“The Celtics have a number of Tony Allen-type players” - Brian Windhorst believes the personnel and relentless Boston Celtics defense are making Kevin Durant struggle

The Boston Celtics have accomplished what no team in Kevin Durant’s 15-year NBA career has done to him. They managed to make KD look so bad that basketball analysts are still trying to believe and explain what just happened.

Kevin Durant has never hit less than 40% of his attempts with 6 turnovers in back-to-back playoff games. Boston bullied him to 31.7% shooting, including 28.6% from beyond the arc. He’s made a total of 13 field goals, which is about the same number of turnovers (12) he has had in the series.

On an episode of The Hoop Collective, veteran basketball analyst Brian Windhorst weighed in on his thoughts following KD’s disastrous performance:

“Tony Allen 6’3-6’4, there’s one of him. He couldn't hold up on the size and the duration. The Celtics have a number of Tony Allen-type players that are bigger, what I mean by Tony Allen-type players, relentless, strong defenders. They have a whole rotation of those guys. Udoka has watched how to do it.”

Windhorst recalled covering the 2014 first-round playoff battle between seventh seed Memphis Grizzlies and Kevin Durant’s former team, second seed OKC Thunder. Tony Allen, one of the NBA’s best and most aggressive defenders, was KD’s main shadow.

The Grizzlies pushed the Thunder to Game 7 before eventually losing. Kevin Durant averaged 29.9 points, on 44% shooting, including 32.1% from beyond the arc. Here’s how Brian Windhorst described KD’s time against Allen in that series:

“Tony Allen was the first guy I ever saw really bother Durant... I remember there were times where Allen would get lost on a screen and Durant would catch the ball, he was so used to Allen being up on him and bodying him that he would catch the ball and protect the ball and not even turn around and look to shoot that wide-open shot because he was in his head.”

Windhorst was practically describing what the Boston Celtics did to one of the NBA’s greatest and most unique scorers. Boston’s plethora of physical, savvy and long defenders made the four-time scoring champion bleed for his points.

The Boston Celtics' scheme and personnel forced the “Slim Reaper” to miss all of his 10 second-half attempts, something that had never happened to him before. Jayson Tatum, who has blocked a few of KD’s jump shots, has done a great job of making his mentor work for his shots.

Jaylen Brown, newly-minted Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Smart, Al Horford and Daniel Theis have all played Ime Udoka’s defensive strategy to perfection. As if things couldn’t get any worse, the Celtics will be bringing in another defensive ace in Robert Williams III in limited minutes in Game 3.

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Ime Udoka’s defense has so far handcuffed Kevin Durant

Boston Celtics head coach Ime Udoka is uniquely qualified to game plan against Kevin Durant. [Photo: The Boston Globe]

Boston Celtics head coach Ime Udoka is uniquely qualified to devise the kind of defensive game plan that has stifled the two-time finals MVP. Brian Windhorst expounded on this point on the same podcast:

“He [Udoka] has put in years on years of learning, studying, finding out the idiosyncrasies of Kevin Durant. And look, you can design the best defense of all time, without the personnel it’s not gonna work.”

Udoka played against Durant, devised defensive plans against KD when the former was with the San Antonio Spurs and then coached the Nets’ superstar in Brooklyn. Before agreeing to coach the Celtics, he was an assistant on the US Men’s basketball team that had the 33-year-old superstar as its best player.

Brooklyn Nets point guard Kyrie Irving touched on this point after the Game 2 loss, admitting that Udoka’s familiarity with them has been a problem.

Despite all of that, Windhorst cautioned the doomsayers:

“And after we’ve talked about this for 10 minutes, it wouldn’t stun me if the guy went for 48.”