BOSTON – The Atlanta Hawks were one of the few teams this season that experienced success on the offensive glass against the Boston Celtics.
However, there was one valuable piece missing from all three of their regular-season meetings that will now be at the Celtics’ disposal for their upcoming first-round matchup: Robert Williams.
Atlanta averaged 14.3 offensive boards in its three regular-season battles with Boston, which was by far the highest mark that the Celtics allowed to any Eastern Conference foe (Charlotte was the next-closest at 11.8). But Williams was sidelined for all three of those matchups, which was a big deal considering how he was the owner of the best defensive rebounding rate on the best defensive rebounding team in the league.
Williams’ teammates have stressed the importance of his rim-protecting presence all season long, and this is exactly the type of situation that they have been referencing.
“We all know what Rob can do,” Marcus Smart after Thursday morning’s practice in Brighton. “We’ve all seen it time in and time out. We love it. When you have someone of Rob’s caliber, he definitely swings the margins back towards our way and helps us with that.
“Obviously, [the rebounding] is not just going to be on Rob,” continued Smart, whose team led the league in defensive rebounding percentage with a mark of 74.6 percent. “Everybody has to get in there and help; he’s only one guy. And they’ve got a couple of guys that are going to the glass and they’re going to keep crashing, so we all have to get in there and help Rob.”
The two rebounders that the Celtics have to watch out for the most are Clint Capela and Onyeka Okongwu. They were the only pair of teammates to finish among the top 15 offensive rebounders in the league this season, and both have given the C’s issues in the past.
Okongwu made his mark with 14 offensive rebounds in those three matchups with Boston. The only individual who had more against the C’s this season was Chicago’s Nikola Vucevic (15 offensive rebounds in four matchups).
As for Capela, he reminded us Tuesday night how lethal he can be on the offensive glass, where he singlehandedly out-rebounded the entire Miami Heat team, 8-6, in their play-in matchup.
The key to containing those guys, according to Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla, is “understanding where they're crashing from, understanding personnel. They're very deliberate in who crashes, and then knowing, you know, Capella had eight offensive rebounds in the play-in game, and so he has the ability to change the game. So you have to do a great job on him, and all five guys got to do it.”
When Williams is among those five guys in the lineup, it makes a noticeable difference. Last year’s Hawks team, which had the same big-man duo, averaged just 7.8 offensive boards in four matchups with the C’s.
Williams was present for three of those games, during which he averaged 12.3 rebounds. In those three matchups, he grabbed 14 offensive boards, while Capela and Okongwu combined for just 11.
As Smart and Mazzulla noted, it will take a full team effort to contain those soaring Hawks, but having a healthy Williams in the rotation should make an immense difference on the boards.