When the seventh man catches lightning in a bottle, you are usually toast.
That's the challenge when defending the Boston Celtics. They have a starting 5 with very few weaknesses, absolutely loaded with All-Star talent. Jayson Tatum is a perennial MVP candidate, Jaylen Brown was Finals MVP and was just named to his fourth All-Star Game, Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday are former All-Stars with elite two-way production in roles perfectly designed for them, and Derrick White is just the league's premier non-star guard with his shooting, defense and playmaking.
Survive the onslaught of the starters, of course, and you have to hold down the bench. Al Horford is a former MVP candidate weaponized as a stretch big, and Sam Hauser can get up 3-pointers on any possession he touches the ball. The Celtics have an eight-man rotation where every player can shoot 3-pointers, which makes them incredibly difficult to stop.
That was the reality in last year's playoffs, when the Cleveland Cavaliers met the Celtics in the Second Round. The Cavs were without Jarrett Allen and Donovan Mitchell for much of the series, and had the post-jaw-injury version of Darius Garland still off his game. Their only path to victory was to muck every game up and hope that a few prayers went in to keep the games close against the title favorites.
At times, the strategy worked; they did manage to slow down the likes of Tatum and Brown at times. Yet what truly broke them was the shot-making coming off of the bench in the form of Payton Pritchard.
In the 5-game series, Pritchard -- a bench guard drafted 26th overall in the 2020 Draft -- hit 12 of his 24 3-pointers for a cool 50 percent from deep. He hit 70 percent in the last three games of the series, all Boston wins. When Cleveland thought it had life, it was Pritchard silencing their momentum with another triple. Whether it's pulling up coming off of a screen at the top of the arc or launching from halfcourt at the buzzer, Pritchard is a player who knows how to make timely shots.
To have that level of player coming off of the bench is a true weapon for the Celtics, an X-Factor to deploy and destroy opponents' wills who have been trying to slow down the All-Stars all game. It's no wonder they won the title last season and are in the mix yet again this year.
Now, however, the Cleveland Cavaliers don't just have to stand there witness to the Celtics' depth of weaponry: they can deploy one of their own.
Ty Jerome is the Cavaliers' X-Factor
Last season, while Pritchard and company were lighting up the Cavaliers' defense, there was a guard sitting on the Cleveland bench in street clothes: Ty Jerome. The former National Champion at the University of Virginia was the 24th pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, but instead of being developed into a bench star like Pritchard he bounced around the league trying to find a long-term home.
After the Cavaliers signed him in free agency in the summer of 2023, Jerome played in just two games before suffering a significant ankle injury that required surgery and ended his season. He couldn't do anything to help the Cavs in last year's playoffs.
Now healthy, however, Jerome is proving that the Cavaliers have an X-Factor of their own. Jerome has been a revelation coming off the bench behind two All-Star guards in Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland. It's almost like the team doesn't notice when one of the stars sits, because Jerome is playing and shooting so well the offense just continues to roll with any combination of the three.
Ty Jerome is averaging a career-best 11.3 points per game in just 18.8 minutes per game, shooting 51.9 percent from the field and a whopping 42.9 percent from deep. He is confident attacking defenses that are stretched trying to slow down his star teammates, and he is not afraid to shoot if he has the ball and those stars do not.
Jerome's per-36 numbers? 21.7 points, 6.5 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 2.3 steals, with 2.9 3-pointers and another 2.9 free-throws. He is doing it all in his role for the Cavaliers, and they are soaring because of it.
He just showed that off in the Cavaliers' most recent win over the Atlanta Hawks. Atlanta was the only team in the Eastern Conference that the Cavs were yet to beat, as they lost both of their previous matchups. Not so on Thursday night, as Cleveland won 137-115. Ty Jerome scored 20 points on an electric 9-for-11 shooting night with six assists, two steals and a smooth +21 mark.
Cleveland has snatched the No. 1 offense award from the Celtics this season, in part because of their stars, and in part because of X-Factors like Ty Jerome. If the Cavaliers and Celtics meet in the playoffs, Boston will be forced to ask the question: is their secret weapon better than Cleveland's?
The answer thus far this season: nobody knows. And that fact alone is a win for the Cavaliers.