So Keith Smith watched back the 4th, he says we doubled Butler 3 times, and all 3 led to open 3s so we stopped... we have a real problem with Jimmy, especially once they get in the bonus, best defense on him was probably in the 2nd, rotated Tatum/Grant/Brogdon, played him physical, didn't double much. We struggle to defend him 1v1 with anybody but when we double he's too good a passer and they are too good a shooting team right now. Maybe we leave Martin open next game in the 4th?
Butler scored 27 points on 25 shots. As in Game 1, doubling him is a problem and playing him straight up works if we stay disciplined and don’t foul. He will score and make shots. We need to stay disciplined and not alter our game plan as a result. We also need to do a better job of fighting through screens. We are conceding the switches Butler is hunting. That’s not the end of the world because those are guys like Grant and Brogdon who actually are doing a decent job, but Butler isn’t someone we should need to concede switches against because he’s not a threat to pull up from three if we go under. We need guys like Smart and Tatum to do the work on the defensive end to stick with Butler, particularly late in games, so Miami isn’t dictating the offense they want.
On the other end I’m less sure what the answer is. I think we go through too many stretches where we go away from Tatum on offense. He doesn’t need to be doing everything every possession, but it seems like he struggles most after stretches where we go a couple minutes without getting him the ball. Even if it’s just getting the ball and dumping it off to other guys to run different plays, the offense needs to run through Tatum more often than not. That’s not an attack on other guys but a recognition of their skills. Brogdon and to a lesser degree Smart can run the offense at times, but Jaylen and White are best off ball and Smart is erratic on offense. Jaylen’s offense is attacking defenses that are in rotation. He’s excellent at that but he’s not good in a primary scorer/initiation role and he needs to stop trying to be that guy. Tatum is that guy. If we’re going to lose, and we very well may lose at this point, we should still do it playing through our superstar.
In short, the offense needs to run through Tatum. Brown needs to accept he’s a secondary scorer (who will still score a ton in that role). Smart needs to ride Butler hard on defense. Horford needs to find his shot or needs to start rolling instead of popping because he can score at the rim against this Heat team. Brogdon and White I don’t have real complaints with and Timelord was a lot better this game. Grant needs to not antagonize Butler. These aren’t huge adjustments, but we need to simplify roles so that guys can focus on performing in them instead of cycling through different distributions of responsibilities like we are channel surfing. Because the thing about channel surfing is you sift through a lot of garbage before you find something good and even once you do you might have lulled yourself to a state of apathy where you don’t even realize it and just click through to more garbage.