BOSTON — The adjustments are coming early in the Eastern Conference Finals as Brad Stevens announced that he will put Gerald Green in the starting lineup in place of Amir Johnson for Game 2 against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The move was first reported by Brian Robb of CelticsHub.
Green enters the Boston Celtics starting lineup following the same logic that dictated this move back in the first round against the Chicago: More speed, athleticism, and shooting. Johnson played the first five minutes of the game and never saw the floor again in Game 1. Stevens went to Green with the second unit after the game got out of hand in the third quarter and Gerald helped shoot them back into swinging distance.
“You know my famous quote man, ‘It’s better to do to much than not enough,’” Green said.
Stevens keeps calling upon Green because of his reliability, which seems almost ironic for a player known for his erratic heat check style.
“Gerald specifically has been ready when called upon all year in a unique year, right, for him,” Stevens said. “Didn't hardly -- he got hurt in training camp, didn't hardly play at all until Christmas, played in the Christmas Day game, and then played a lot while Avery [Bradley] was out but didn't play a lot in March. But he's always been ready, and he always stays ready.”
This presents a unique challenge against a Cavs team that beat them up in the post on mismatches in Game 1. Instead of running away from the matchups that killed them in that game, Stevens is doubling down.
“Obviously when you're small, your guards have to do a great job. If they end up in a rotation on [Tristan] Thompson or [Kevin] Love specifically of blocking out and everybody has got to pursue the ball,” Stevens said. “It's like we said in the Chicago series, we're not making this move expecting to win the glass by 15.”
Starting Green seems on the surface to be a curious move, considering how vital Jaylen Brown has been the past two games. But when CelticsBlog asked if that move is to keep Jaylen coming in with the second unit in an effort to spell Jae Crowder on LeBron James, Stevens corroborated the assessment.
“Yeah, and whoever starts between Amir and Gerald hasn't played as much as some of our bench guys.”
In more important news, Stevens’ pregame presser was crashed by Brian Scalabrine, who put on a show with Stevens en route to a creative “no comment.” You can watch the video below.
Q. Can we ask you about matchups? No, right?
BRAD STEVENS: You can ask whatever you want. Are there rules?
Q. I don't know, I know you're not going to say it so I don't need to ask it.
BRAD STEVENS: But I can say no comment or whatever.
Q. Who's starting on LeBron?
BRAD STEVENS: Yeah, we're going to have to guard him as a team. That's better than no comment.