Unguarded: How the Grizzlies Disrupted the Celtics' Offensive Machine
Jrue Holiday was at the center of the Memphis Grizzlies defensive game plan. Here's why it worked, and why other teams might take a crack at the same coverage.
On Saturday, the Memphis Grizzlies came into the TD Garden with a plan. It wasn’t necessarily a good plan, but it was a blueprint that hadn’t been used before. Taylor Jenkins wanted to remove one of the Celtics’ biggest weapons, freeing up his team to make quick decisions on the defensive end.
Since the Boston Celtics added Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis to their roster last summer, they’ve been a pick-your-poison team. Everyone within the top-eight rotation is at least a two-level scorer. Most of them are three-level scorers. From Derrick White to Sam Hauser and everyone in between, they are serious threats to drain buckets on your dome.
That’s what makes Mazzulla-ball so difficult to guard. Who do you help off of when a member of the Celtics roster has got it going? Do you send help from the corner? Because, in doing so, you’re leaving last season’s best corner shooter open, or Sam Hauser — one of the best three-point threats in the league or Al Horford…It doesn’t matter who is there; it matters that you can’t leave them open.
Teams face the same issue at every spot around the perimeter. Sometimes, you have to send help, and against the Celtics, you’re going to get punished for it. So, you can imagine the difficulties defenses face when making this kind of decision in real-time. It’s like playing a real-life version of Where’s Waldo…With the right help, the defender is almost impossible to find. Still, teams are choosing what they’re willing to live with based on the flow of the game and who has the hot hand.
Jenkins wanted to go a different route. He didn’t want the Grizzlies to compromise on their defensive principles or shape. Instead, he made the tough call for them. He took the guesswork out of where their help defense was coming from. For the majority of the game, Memphis opted against guarding Holiday, often leaving him open on the perimeter.
“It’s a bold strategy,” Mazzulla said during his postgame news conference. “He’s an All-Star who shoots over 40% from three. I think it’s a risky one. I thought he handled it great. We empower him, we want him to shoot any shot where he’s open and I think that’s a huge gift because now we’re going to see it again and it’s going to be great for us.”
A bold strategy it was. Still, there was a method in Jenkins’ madness.
By sagging off Holiday, the Grizzlies had an extra man available on defense. They could trap, send two at a shooter, have someone shading toward the nail, they could load up on the strong or weak side, and have an extra body to help defend the paint.
It’s normal for weakside low men to provide help once a driver enters the paint. However, in the above clip, it’s the lack of concern once the ball makes its way to Holiday that’s telling. Jaren Jackson Jr. makes no attempt to close out and Ja Morant couldn’t care less that Holiday is the one with the ball. Instead, JJJ gets himself in position for a potential rebound while Morant ensures Holiday doesn’t kick the rock to Derrick White.
Yes, Holiday was one of the best corner three-point shooters last season, draining 60% of his attempts. However, he is far from elite this season, hitting 31% of his corner threes and 33% of his total perimeter attempts.
Jenkins knew the Celtics would consistently find Holiday. He expected them to force-feed the two-time champion shots, and he bet on the veteran missing enough that his gamble paid off. He was right.
Boston’s offense is designed to create open shots. So, if the Grizzlies are leaving someone open, it makes sense that the ball will navigate to them. Therefore, it’s no surprise that Holiday made 26 attempts during the Celtics' loss to Memphis. On a team with Porzingis, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, Jenkins baited the team into making Holiday their primary scorer.
Now, don’t get me wrong, Holiday has proven himself as a viable offensive threat. During his tenure with the Milwaukee Bucks, Holiday would consistently step into a secondary scoring role when Khris Middleton was sidelined with injury. We know he can get buckets. Still, that doesn’t mean he’s the guy you want leading your team in shot attempts — especially when there are three All-NBA caliber guys sharing the floor.
“Gotta keep on shooting them; I’m too wide open not to,” Holiday said. “Honestly, I kind of liked it. It’s been a while since I’ve been shooting that much…I’ll continue to shoot.”
As a side note…Here’s a list of how open Holiday was on each of his 17 3-point attempts:
Very Tightly contested (defender 0-2 feet away) : Zero shots
Tightly contested (defender 2-4 feet away): Zero shots
Open (defender 4-6 feet away): 3 shots, all misses
Wide Open (defender 6+ feet away): 14 shots, 4 made, 28.6%
Every three-point shot Holiday took was open or wide open. Memphis paid him no mind.
For every shot Boston fed Holiday, it was a shot not being taken by one of the big three…or even White or Pritchard, who have both been excellent this season. Jenkins baited the Celtics into over-emphasizing their desire to take open threes and, in doing so, mitigated some of the risks that come with facing the deepest roster in the NBA.
Here’s another example. Rather than guarding Holiday in the corner, Huff is all the way over in the paint. Usually, White would look to get back to his right hand and let a floater off on a drive like this, but with Huff in the middle of the floor and Holiday wide open, it makes sense to kick the rock. As a result, White doesn’t take one of his trusty shots, and the ball doesn’t find one of the big three.
On most nights, Holiday — or whoever a team chooses to leave open that night — will punish the defense for being so disrespectful. However, the Grizzlies took a gamble, comfortable in the knowledge that Holiday hadn’t been performing at his usual level on offense to begin the season.
By predetermining which player you want to leave open, you’re empowering the defense to bunker down and make life difficult elsewhere on the floor. You can deny passing lanes, protect the paint, and bait the offense into taking the shots you want.
Now, other teams around the NBA might decide to take a similar approach. I doubt it will always be Holiday who is left open…teams might risk it with Horford or even White…but I’m betting they risk it.
“Teams will probably try (the Grizzlies’ approach), and I hope so,” Brown said. “We’ve got full belief in Jrue. Tonight, maybe he didn’t shoot the ball as (well) as he’d like, but we’ve got full belief in Jrue and any of those guys, and we want to encourage it. So, yeah, we’ll be ready if teams do decide that.”
Last season, the Celtics steamrollered their way through every challenge put in front of them. When a team has such a dominant season, opposing coaches begin looking for ways to counter their approach. Jenkins is the first one to try such a risky dice roll. The fact that it worked will undoubtedly cause other teams to question whether they can follow suit and test for a potential gap in Boston’s armor.
So, I’m going to be watching the upcoming games with an increased level of curiosity. Not only to see if other teams are brazen enough to poke the bear but also to see how the bear reacts and whether Mazzulla has a counter in mind to nip this blueprint in the ass before it becomes a mid-season narrative.