Boston Celtics: 3 intriguing questions vs undefeated Milwaukee Bucks

How the Boston Celtics will defend the Bucks

As great as Milwaukee has been, they have had one Achilles’ heel – turnovers. This isn’t particularly shocking given that they’re playing within an entirely new offensive system. Growing pains are to be expected, though having the fourth worst turnover per game mark in the league is a bit worse than we might have predicted.

The basic transition stats on NBA.com are a little wonky (only stats from games where teams had at least ten transition plays counted; as a result, most teams have only half of their games counted), but they do tell a story that matches the eye test. Boston is 14th in transition frequency, 9th in transition turnover rate, and 9th in transition points per possession.

Long story short, the Boston Celtics generate a pretty decent amount of transition opportunities (a surprisingly low amount considering how stout their defense is, but a good amount nonetheless), and are efficient when they get those opportunities. Taking advantage of turnovers will be a key for Boston in this game.

Milwaukee’s offensive scheme is interesting. Its players aren’t moving around off the ball constantly in a Beautiful-Game style attack; it’s simple. Coach Budenholzer has talked about how they’re emphasizing keeping it simple right now as he tries to avoid overloading his players.

They’re 5th in isolation frequency and 11th in spot-up frequency, which confirms the eye test. They love to give the ball to Antetokounmpo (or their other capable drivers, including Malcolm Brogdon, Eric Bledsoe, and others) and let him create. As guys penetrate and defenders collapse, they’re excellent as a team at either moving the ball to open shooters or cutting to the basket for easy layups (they’re leading the league in points per possession on cuts).

Boston has the best defense in the league by far, and they have the personnel to handle virtually any matchup. Milwaukee feasts off of defensive miscues, but the Celtics are significantly less prone to those than other teams. As good as Milwaukee has been, you’d expect the Celtics to slow them down significantly.