Should they consider starting Horford (for Jrue) against Denver (& maybe MIL) and just switch between Al & Tillman guarding Joker?
Its a waste of KPs talents (as a help defender) for him to body Jokic & get tossed around like a ragdoll.
I liked the idea of Jrue fronting Nikola for short minutes. CJM used it late in the game 2-3X (& was effective)
I'd keep the regular starting lineup same vs Denver, but do a pretty early (3-4 minutes in?) swap in of Al. That might be for KP if he's got fouls, or a guard.
I don't know what the next scheme is; I do not expect it to be Jrue in any material way. I do wonder if you bascially want 35-40 minutes with Tillman or Horford behind Jokic, really trying to be physical and wear him down, and a bit of Porzingis doing so. You want Porzingis out there vs Jokic' backup for those limited minutes. And so that means you are two bigs more than usual, with Porzingis more on Porter and helping on Jokic. Denver writers have noted that a burly guy behind him and a traditional 5 as a rover who can shade towards him is the least--bad/sometimes effective defense and Celtics have the guys to do that some.
I can't diagram it, but I could imagine trying more late doubles on him. That largely failed last night, and he's such a good passer it may not be worth it. But a guy like Jrue or White could possibly try it from behind the play on occasion and cause issues or draw a charge on a spin. It's a couple posessions---that's all you can really do.
The other thing you'd like Porzingis to be able to do, but which may not be teachable at this point in his life, is to lean in more low on Jokic---not because he's going to stop Jokic, but because it sets up two things he should try a couple times a game: a full-on flop when there's upper body contact (he sort of tried one late, but badly) and the 'pull the chair' move where you anticipate Jokic making a low push with his body and step fully away, usually putting Jokic on the floor. Porzingis plays him straight up and he simply cannot stop Joker that way....as we've seen for two games now.
Jokic is deservedly the MVP...but Porzingis on him just makes it too easy. The bottom line is he's going to get most of his, and you have to put up enough the other way. Celts need a bit better three point shooting than we saw in these two games, or a few more transition hoops. And we did see that Jokic struggles to guard Porzingis outside, so part of the answer is making him work hard (and exposing his limits) defensively. They tried hiding him on Jrue which didn't work, and there isn't anyone on Celtics Jokic can guard in space....so that needs to be an offensive focus, both to score and to make him work more.