But once the playoffs get here, it guarantees nothing other than you will be the team everyone is targeting, which is something the Celtics are going to learn about first-hand beginning with Game 1 against the Bulls on Sunday. It should serve as validation for the players, coaches, and front office of a team that entered the year with a lot of variables in place. They are not members of the team anymore, and have not been for a few years. Wade is an animal come playoff time and Butler is playing some of his best ball of the season at the moment. "I don't know when - but I'm going to make it tough for him", said Butler, who admitted that limiting Thomas will take a team effort after the Bulls practice on Friday. For anybody that I'm guarding. Could they have been just as satisfied with being the second-best team in the East, record-wise? "I get six fouls, so I think I'll be alright". But I look forward to that challenge.
"The whole game", Butler said.
One of the league's top two-way players and Chicago's best perimeter defender, Butler is the Bulls' best option to stick with the 5-foot-9 Thomas - whether he's driving the lane or launching one of his lethal jumpers.
"We do have a plan in place, but obviously you have to adjust if things are going in the wrong direction, but we do have a plan on how we are going to try to slow [Thomas] down a little bit, which is obviously hard to do with the number [three] scorer in the National Basketball Association this year, " Hoiberg said.
"We need to understand it's a team problem". "He's so good getting into the paint, getting downhill, splitting pick-and-roll coverage". He's obviously a guy who can shoot it all over the floor with unlimited range, and he gets himself to the free throw line a bunch. "You have to have a great awareness at all times of where he is". But it's a safe bet Butler won't draw the assignment for that long. Coming off, pulling up, shooting shots.
WRAPUP 4-Putin says trust erodes under Trump, Moscow icily receives Tillerson
There's a lot of history there - and potentially a lot more to be made at this critical juncture in American-Russian relations. Russian Federation strongly opposes the move in a region it considers part of its strategic sphere of interest.
Butler, who in a 2013 playoff run once played the entire game in five of seven games, vowed to be physical with Thomas.
"I think the Cavs would have to beat themselves to a large degree (for the Celtics to beat them)", Simmons said. In fact, speaking on their depth, Boston now has 12 players averaging double-digit minutes per game and, though all don't play each game, the team can easily deploy a solid 10-man rotation each game to stay fresh and deadly.
Owning a sub.500 record at 40-42, the Celtics trotted out a starting lineup of Brandon Bass, Tyler Zeller, Marcus Smart, Evan Turner and Avery Bradley against the Cavaliers in Game 1 of their first round series.
The Wiz will miss Mahinmi, but they have enough offense to make up for whatever rebounding edge Atlanta may have with Howard inside. The good news for the Celtics is that the Bulls haven't been as good an offensive rebounding team since trading Taj Gibson (they rank 18th in offensive rebounding percentage at 23.8 percent since the break) as they were before the trade (they ranked at 28.4 percent second prior to the break).
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