't match.  If Cleveland has an uncharacteristically terrible game and Boston has an uncharacteristically amazing game (some flukey one where Olynyk and Thomas hit a bunch of circus shots and combine for 60 or something), we could steal one... but just one.

We were within two with like 3:30 to go in the last game. And it was like a two possession game with under 2:00. And that's with us shooting 38% from the field. James, Irving and Love are giving everything they got to knock this Celtic team out. It certainly hasn't been a cakewalk for them. Hell, slightly better officiating (which we may get some of at home) coulda tied that game up.

Obviously they're much more talented, but if these past two games have shown us anything, it's that beating Boston isn't gonna be as easy as some people thought it would. We've fought these guys tooth and nail making them sweat on their own court. Just getting this series into the Garden could be enough to get us one. And while I'm not expecting it, we could very well get both games at home and I wouldn't be shocked. I normally enjoy your dose of pessimism with so many delusions of grandeur around here, but I think your under-selling how well this team has kept up with these guys, and we're not very far off from stealing a game or two.

Considering the talent mis-match, I think Stevens has done very well. Exactly what I wanted to see, if we can get one or two I'll be ecstatic. Smart has looked good, especially taking it to the hoop. KO and Sully have both had pretty good showings. IT has been fantastic and Crowder is proving that he can legitimately defend Lebron. I can deff see a free agent or two watching these games, knowing what they all know about Stevens and how these guys have played for him, and thinking "Wow, I wanna be a part of that, I can take that team to the next level." That's what I want out of this series more than even just one W.