Road Warriors: Celtics Sweep Road Trip
The Boston Celtics secured their 10th straight win by downing the Grizzlies.
Celtics 117, Grizzlies 103
No Jaylen Brown or Luke Kornet meant a rare Xavier Tillman sighting.
The Memphis Grizzlies came out with a confidence that saw them match the Celtics’ energy and take the lead to end the first quarter
A 24-11 run in the second put the Celtics in front, allowing them to close an 11-point gap.
Tatum had 7 points during that stretch. Boston went 6-of-9 from deep.
Memphis came out in the third with a 10-point run of their own, only to get immediately pegged back as the Celtics went on a 20-6 run of their own.
From that point on, Boston controlled the game.
The Celtics created a fair amount of offense for Derrick White, particularly on the perimeter. Unfortunately for him, he was having an off night from deep.
Tatum (2-of-11), Pritchard (1-of-5) and Tillman (0-of-5) also struggled to get their perimeter shots to fall
As such, it was kind of poetic that this was the game where White set the Celtics record for most made threes in a season — The fun thing is, he’s still got some runway to run those numbers up.
Don’t let his perimeter struggles fool you, though — White was one of the Celtics’ best players in this game. He ended the night two rebounds short of a triple-double with 14/8/10.
Horford was also fantastic in this one. He guarded well, knocked down some important shots, screened with purpose, and got busy on the boards.
While we’re talking about great performances, can we give Jrue Holiday some flowers? So much has been said about him recently — from his injuries to some inconsistencies and the fact he could be traded in the summer. Yet, when he plays like he did last night, which is essentially as the ideal glue guy, he’s almost irreplaceable.
Finally, the Celtics set a franchise record with their win over Memphis. Boston swept its six-game road swing, making it the first time in franchise history that this feat has occurred.
Sean Grande has since revealed that Boston is now close to joining some legendary company. They’re one road win away from joining the 95-96 Chicago Bulls team and two road wins away from matching the 15-16 Warriors team — both legendary rosters in their own right.
The Takeaways
☘️Boston’s gap defense
The Celtics are a nail-heavy defensive team. That means they like to have the nail loaded on half-court defensive possession (someone on or near the nail, which is the center of the free-throw line.)
Mazzulla also likes his wings to dig toward the elbows, providing gap help and shutting down driving lanes. The Celtics made sure the Grizzlies were faced with some tough questions when looking to penetrate against a set defense.
Take note of the initial drive on the above action. Tatum loads above the nail, and White pinches/digs onto the elbow. Between them, they’ve suffocated the driving lane, almost forcing a turnover.
From there, the Grizzlies must find another path to attack the rim.
White’s action here is known as gap help and has been a core function of Boston’s defense for the past 18 months. However, they’ve really turned up the heat with it over the past four or five weeks.
Here’s another example of how the Celtics like to load up at the nail.
The Grizzlies run a Bilbao action on the wing. Porzingis is at the nail. Tatum is guarding the screen action, and Holiday is on the weak side, preparing to shade over if necessary.
With three defenders across the high helpline, the Grizzlies are forced into a second side action that ultimately leads to Pritchard being switched onto the drive.
Still, the initial defensive pressure on the perimeter, coupled with how the Celtics shut down the early action, forced the Grizzlies into making a late decision on how to penetrate.
Pritchard gave up the foul in the end. It is what it is.
Here’s a final example. This time the gap help is coming from Baylor Scheierman, who is helping off the corner. He cloises the gap to help Horford and quickly rotates back out to the corner shooter, impacting the shot enough that it clanks of the backboard.
According to Cleaning The Glass, the Celtics are 6th in the NBA for half-court defense in terms of Defensive Points Per Possession. They’re also 9th in Defensive ORBs allowed.
What’s more impressive is that the Celtics are shutting down opposing teams' transition opportunities at a high clip, forcing them to work in the half-court. The Celtics are 5th in the league at facing half-court offense, with 80.5% of defensive possessions coming in the half-court.
- So, I think it’s fair to say that Boston’s nail-heavy, gap-helping defense is working wonders.
☘️Tatum attacking out of the corners
If you remember the games against the Brooklyn Nets a week or two ago, you will probably recall I pointed out how Porzingis was attacking out of the corners by ducking into post-ups to attack mismatches or cutting toward the elbow.
Well, we saw Tatum have two similar possessions during the second half.
On the above clip, Tatum started the possession in the weakside corner. He notices that Ja Morant is tasked with guarding him. So, he does what any smart post-player would do: he ducks into a post-up and calls for the ball.
As soon as the rock touches Tatum’s hands, it’s easy money.
This time, Tatum cuts out of the corner to set a flare screen for Pritchard.
From there, Tatum posts up at the elbow.
Once he; ‘s got the rock, it’s straight into his bag as he looks to create space at the nai.
From there, it’s cash money, baby.
I’m a big fan of having Tatum, Porzinigis or Brown attacking out of the corner, in terms of ducking into the post or screening to attack a potential switch.
There’s too much gravity at play when these actions occur. It’s also a simple way of forcing the opponent into giving up a mismatch — see Ja on Tatum or D-Lo on KP.
The Celtics have three players in the top 20 for total post-up possessions this season.
Brown is 14th with 138
Porzingis is 17th with 137
Tatum is 19th with 128
Therefore, it makes sense that Mazzulla and his coaching staff find ways to get creative with generating, executing, and even hiding post-up actions and/or entries.
☘️Horford ties everything together
I don’t care how old Horford is; he keeps finding ways to come up big when needed.
His third-quarter buzzer beater. His two threes in the fourth. His versatile defense played a role in his impressive outing against the Grizzlies.
The above possession was arguably my favorite from Horford.
The processing speed to recognize that Edey was closing out and would likely lack the hip flexibility to change directions was impressive. As was Horford’s burst on the first step.
Even at his age, Horford can still turn the corner at pace and finish on an angle. It doesn't matter who the defender is, or how tall they are. Grandpa Al is ready for all challenges.
I was also a fan of Horford’s steady offensive contributions.
8 points in the 1st. 5 points in the 2nd. 7 points in the 3rd. 6 points in the fourth. Just like his overall playstyle, his bucket-getting wasn’t flashy, but it was consistent and highly valuable.
Horford can always be trusted to scale his production when the Celtics are down a guy or two.
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Game Awards
🏆 Game-Changer: Derrick White takes home the trophy today. He was instrumental throughout. Even when his perimeter shot wasn’t falling, White stayed aggressive on both sides of the floor, he found ways to impact the game, and he came away with his name in the record books (twice).
Under the Radar: 🥷 Pritchard’s rebounding. He grabbed 2 offensive boards and chipped in with four in total. Sometimes, I think we’re so used to Pritchard coming up with rebounds that we forget how good he actually is at helping out on the glass.
Something worth noting ✍️: This was another one of those games where the Celtics didn’t shoot great from three. As a unit, Boston went 21-of-62 from downtown (33.9%). Their rebounding advantage and ability to create scoring opportunities at the other two levels were huge pluses in this win.
25 of Boston’s shots came in the paint or the restricted area.
The Celtics shot 42.9% in the paint, going 6-of-14.
They shot 90% in the restricted area, with 70% of their total attempts coming via an assist.
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Up Next
🔎 The Celtics are finally heading back to the TD Garden. They face the Miami Heat. Ironically, the Celtics started their 10-game win streak with a win over Miami in mid-March, so hopefully, they can make it 11 straight on Wednesday.
Don’t let the Heat’s record fool you. They’ve won five of their last seven games. In the last two weeks they rank third in the NBA for point differential, winning by an average margin of +13.9 points.
The Celtics rank second, though, so, there’s that…
🔎 A big part of the Heat’s success over the last two weeks has been down to their defense. In that 14-day span, they’re third the NBA in Defensive Points Allowed, allowing 106.1 per 100 possessions.
Their offense sits eighth during that same two-week timespan.
🔎 A key area to watch will be how willing the Celtics are to help out of the corners.
The Heat rank 2nd in the NBA for corner-three point frequency.
However, they’re middle-of-the-road in terms of conversion, knocking down 38.8% of their corner attempts.
Nevertheless, volume creates gravity. If you know a team is willing to fire away from the corners, you’re likely going to be far less open to the notion of sending help from the corner man. After all, it only takes a few to drop for someone to get hot.
🔎 Miami’s offense could struggle to generate quality shots.
They’re a middle-of-the-road team in terms of 3P%, hitting 37% of their attempts.
Miami likes to attack in the mid-range, specifically the area between the restricted area and the free-throw line — I like to call this the floater range.
25.2% of Miami’s total offense comes in the floater region.
They convert on 44.8% of those attempts.
However, as we saw above, Boston’s gap help and nail-heavy approach will seriously hamper the Heat’s ability to generate anything of quality, either in the mid-range or around the rim.
🔎 The Celtics should look to attack the rim when facing Miami.
Spoelstra’s team is 25th in defensive rim percentage, allowing teams to shoot 67.7% around the cup.
They’re also pretty bad at defending the mid-range, which could mean the Celtics look to attack or create out of the post.
Nevertheless, Miami always plays hard against the Celtics. So, Mazzulla’s team can’t get complacent. They’ve got to bring their A-game.
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