The Boston Celtics’ crunch-time conundrum

The Boston Celtics entered 2016-17 with a great deal of expectations. The Celtics have one of the better rosters in the conference and many expect them to be one of the most likely challengers to the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Eastern Conference crown.

This team is extremely balanced and doesn’t have many weaknesses — most of their roster is composed of players with high NBA floors, if slightly lower ceilings. The Celtics have two All-Stars in Isaiah Thomas and prized free agent Al Horford. They have a strong head coach in Brad Stevens. General manager Danny Ainge has done a phenomenal job of stockpiling assets and complementary talent around them.

Boston is capable of winning 50 games this season, however, the nature of their roster — heavier on complementary than primacy — may expose a flaw in close games.

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To some extent, this could be expected from a young team with several new faces. However, it is troublesome to see teams like the Brooklyn Nets and the Chicago Bulls dictate the game’s tempo for large stretches late in games. Boston was leading Brooklyn 97-81 at the start of the fourth quarter in their opener. The Celtics would lead by as much as 23 points in that final frame. Brooklyn could be one of the worst teams in basketball this year and Boston appeared willing to milk the clock in the assumption that they would win the game effortlessly at home.

The Celtics would then proceed to let the lowly Nets get to within eight points of them at the 2:07 mark. That forced Stevens to put his starters back in. Even then, Nets shooting guard Bojan Bogdanovic would bring the game within three points with 46.8 seconds remaining. Boston would hang on to beat the Nets by five points, 122-117 thanks to a pair of late Thomas free throws but there was no reason this game needed to be this close.

While they should have left that game with a focus on late-game execution, the Celtics didn’t fair much better against the Chicago Bulls on the second night of a back-to-back. Maybe they were a tad tired, down 79-73 at the start of the period, but a six-point deficit with 12 minutes left isn’t insurmountable. Boston would get within two points of the Bulls in that fourth quarter, only to lose by six points, 105-99. Through two games against conference opponents not necessarily projected to make the playoffs, the Celtics have been outscored by an average of 16.3 points per 100 possessions in the fourth quarter.

What was most troubling about these fourth quarter performances, particularly against Chicago, was that everybody was looking for somebody else to take over. It never happened. The young players seemed to look to Thomas, who seemed to look to Horford, who seemed to look to Stevens.

Stevens would then give an “Are you serious?” look to his players when they didn’t want to figure it out themselves. He would then clap his hands feverishly and say, “Let’s go!” It was a shrug fest of reticency. This can’t continue for Boston, especially when their schedule gets more difficult. Fortunately for the Celtics, this is only two games and their late-game chemistry issues are something that should be resolved with time and rhythm. The primary answer though, is probably more Isaiah Thomas.

To win in crunch-time, Boston will need to lean on a guy that can create his own shot and maybe a few for his teammates. In a point guard driven league, it makes sense to have Thomas emerge as the go-to scorer late in games for the Celtics. Perhaps Stevens needs to take a page out of Mike Budenholzer’s playbook from the Atlanta Hawks? Budenholzer would sub-in point guard Jeff Teague after the first mandatory timeout of the fourth quarter and have him play the rest of the way. Thomas is too skilled to ride pine for more than three minutes at any point in the fourth quarter of a close game.

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By subbing him in at that time, he can be well-rested to run the pick-and-roll with Horford. This worked out well in Atlanta for years with Teague and Horford at the one and five. Horford adds new dimensions to Boston’s offense but when the game gets tight he should be playing that versatility off Thomas. Let the Boston floor general lead when it matters the most.