One of the most pressing issues the Boston Celtics face as the postseason approaches is how they will find ways to score when Isaiah Thomas sits down.

After all, the Celtics' most potent offensive weapon will need to rest sometimes. When he sits (as evidenced in Saturday's somewhat ugly win over the Charlotte Hornets), the offense sputters like a car missing whatever part prevents sputtering (I do not know cars).

On Saturday, Celtics coach Brad Stevens once again experimented with a lineup sans Thomas that showed some good results, particularly in the first half. During a lengthy stretch that spanned parts of the first and second quarters, the combination of Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, Jae Crowder, Jonas Jerebko and Al Horford was brilliant -- propelling Boston to a double-digit lead that the team expanded once Thomas returned to the game.

That's the ideal scenario, of course. If the Celtics can build a lead with Thomas on the bench, they make themselves considerably more dangerous when he returns to the game.

"I think we're big," Stevens told reporters after the game of that unit. "We're a little smaller in the first unit. We're big and long, and we can guard multiple positions. We can do a lot of switching with Jaylen, Jae and Marcus, so it just gives us some options."

Stevens subbed Thomas out of the game with just under two minutes remaining in the first quarter -- on a run, but trailing 24-23. When Thomas subbed back into the game midway through the second quarter, Boston led 46-38.

What happened in the interim? A whole lot of passing.

Rookie Jaylen Brown's 3-point shooting is up to 34.1 percent this season, thanks in large part to his recent success -- Brown has hit a sizzling 46.7 percent in his last five games (on three attempts per game). He buried two of his three 3-point attempts on Saturday after his teammates looked for the extra pass. Here, Brown hits a 3-pointer just before Thomas was subbed out for the big lineup.

Stevens noted after the game how intently Charlotte looks to clog the lane. Here, Batum doubles down looking to prevent Olynyk from scoring when he turns, and Olynyk has the presence of mind to look to the corner off the catch.

More importantly, in that clip you can also see a main tenet of Stevens' big non-Thomas unit: Use Smart to initiate the offense as a pick-and-roll distributor with shooters surrounding him, rather than as an off-ball scoring option. In that scenario, Smart is much more dangerous.

The Celtics' big unit claimed six-point lead and stayed on the floor at the start of the second quarter. That led to this pretty two-man game set between Smart and Horford, who exchange passes in a dribble hand off into a pick-and-roll.

Again, Charlotte's defenders collapsed into the paint as Smart worked the pick-and-roll to generate offense. This time, the Celtics started Smart's action inside the 3-point line, which forced the Hornets to respect Smart as a scorer. Kaminsky (who, admittedly, is not a great pick-and-roll defender) had to hedge onto Smart, and the big man couldn't catch up to Horford on the roll.

Boston's big lineup has plenty of shooting when Smart collapses the defense -- Horford, Crowder, Jerebko and even Brown can all hit 3-pointers -- and as Stevens pointed out, they are a switchable defensive lineup that causes headaches. The combination finished their first stint together with an eight-point advantage, and over the course of the game, they shot 9-for-13 from the floor, assisting on eight of those field goals (Smart finished with six assists and just one turnover). In 14 minutes this season, that lineup has a plus/minutes of +38.8.

The unit also took advantage of their two offensive rebounds, a nice benefit of having actual size on the floor. In both cases, the rebounder swung the ball back out to the perimeter, where an extra pass found the open 3-point shooter.

Stevens told reporters that the big lineup didn't perform as well in the second half, but this exact grouping didn't return to the floor until late in the third quarter. With 56 seconds remaining in the third, Stevens sent Horford and Crowder in for Thomas and Zeller. The lineup was on the court for a total of two minutes, during which they were outscored by four, although they created one nice highlight for Brown.

The Rook Takes Flight – Part 2 pic.twitter.com/G6h2O7YGEo — Boston Celtics (@celtics) April 8, 2017

By that point, the Hornets had re-established their rhythm and were clicking offensively. Three of Charlotte's field goals during that span were brutally difficult shots -- two highly contested jumpers by Batum (who was brilliant on Saturday) and one very deep 3-pointer from Lamb through Brown's close out.

So why didn't Stevens stick with that lineup to spell Thomas? It's possible the rotations simply didn't line up well. It's equally possible that he saw something that he thought Bradley was more capable of handling than Jerebko (although the non-Thomas lineup that included Bradley in the fourth quarter got shelled). It's also possible that Stevens wanted to save his big non-IT lineup for the playoffs, when rotations are shorter and more precise.

In any case, when Thomas returned to the floor in the fourth quarter, he was tasked with his usual heroics. He came through (as he so often does). But for seven minutes in his absence, the Celtics showed one potentially solid answer to perhaps their toughest postseason question. If the big unit sans Thomas is consistently productive, the Celtics could be a much more viable threat.