BOSTON — It was a dominant victory for the Boston Celtics on Wednesday night. They welcomed the Golden State Warriors to TD Garden, though it was a shell of the team that could have been.
With Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler III, and Al Horford all sidelined, it was left to former Celtic Kristaps Porzingis and Draymond Green to carry the torch. And though Porzingis started the game with two emphatic blocks, that momentum didn’t last long.
He got his tribute video, and the TD Garden crowd gave him a rowdy ovation, but the Celtics owned the night.
So, what happened?
1. Jaylen Brown’s patience
For the second straight game, nobody could tough Jaylen Brown. He was a ghost and a battering ram all rolled up into one. Somehow, he managed to float through any defense the Warriors threw at him while also bullying his way to the line for nine free throw attempts (he made all nine).
The most impressive part of his performance on Wednesday was Brown’s patience. It’s been an integral part of his game all season, but lately, he’s slowed down his pacing even more.
“Just seeing and reading the game, and taking advantage of my opportunities,” Brown said. “But yeah, [I] definitely have slowed my pace down a little bit.”
Here, he completely fools Gary Payton II. Payton is waiting for Neemias Quetato set the screen, so he jumps to his right in anticipation, trying to get ahead of the play. When Brown sees this, he immediately drives left instead.
Then, once he gets downhill, he puts his body into Quinten Post. He waits for Payton and Post to jump, pulls back, and scores an easy layup.
But the secret ingredient to this play was everything around it.
“Today, in the first half, they kind of stuck to our shooters, out of respect for those guys,” Brown said. “They shoot the ball incredibly well, and those threes add up. So, they were like, kind of leaving me on the island, so I had to take advantage of that.”
Watch that play again. Look at how little help Payton and Post get in the pick-and-roll. Green is glued to Baylor Scheierman, Pat Spencer is glued to Jayson Tatum, and De’Anthony Melton is glued to Payton Pritchard.
Golden State doesn’t want to send help because Brown would just throw a kick-out pass for an open three.
“To me, they’re the best spacing in the league,” Steve Kerrsaid before the game. “With all those great isolation players, Pritchard included in that, when they start to drive, you really feel it when you play against them live. The guys on the opposite wing, it feels like they’re at half-court. They got multiple guys who can shoot from out there, but so many guys who can put the ball on the floor.
“With, obviously, Jayson and Jaylen. But Derrick Whiteis a great penetrator. And Pritchard. So, you’re so spaced out. So, it’s really a matter of, are you willing to give up shots to certain players? You really have to know personnel. You have to be willing to give up shots to certain guys, but other guys, not so much. And if you’re not in tune with recognizing personnel, and you’re not in the right spot, they’re just going to kill you.”
Here’s another great example of Boston’s elite spacing giving Brown room to work (and how Brown used patience to get a bucket).
Brown has Brandin Podziemskiguarding him on the wing. So, he slowly starts backing him down. As the seconds tick off the clock, Brown doesn’t rush it. He takes his time.
Gui Santosshows a brief flash of help, but other than that, the Warriors left Podziemski on an island because they don’t want to help off shooters. So, Brown takes advantage of that, bullies him into the post, and gets an easy bucket.
Brown’s patience has been on another lately, and the Celtics’ spacing is giving him acres to work with.
He finished the game with 32 points, six rebounds, five assists, and two steals while shooting 11-of-20 from the floor, 1-of-4 from deep, and 9-of-9 from the free-throw line.
2. Getting Jayson Tatum going
Since returning from his Achilles injury, Jayson Tatum hasn’t exactly been at his peak of efficiency. And heading into Wednesday night, a lot of his three-point attempts weren’t coming in the flow of the offense.
That improved on Monday night against the Phoenix Suns, but it was even better against the Warriors.
Tatum’s first shot of the game was a drive into the paint that was sent packing by Porzingis. But after that, he got some space on the perimeter.
Santos got caught on a Queta screen, and Porzingis sank back in drop coverage. That was a mistake. Tatum pulled up for a wide-open three, which he made.
And from there, the Celtics got him into a rhythm.
“As the games go on, you get more reps, you get more in a routine,” Tatum said. “Feel more and more comfortable each game, and you just kind of play in the flow.”
Tatum’s next three-point attempt was a pull-up three above the break after coming off a Queta screen. These types of threes quickly became his bread and butter last year.
Then, his third three was the best of the night, because it was a product of simple, yet beautiful, Celtics offense. All it took was a flare screen1from Queta to spring Tatum loose, and Pritchard hit him with a picture-perfect pass for an open triple.
(1Flare screen: A screen set to allow an off-ball player to move away from the ball to another position on the perimeter. You can see Queta set it on this play for Tatum to shift over to the left wing.)
These are the types of threes that will help Tatum get into the right flow as he continues to readjust to NBA action. Boston’s offense has a few new tricks up its sleeve this year, and Tatum is already settling in.
“I mean, it's a few different sets, but it all boils down to pace and respecting each other's space,” Tatum said of Boston’s offense this season. “It's a few concepts that we play by or play through, obviously, depending on the matchups and who we have on the floor. We play to our strengths. So, that's just the main thing.”
Tatum ended the game with 24 points, 10 rebounds, two assists, and one steal while shooting 7-of-15 from the field, 5-of-11 from beyond the arc, and 5-of-6 from the charity stripe.
3. Why Jayson Tatum takes so many threes
It’s the elephant in the room. And to be brutally honest, most of the people who are complaining about his three-point volume are always going to hate it. But it’s not going anywhere.
There are a few things that go into it.
First and foremost, math is math. Love it or hate it, the Celtics subscribe to it, and they’ve enjoyed boundless success because of it. Tatum could shoot 33% from three for his entire career, and unless a player shoots 50.1% or better from mid-range, Tatum’s threes would be the better shot.
It’s not the most aesthetically pleasing style sometimes, but it puts points up on the board, and teams respect his three-point shot.
That’s the other part. Teams know Tatum can shoot, they know he wants to show, and they know how dangerous he is when the shots are falling. So, they guard it.
And if teams are guarding Tatum on threes, that opens up driving lanes for plays like this one.
Look at how closely Porzingis is playing Tatum. And watch very closely at Tatum’s movements.
He brings his right hand ever so slightly close to the ball (with 15 seconds left on the shot clock), acting like he’s going to step to the side and shoot. As soon as he does that, Porzingis bites.
The Warriors' big man lunges forward, and Tatum strikes. Instead of shooting, he crosses the ball over to his right hand, gets past Porzingis, who is now out of position, and Eurosteps past Melton for a bucket.
The sheer threat of Tatum shooting completely bent the Warriors’ defense. That’s why Tatum will never stop taking threes.
Is there a middle ground? Absolutely. And Wednesday was a perfect example of that. Most of Tatum’s three-point attempts came in the flow of the offense. He took a couple of self-created pull-ups, but only after he established his flow from beyond the arc for the night.
That’s the ideal shot profile for Tatum. But for those who are hoping he cuts back on the threes, it’s just not going to happen.
4. Recognizing the Warriors’ defense
The last time Boston played Golden State, the Warriors made a fourth-quarter run that nearly shell-shocked the Celtics. They cut down a 30-point Boston lead to 11 by the time the game ended.
“Something that Golden State does very well is changing defenses, changing coverages, and you can't get to the proper spacing if you don't recognize the coverage and what happens after the initial action,” Joe Mazzulla said. “So, it's something that our guys work hard at, something they've gotten better at. And when you're properly spaced, you can usually see the reads a little bit better.”
Kerr threw a bunch of different defensive coverages and presses at Boston, but this time around, the Celtics were ready for it.
“In the fourth quarter last time, handling their run-and-jump a couple of possessions,” Mazzulla said. “And I think they tried to go to their 1-3-1 zone, and we saw it right away. Got a quick shot, I think, got an offensive rebound out of it, and kind of continued to execute.”
Run-and-jump is a style of full-court press that involves man-to-man defense, trapping, and switching. Here are the rules of the defense from BasketballForCoaches.com:
BasketballForCoaches.com
Run and Jump defense
(Apologies for the lack of clips of these examples from Celtics-Warriors. ESPN had the game, so the full replay isn’t available to me, and I couldn’t find a clip cut correctly from NBA.com’s box score.)
As for the 1-3-1 zone Mazzulla referenced, here’s what that looks like. A guard above the three-point line, three players in an angled line by the charity stripe, and one player under the hoop.
Once again, a breakdown from BasketballForCoaches.com:
BasketballForCoaches.com
1-3-1 defense
It’s more common in college because there is no defensive three-second rule, so a big man can just camp the lane on defense.
Again, it was hard to find an example from the game, as ESPN doesn’t have the full replay available, and none of the offensive rebounds Boston got on Wednesday looked like they came on a possession where Golden State started in 1-3-1 (I watched all 15).
There were a couple of Luka Garzaoffensive rebounds in the first half that may have originated from a 1-3-1 set-up by the Warriors, but the box-score replay didn’t extend far back enough to see the full possession.
Regardless, the Celtics definitely did a better job of preventing Golden State from going on multiple runs thanks to their defensive pressure. Even when they opened the second half on a 6-0 run, Boston immediately answered.
5. Ron Harper Jr. turning into Derrick White?
A couple of small observations here to round things out. First, this Ron Harper Jr.play was very Derrick White-esque.
White has become an expert at helping over from the corner, swatting shots away at the rim. Here, even though a Baylor Scheierman foul wiped out the play, Harper was ready. He sprinted over from the corner and put a ton of pressure on Podziemski at the rim.
Harper’s 7-foot-1 wingspan makes him a prime candidate to take on some of these responsibilities. He still has to work on his timing, as he was a tad late here, reacting at the last moment. But still, this is something to monitor. Harper only played 6:43 on Wednesday night, tallying just a single rebound.
6. Neemias Queta’s screening and playmaking
It flew a bit under the radar because of how well Brown and Tatum played, but Queta’s screening was impeccable on Wednesday night. He was the reason everything ran so smoothly, as he created a ton of space for Boston’s ball-handlers to work.
Just watch this play. First and foremost, look at how much space Queta creates when he screens Melton. Green has to help up on the play to take away Tatum’s three (or drive), so Queta slips to the rim, and Tatum finds him.
From there, all it takes is a quick pivot and pass to the corner. Queta finds Sam Hauserfor a wide-open three.
Again here, look at how much space Brown gets off this Queta screen. He puts Melton completely behind the play, and Brown ends up getting an and-one mid-range jumper out of it.
You could pick almost any play from this game when Queta was on the floor, and his screen was likely the reason the Celtics scored on that possession. Just rewatch all of the plays from this video. Most of them involve a Queta screen.
Queta finished Wednesday night with eight points, seven rebounds, three assists, and one steal while shooting 4-of-7 from the field.
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