What Were The Boston Celtics Trying To Run?
After a LeBron James turnover, the Boston Celtics had the basketball with the game tied at 86 and a chance to win the game. Coming out of their timeout, the Paul Pierce got the basketball, stood around, drove left, and took a fall away jumper:
Upon closer examination, their was definitely some miscommunication here. Considering the coach (Doc Rivers) and the players (Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, and Kevin Garnett), it is interesting to see the Celtics fail to execute. It looks that Paul Pierce is waiting for a screen to come, but it never comes because Allen and Garnett run into each other a few times. In the postgame, Rivers eluded to the mishap:
Doc Rivers: “We didn’t execute the play, I’ll just leave it at that. Ended up leaving Paul on the island. It’s a play we’ve run several times and we just didn’t execute it. [It] was supposed to be a pick-and-roll with a flare and none of it happened, which was unusual for us. But it happened.”
Inside The Run: Miami Uses Their Defense To Pull Away
After the Boston Celtics scored a two points with the help of two Paul Pierce free throws, tying the score at 80, Boston scored just 11 points in the final 7:10 of the fourth quarter including a stretch where the Celtics didn’t score for three minutes and fifty seconds. This stretch is what turned a close game into a blowout, with Miami pulling away.
Even though there was some strange playcalling, the Miami Heat deserve a lot of credit for digging in and playing fantastic defense. This defense involved strong help defense and a unique strategy to prevent Rajon Rondo’s dribble penetration.
Curious Playcalling
While Miami’s defense stole the show, Boston did contribute to their drought with some odd playcalling choices early in this stretch:
After Pierce’s two free throws, Glen Davis wound up taking the next two shots. Now, the fact that he was taking wasn’t the problem. The problem was that these weren’t typical Glen Davis shots where he was the third option on a set, got an offensive rebound, or was playing off of the Big three. These were designed plays where Davis was the primary option.
The first play, Boston dumps the ball into Davis and clears out, running an ISO for him, and he eventually misses the shot. The second play is an off ball screen ran for Davis, allowing him to cut to the block, get the ball, and go up with the shot that is blocked.
Quick Hitter: Miami Catches Boston Sleeping
When doing the Clipboard Awards, I got a lot of flack for continuously putting Erik Spoelstra at the top of the list of good post-timeout plays. Part of the reason is the same reason why Doc Rivers (in my opinion) doesn’t get the credit that he deserves, he has really good players on his team. To me, that isn’t much of an argument because despite the good players, you need to put them in position to score. Late in the 2nd quarter of their game against the Celtics, Spoelstra drew up a great misdirection play, that resulted in Dwyane Wade driving to the rim without any help coming in a timely fashion:
The play starts with LeBron James taking the basketball out and entering it to Mario Chalmers at the top of the key. Once Chalmers gets the basketball, Dwyane Wade comes off of a screen away from the basketball at the opposite elbow to free himself up at the wing.
How The Celtics Prevented A Double Team
With the Boston Celtics trailing the New York Knicks by one point with 19.3 seconds left, the Celtics were looking to take the lead from a sideline out of bounds set. After the two great sets that he ran in game one, the Knicks must have been on edge thinking about what could be coming. Instead of an intricate play with a number of different options, the Celtics ran a simple post up set. However, it wasn’t as simple as it looked, as the way Coach Rivers was able to prevent the Knicks from sending a double team to Garnett:
As soon as the ball goes to the trigger man, Rajon Rondo, Garnett goes from the elbow and sets a pindown screen for Paul Pierce. Pierce comes off the screen way out by halfcourt, essentially taking himself out of play.
Examining The Knicks’ Final Possession
Trailing Boston by one point with 13.3 seconds left, only one of the Knicks’ big three were on the court. This meant Carmelo Anthony was sharing the court with Toney Douglas, Jared Jeffries, Roger Mason Jr., and Bill Walker. The lineup and the lack of another true scoring threat meant that the Celtics would be able to send a double team. This happens and Carmelo actually makes the correct play, but the Knicks still end up committing the turnover:
To start the play, the New York Knicks are in sort of a line set at the free throw line. Once the ball goes to the trigger man, you have Carmelo Anthony standing still at the top of the key and the remaining three Knicks’ cutting off of him. Roger Mason Jr. flashes out to half court. Bill Walker flares out to the weakside and Jared Jeffries flashes to the basketball.
How Doc Rivers Won The Game For Boston
In my opinion, coaching at the NBA level is most important late in games due to the number of timeouts that are called and the number of plays that need to be drawn up in late game situations. Doc Rivers is one of the best coaches when it comes to drawing up/calling plays late in games that always seem to work (I mean, he did win the Clipboard Awards this season), and in the final seconds of the Game 1 against the Knicks, Rivers showed how valuable a coach who can draw up plays can be.
We pick up the action with 37.8 seconds left with the Celtics trailing by three points. You don’t need a three point shot in this situation, you just need a quick look to maintain the 2-for-1 so you can get the basketball back. Rivers understands this and instead of going for the all-or-nothing three, he set up a play to get a quick two:
The play starts with Kevin Garnett setting a pindown screen for Paul Pierce. Pierce uses the screen to flash to the top of the key area, looking for the basketball.
Once Pierce uses his screen, Garnett also flashes to the top of the key as if he is the one who is going to get the basketball.
Round 1 Preview: Boston vs. New York – Recap
At the end of each day, I am just going to put a recap thread up where you can find all of the day’s posts to make it a bit easier.
Here is what we looked at for the upcoming Celtics-Knicks series:
Check in tomorrow when we start looking at the Western Conference.
Round 1 Preview: Boston vs. New York – Defensive Breakdown
Boston Celtics – The Numbers*
- Defensive Efficiency: 97.7 (2nd)
- Opp. TS%: 51.6% (3rd)
- Opp. Assist Rate: 18.07 (1st)
- Opp. Turnover Rate: 14.83 (3rd)
- Defensive Rebound Rate: 74.97 (8th)
- Block Rate: 4.4 (27th)
- Opp. Free Throw Rate: 31.2 (22nd)
- Opp. Three Point Rate: 20.7 (22nd)
Boston Celtics – Strengths
Pick And Roll Defense
Much like the Chicago Bulls, the Boston Celtics are one of the best teams when it comes to defending the pick and roll (both in terms of the ball handler and the roll man). That shouldn’t be a surprising considering that the man who installed the Celtics’ pick and roll defense is now the Bulls’ head coach. The Celtics are in the top 5 of PPP allowed in both pick and roll categories, and like the Bulls it is due to their “swarming” of the basketball (again, this is pulled from my SBNation.com pick and roll defense post):
Here, Elton Brand sets a screen for Jrue Holiday, and Holiday uses it taking the ball to the middle of the court. As he comes off of his screen, Holiday is met by Jermaine O’Neal who steps up as Rajon Rondo goes over the screen.
Round 1 Preview: Boston vs. New York – Offensive Breakdown
Boston Celtics – The Numbers*
- Pace: 92.2 (2nd)
- Offensive Efficiency: 104.4 (16th)
- True Shooting Percentage: 56.2% (5th)
- Assist Rate: 23.56 (1st)
- Turnover Rate: 14.35 (26th)
- Offensive Rebound Rate: 21.10 (30th)
- Free Throw Rate: 30.4 (10th)
- Three Point Rate: 18.2 (26th)
Boston Celtics – Strengths
Using Screens Away From The Basketball
The Celtics are 4th in the NBA in terms of points per possession when their players come off of screens, and obviously this has a lot to do with Ray Allen and his shooting ability. You can’t talk about shooters who can come off screens and knock shots down without mentioning Ray Allen. Allen might be one of the best shooters in the history of the NBA, and he is also one of the best when it comes to working off of screens. Part of what makes Allen so successful is his ability to set up his defender before he even comes off of the screen.
Watch what Allen does here even before he uses the screen. He starts on the baseline and starts as if he is going to come off of a pindown on the block. He stops, starts to head in the opposite direction, but then he jab steps, and goes back in the original direction. This creates enough space for Allen to come off the screen, square up, and knock down the mid-range jumper. In addition to being able to work before coming off of screens, he can read the defense, see how they are playing him, and just react off of it:
