The bench hasn't figured it out yet.
Perhaps they won't. The starters, as we have seen, can play with any of the top teams in the NBA. If the bench hits some shots? They can beat any of the top teams.
Last night is a useful example. Piston's defense is kind of like the Celtics, they just attack the perimeter with all they have and, if the ball goes underneath? They collapse. No dogging to be seen last night. Watch the fourth quarter, they hammered Irving...and it worked.
A whole bunch of other teams "tried to take Irving out of the game" and 18 of them essentially failed. (Irving missed some of these). Irving had 9 assists last night just passing out of double teams it seemed.
Bradley gets a lot of credit as Irving admitted after the game, constant pressure forces bad decisions.(Irving stated to the media, Bradley is one of if not the toughest opponent for him)
When any team faces an outstanding defensive performance, the weaknesses become apparent. Pistons took our closer out of the game and, if Smart doesn't explode? C's get run out of the gym, dancing bear, Nader and others get minutes..."reverse Gino".
Smart is basically, wide open from three and probably will be for the rest of his career. "Not shooting" won't do him any good and it won't do the Celtics offense much good either. They take the open shot.
It has been a study watching Smart "start" and also watch him as primary ball handler with Irving "off the ball." I don't know what the stats are, but, Smart with the ball frequently "leaks" towards the rim to draw some coverage off his perimeter shooters...Pistons were tough last night.
If Drummond plays big and they stay healthy? They could match well with an old, sore Cavs team in May/June. Then again, is Tobias Harris gonna hang 31 points on any team ever again?