One year after saving the first round series for the Celtics with his defense, Semi Ojeleye has been a bystander for much of the Bucks-Celtics series. Brad Stevens opted for a more offensive look with his starting five, replacing Aron Baynes in the starting lineup with Marcus Morris, a move that has paid dividends early after two strong shooting nights from the power forward.
With the Bucks playing a variety of stretch bigs (Lopez, Ilyasova, Mirotic) at the center spot, that has put Stevens in a tough spot with Aron Baynes. The only guy that isn’t an above-average 3-point shooter who Baynes can guard is Giannis Antetokounmpo and that assignment has not gone well in the first two games of this series.
Antetokounmpo nearly averaged 10 free throws per game during the regular season and is on pace to easily surpass that in this series, posting 14 free throw attempts per game against Boston thus far. Al Horford has done an admirable job limiting the Greek Freak around the basket but he’s not capable of guarding Antetokounmpo for 48 minutes. When Baynes has taken Antetokounmpo while Horford rests, the net results have been ugly, particularly when it comes to fouling.
Antetokounmpo has drawn six fouls against Baynes in just over 20 minutes in the first two games, beating the veteran center regularly to the basket in the paint, which forces contact and the foul calls. There is no doubt the MVP has received a friendly whistle but Baynes at age 31 is just not as nifty on his feet this year. The constant injuries have made him less mobile and more liability to be forced into tough spots. When one fails to cut off Antetokounmpo at the point of attack, it’s a recipe for a whistle and that’s what we’ve seen far too often in this series, which led to the Bucks outscoring the Celtics by 19 points in Game 2 in Baynes’ limited minutes.
With Antetokounmpo also knocking down 3s at an above-average rate so far (5-of-9), the challenge is even tougher for his defenders now. Boston is going to give up that shot all series but they can’t concede it as easily now if he’s knocking them down at the rate, something that Baynes is prone to do as he protects the paint and tries to make us for his lack of foot speed.
Laying in the weeds for this conundrum is an alternative that Stevens has stayed away from during the first two games of the series: Ojeleye. He’s guarded the Greek Freak for just five possessions all series long and did not play meaningful minutes at all in Game 2 as the Celtics were blown out over the first three quarters.
One option for Stevens is to simply try to go minute-for-minute with Horford guarding Antetokounmpo as much as possible when he plays for the rest of the series. However, given the offensive onus on Horford for Boston, that seems like a recipe for disaster. He’s going to need to save some energy in order to be at his best on offense, so the Celtics can’t afford to put that type of pressure for him.
In order to help slow down the Bucks in transition and provide some more mobile resistance against Antetokounmpo, the time might have come for Stevens to give Ojeleye a shot over Baynes starting in Game 3. Baynes has not given the Celtics anything on the offensive end when he’s in there and the Bucks aren’t going for offensive rebounds much either, making his rebounding ability less important.
The Celtics are deeper now which has kept the second-year forward on the fringes of the rotation all year. However, given how much havoc Antetokounmpo has caused in Game 2 and his success coming at the line, it’s about time that Stevens gives a familiar weapon a chance. He needs to go no farther than Game 7 of last year to be reminded of his potential impact.
“Semi is probably the guy that we need to be talking about, because defensively, we’re not able to do all the things we were able to do without Semi,” Al Horford explained last May. “I felt like he changed the series for us. A lot of the credit goes to him. He did an unbelievable job on Giannis. It’s just a lot of credit for him because he stayed ready. He didn’t always play a lot all year and when we needed him most, he stepped up. Like I said, we don’t win the series without him.”
Antetokounmpo is a better player now than last year but it’s tough to believe that Ojeleye would fare worse against him compared to how Baynes has in this series thus far. He’s not going to play the type of minutes he did last year but he provides more defensive upside and versatility than Baynes does at this point against this high-powered five-out Bucks offense. Ojeleye deserves to get a chance in this series and it needs to come before the Celtics dig themselves into a hole.
Other Game 3 thoughts
- The Celtics catch a break with Malcolm Brogdon getting ruled out for at least one more contest. He’s with the team in Boston and continues to practice, making an eventual return this series in the next week a foregone conclusion.
- I’d expect plenty more weakside cutting by the Celtics tonight to make the Bucks pay for packing the paint. Far too often in Game 2, the Celtics just surrounded the 3-point line and watch teammates isolate, which allowed Milwaukee to guard multiple players with just one guy on the perimeter.
- Gordon Hayward should get the ball in his hands a lot more with the second unit tonight. We saw a bit too much of Terry Rozier (2-of-10) in Game 2 trying to take the game over and that’s not a winning recipe with the ball in his hands. Hayward will have the mismatches against the Bucks in switches and he needs to turn into more of a playmaker.
- Brad Stevens on Marcus Smart’s progress: “Yesterday he went through everything that we did without contact, and so I don’t know if they’ve got planned like 3-on-3 or 4-on-4 after this. The next time we’ll be on the practice court will be Sunday, so we’ll see if they’ve got that planned for him. I have no idea what the next step is for him. I know he’s close.” At this point, a return at some point next week can’t be ruled out.