The Celtics’ defensive game plan against the Cavs obviously revolves around LeBron James.


The NBA’s best player is going to have the ball a lot, especially late in a close game.


Defending the Celtics, on the other hand, isn’t as simple.


Who should the Cavs focus on Saturday night in Cleveland when the Celtics will try to take a commanding 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference finals?


Rookie forward Jayson Tatum, who leads [...]

By Bill Doyle The Worcester Telegram & Gazette

The Celtics’ defensive game plan against the Cavs obviously revolves around LeBron James.

The NBA’s best player is going to have the ball a lot, especially late in a close game.

Defending the Celtics, on the other hand, isn’t as simple.

Who should the Cavs focus on Saturday night in Cleveland when the Celtics will try to take a commanding 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference finals?

Rookie forward Jayson Tatum, who leads the Celtics in scoring this postseason with 18.1 points a game? Or second-year guard Jaylen Brown, who is averaging 17.8, and third-year point guard Terry Rozier (17.4)? Veteran big man Al Horford (17.1)?

How about Marcus Morris, who is averaging 12.9, or even Marcus Smart (10.5), who is seems to make every big shot he takes?

With Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward out injured, the Celtics are winning with defense, but also with balanced scoring. That combination often works in the regular season, but not in the playoffs when stars usually shine. It’s working for the Celtics this postseason, however. They have six players averaging double digits in playoff scoring while Cleveland has only three and both of the Western Conference finalists, Golden State and Houston, have four each.

“It's tough,” Brown said. “We play team ball. We've got a lot of guys who can really fill it up, and when we all are clicking on all cylinders, it's really, really hard for us to be beat.”

In a 107-94 victory over the Cavs in Game 2 on Tuesday night, a different player led the Celtics in scoring in each quarter. In the first quarter, Brown poured in 14 to help keep the Celtics within four points of the Cavs despite 21 points from James. In the second quarter, Tatum led the Celtics with nine points. In the third, Rozier scored 14. In the fourth, Horford had eight.

The scoring was spread out during a 108-83 victory in Game 1 as well. In the first quarter, Brown scored 13. In the second, Tatum had seven. In the third, Horford and Morris each had six, and in the fourth, Tatum and Morris each had seven.

“It’s not just one guy,” Smart said. “So you can’t plan a game plan to stop one guy because you’ve got other guys that can make an impact and come in and do things to help their team win.”

How much of a challenge would that be for him as a defender?

“It would be challenging,” he said with a smile, “but some way, somehow I’d figure it out.”

The Celtics’ top seven playoff scorers are all 3-point threats to some extent. The Celtics are averaging 10.9 made 3-pointers in the playoffs, second only to Houston’s 14.2. They’re also averaging only 11.9 turnovers, third fewest in the postseason.

“I think we have a lot of guys that can do a lot of different things,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens said. “I think we're doing a great job of scoring with what they do best. It's an interesting deal because you never know who’s going to have the ball at the end. You never know who's going to have the ball in certain moments because we've got a bunch of guys that we all trust in that moment. They’ve earned that with their play all the way through the year, and certainly since we’ve basically had this group together post the Kyrie injury.”

James leads the Cavs with 33.4 points this postseason and Kevin Love is a distant second at 15.5. Only one other Cav, Kyle Korver, is averaging in double figures (10.2). Nevertheless, Stevens doesn’t consider the Cavs any easier to defend than the Celtics are.

“Everybody knows LeBron will have the ball in that moment,” Stevens said, “but he's great at spraying it. You never know who's going to have that ultimate opportunity.”

Last season, the Celtics were far more predictable on offense when Isaiah Thomas was one of the NBA’s top scorers overall and in the fourth quarter. Of course, even though opponents knew that Thomas would take many of the important shots for the Celtics, he made them anyway until he was lost in Game 2 of the conference finals with a hip injury.

The same is true of James. For 15 years, opponents have tried to figure out ways to slow him down, but they rarely succeed. The Celtics limited him to 15 points in Game 1, but he bounced back with 42 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists in Game 2.