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When looking at every playoff series, there is one guy that can outperform expectations and change the series. For the Boston Celtics that player is Kelly Olynyk. Now there are plenty of players on the Boston Celtics that could easily be thought of as the X factor of a series. The thing is, none of them bring to the table what Olynyk does. Kelly Olynyk is the typical role player in the NBA. The seven footer out of Gonzaga has a knack for scoring and has the size to match it. One of the hardest positions to cover is a mobile big man that can score. Luckily for the Boston Celtics, they have that man. Granted, the Canadian center is a streaky player and the Celtics never really know what they will get out of him. If Boston has any chance to make a run at the NBA Final they will need some Celtic luck. That luck may come in a package named Kelly Olynyk.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are a tough team to beat, just ask every team in the NBA. They do possibly have one flaw, though. They have not been tested to heavily against one thing and that is a scoring big man.The Cavs are a small ball team. Their center is Tristan Thompson who is 6’9”. Kevin Love is another big that gets consistent playing time, but he is more of an outside presence than anything. Basically, the Cavaliers do not have a true center on the team. They do have LeBron James, though, who can easily defend all 5 positions on the court. The real question is would Tyronn Lue have James guarding Kelly Olynyk. There is approximately a 0.0001% chance that happens in this series. LeBron will be focusing on Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, or Al Horford. Olynyk will be an afterthought for the Cavs. Just ask the Washington Wizards about what happens when Olynyk is not taken seriously.
The most interesting thing about the Canadian is his scoring ability and ball handling skills. At 7 feet tall, Olynyk can shoot the ball from all over the court and is not afraid to put the ball down and make plays. Believe it or not Olynyk can actually dribble the ball pretty well for a man of his size. All of these factors will come to play if he can put it all together. There was a game that did put it all together though and that was Game 7 against the Wizards. If Olynyk plays like that against the Cavaliers the Celtics may win a game or 2 or dare I say 4. Yes you read that right.
The problem is the defensive side of the ball. Olynyk is not known for his defense at all. The reason why he has not become a star in this league is because he is essentially a liability on defense. There is no way he will be able to matchup against Kevin Love or Tristan Thompson. Love is a premier scorer in the NBA and will run circles around Olynyk. This may very well be a shootout in the Eastern Conference Finals. We may see games with All-Star game level scoring because each of these teams has so many weapons. At the end of the day, we may never see another 26 point out of Olynyk. If he consistently does put together runs like that though, the Celtics may not be as hopeless against the Cavs as everyone thinks.