The Cleveland Cavaliers’ starters are going to have a tough time against the Boston Celtics’ starters on Tuesday, so Cleveland needs significant contributions from bench veterans when they are in.
The Cleveland Cavaliers‘ young backcourt duo of Darius Garland and Collin Sexton is probably going to be in for a rough night against the Boston Celtics, who are 4-1 and have the league’s seventh-best net rating, on Tuesday.
Though Boston’s normal starting 2 guard Jaylen Brown is out, reportedly due to illness (per the Celtics), Marcus Smart, one of Boston’s best defenders and playmakers, will be a tough player for the likes of Sexton and Garland to compete with, not to mention Kemba Walker.
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Walker is one of the league’s best point guards, and he leads Boston in scoring thus far (per NBA.com), with 26.2 points per game and is putting up 5.2 rebounds and 3.8 assists per contest, too.
How the Cavaliers defend his pick-and-rolls will be a mystery, considering drop coverage from the likes of Tristan Thompson and/or Kevin Love won’t work, but switch-outs won’t, either, especially with Jayson Tatum (22.0 points per game) likely occupying a bunch of defensive attention on the weak side as a shooter, driving threat and cutter, too.
Whether or not Celtics 5 Enes Kanter can go (knee contusion), which it seems he could as he’s hopeful he can go, per Boston.com, it’s clear that Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson both, whether in together or staggered, need to dominate on the glass and score handsomely in their minutes.
Celtics big Daniel Theis is a stout interior defender and good dropper in PnR, as evidenced by his 9.8% block rate this season (per Basketball Reference), and he’s a solid screener, but the Cavs bigs need to be very active inside.
Anyway, with Boston feasibly having a big advantage on the perimeter when it comes to veteran starters against the Cavs’ youngsters in Sexton, Garland and Cedi Osman at the 3 versus a rock solid all-around player in Boston’s Gordon Hayward, the Cavaliers need their veteran bench pieces to have significant contributions in this one to be in the game.
The Cleveland Cavaliers and head coach John Beilein can generally count on reserve guard Jordan Clarkson to be a key player on a nightly basis, and Tuesday is no exception.
In some minutes feasibly going against Walker or potentially a bit against Brad Wanamaker, Clarkson needs to put pressure on Boston himself and at least initiate productive ball-swings consistently.
Clarkson is fourth on Cleveland in scoring with 15.5 points per game, and again, with the Cavs’ young starting backcourt likely struggling in this one, Clarkson will need to have a big impact.
Along with that, if Matthew Dellavedova (personal matter) is not available for the third straight game for Beilein, the Cavaliers need reserve playmaker Brandon Knight to have a similar performance that he had in Cleveland’s last game against the Dallas Mavericks.
Knight had 10 points and six assists in that one (per ESPN), and unless Sexton or Garland really has it rolling, and I’d expect Knight to have some minutes if Delly is out again.
If Dellavedova is available, the Cavs will need him to get other pieces involved, such as Love or Clarkson on the perimeter, and hopefully, not have many turnovers.
When Delly is on the floor, Cleveland moves the ball more consistently, and he does a better job at the point-of-attack defensively than other Cavs guards, so again, whether or not he’s defending Walker or Carsen Edwards, the Cavaliers can’t get carved up in those instances.
Though the offensive output hasn’t been terrific when Delly’s been on the floor, he does have the Cavs’ best defensive rating (91.9), and is second among regular rotation players in net rating (3.1), per NBA.com.
Again, though, if he can’t go, Beilein and the Cleveland Cavaliers will need Brandon Knight to be a solid contributor, to take some pressure off of Clarkson.
With Cavs reserve wing Kevin Porter Jr. having to reportedly serve a one-game suspension due to bumping into an official in this one, Cleveland may turn to Alfonzo McKinnie, as Fear The Sword’s Chris Manning suggested. If that’s the case, McKinnie will need to at least feasibly give some quality spot defense on Hayward, and give Cleveland some hustle minutes.
Lastly, the Cavs will also need big things out of Larry Nance Jr. when he’s on the floor.
Though it wasn’t really all his fault in the last one often going against Dallas’ monster Boban Marjanovic, Nance was a minus-33 in his minutes on the floor and only had five points on two-of-seven shooting and four rebounds, per ESPN.
The Cavs will need Nance to be active as a roller/screener to be a lob and putback threat, and with Boston having quality wing defenders and a heady rookie defender on the interior in Grant Williams, Cleveland will need some secondary playmaking output from Nance.
Hopefully he can be active on the glass to help out Love and Thompson and have about his season average of 6.7 boards per contest. He’s had a nasty start to 2019-20 with a net rating of minus-19.1, but the Cavs need him to turn it around in this one, whether or not two-way Tacko Fall, who is 7-foot-5, is active, which likely won’t be the case it seems, as Fall likely won’t be having long stretches with Boston during his two-way stint with them, per head coach Brad Stevens and h/t Mass Live’s Tom Westerholm.
Moreover, with the Cavs’ starters, and mainly 1-3, having a rough go of it against Boston on Tuesday, Beilein will need significant contributions out of his veteran bench pieces so the Wine and Gold has a chance to get 3-4.