10 takeaways from a spacing battle in Oklahoma City

#1 – Court docket geometry

Court docket geometry final evening was on the coronary heart of the battle. Each groups arrange their gamers in exact positions to make sure their stars had essentially the most area to assault the rim. For instance, to begin the sport, the Celtics arrange Kristaps Porzingis in opposition to Cason Wallace so he may ignore him and stay near the rim.

Nevertheless, to counter that, all of the OKC off-ball gamers moved to the other facet of Cason Wallace and Porzingis. Because of this, there was numerous area on the left facet, the place solely Wallace and Porzingis have been. This allowed Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to drive to his left with all of the area he wanted. This additionally eliminated any rim safety from Porzingis, who may solely attempt to disrupt the drive, however there was merely an excessive amount of area.

On the opposite facet, the Celtics additionally arrange their gamers to provide Jayson Tatum as a lot area as potential. The Celtics theoretically had higher spacing than the Thunder, due to their facilities who can shoot from three. Right here, for instance, Porzingis is dragging Isaiah Hartenstein away from the rim.

Moreover, because the Celtics are taking part in five-out, the stunts weren’t very efficient on the drive, and the rim safety from Jalen Williams was a bit late. The geometry of the courtroom and the placement of each piece on the chessboard have been key final evening—and developed within the second half. Certainly, if the Celtics scored solely 27 factors within the second half, it’s as a result of OKC coach Mark Daigneault adjusted how his gamers would defend the Celtics’ spacing.

#2 – Shrink the ground

To beat the Celtics, you need to select your poison and hope you selected properly. That’s precisely what OKC did, however the Celtics additionally helped them slightly bit. First, OKC hoped that, due to exhausting closeouts, the Celtics would miss extra three-pointers than typical—they usually did. Three for twenty-four within the second half; this was a terrific imitation of the 2018 Houston Rockets within the Western Convention Finals.

To shrink the ground, the Thunder didn’t hesitate to always swap and despatched two gamers to the ball when wanted. After the Celtics created numerous simple alternatives from post-ups within the first half, the Thunder determined to ship two gamers and compelled the ball to maneuver. They most well-liked to run after the ball and contest the three relatively than give the Celtics a simple path to the rim, and it labored.

By the primary half, the Celtics made 12 rim makes an attempt out of 13; within the second, it was 2 out of 9. As Joe Mazzulla mentioned, they didn’t do a superb job with their spacing, and the Thunder’s adaptation derailed their typical offense.

#3 – Lazy passes

The Thunder is the most effective staff at creating turnovers within the NBA. In accordance with cleaningthelass.com, they drive their opponents right into a 20% turnover charge. Because of this, on common, Thunder opponents lose the ball as soon as each 5 possessions. After a clear first half, the Celtics have been punished within the second.

The Thunder thrives on lazy passes—they wait patiently, at nighttime, for his or her opponents to ship a nasty move and steal the ball. Take a look at the video beneath the place Derrick White tried an entry move for Kristaps Porzingis:

Isaiah Hartenstein comes from behind, leaving Al Horford open and punishing the Celtics for a median move despatched into the center of the paint. General, within the second half, the Celtics had 10 turnovers for 3 assists—that claims so much in regards to the Celtics’ passing over the last 24 minutes.

#4 – Underneath strain

But, lazy passing wasn’t the one reason for turnovers. The Celtics ball-handlers’ management wasn’t at its finest final evening, in all probability because of fatigue from the highway journey and maybe as a result of Jaylen Brown was nonetheless in discomfort because of his harm.

Nonetheless, the Celtics couldn’t deal with the strain and physicality the Thunder utilized yesterday. Even after an offensive rebound by the Celtics, the Thunder gamers acted like sharks smelling blood—then grabbed the ball from the Celtics’ drained arms.

One other nice instance of the Celtics’ fatigue and lack of ability to take care of the Thunder’s strain was the offensive fouls on screens. It’s uncommon to see that from the Celtics, however yesterday, you might really feel that even the screens have been exhausting to set, resulting in extra turnovers.

#5 – Empty facet actions tactical battle

The battle round empty-side motion was on the coronary heart of the tactical changes. Within the first half, the Celtics have been capable of punish the Thunder due to their spacing from these actions, resulting in simple photographs on the rim.

Within the second half, the Thunder took these actions away. By switching every thing, they didn’t concede any gaps—they relatively conceded mismatches and despatched two gamers.

Within the motion above, you possibly can see that the Thunder doesn’t thoughts switching after a Payton Pritchard empty-side pick-and-roll or after a Jayson Tatum and Luke Kornet step-up display screen. They don’t care as a result of they completely don’t wish to concede a niche that might open up the rim. Due to this fact, they hold switching and have the roster to be aggressive on the ball-handler and within the passing lanes, which ends up in one more turnover.

#6 – Double large lineups to shrink the ground much more

I’ve talked in regards to the Celtics’ spacing points, however the Thunder confronted the identical downside—the primary distinction was that they made the photographs the Celtics didn’t count on them to. For instance, Lu Dort, who the Celtics thought of a non-shooting menace, made extra three-pointers than all the Celtics staff within the second half.

With two large males, the Celtics may ship two gamers on SGA after a pick-and-roll within the center whereas preserving the opposite near the rim. This pressured turnovers and made SGA take troublesome photographs—or belief his teammates to shoot higher than typical.

Fortunate for the Thunder, that’s what occurred. Nonetheless, there appear to be limitations to their spacing they should tackle—however they’re additionally creating methods to trick the ground geometry and nonetheless discover area for SGA generally. The issue with these double-big lineups is that they don’t simply take away the spacing for the opponents, they take it away for the Celtics too. Due to this fact, each groups have been preventing to search out area on a crowded ground.

#7 – Discovering area on a crowded ground

Whereas the Celtics struggled to search out area for Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, the Thunder created an island so SGA may assault Jrue Vacation one-on-one. After his feedback on not liking to defend gamers like SGA, it’s no shock to see that occuring.

To create this island, the Thunder arrange 4 gamers on the opposite facet of the ground and compelled the Celtics away. Due to this fact, the Celtics had the selection to both ship one other participant and depart Jrue on an island—which they did.

SGA may be among the finest one-on-one gamers within the NBA, so I ponder if the Celtics will double him subsequent sport. Particularly since it could be simpler to double him whereas he’s remoted on one facet, with three Celtics masking the 4 different Thunder gamers.

#8 – Celtics’ lack of ability to pull Hartenstein away

Within the second half, the Celtics weren’t capable of drag Hartenstein away. If you wish to evaluate what they did to Sengun, you possibly can learn the earlier ten takeaways. Why couldn’t they drag him away from the rim?

Effectively, normally the Celtics take away a middle’s rim safety by forcing him to change onto Jayson Tatum. Nevertheless, Isaiah Hartenstein may be the hardest heart to punish on mismatches. Due to this fact, the Celtics didn’t contain him as a lot in pick-and-roll actions.

Due to that, Hartenstein might be the low man within the paint and disrupt all of the Celtics’ rim makes an attempt. It is a nice reproduction of what Memphis did a number of weeks in the past. The Celtics didn’t wish to contain him within the pick-and-roll, and subsequently, he may roam within the paint, leaving Jrue Vacation or Al Horford open. It’s price noticing that an increasing number of defenses are deciding to depart one of many Celtics open to guard the rim.

#9 – OKC transition protection

It was final evening’s spotlight, however there may be extra to it. Oklahoma Metropolis’s transition protection was stellar—not solely on this SGA block over Jayson Tatum.

In transition, the Celtics scored 60 factors per 100 possessions. Even worse, from their defensive rebounds, they not often generated an try, and once they did, they solely created 33 factors per 100 possessions on these actions.

This reveals two aspects of the sport I’ve identified on this article: the Celtics have been out of power, and the Thunder would relatively die than give the Celtics a simple look.

#10 – Yet one more problem earlier than going residence

Earlier than going again residence, the Celtics have one final problem. On Tuesday, they may face the Denver Nuggets, whom they haven’t overwhelmed since November 2022. The Celtics have had hassle coping with Nikola Jokić’s scoring and playmaking. Will they be capable to flip it again on and produce the power? The reply comes on Tuesday.