Throughout their developmental years, this Boston Celtics core came upon how debilitating and momentum-shifting turnovers could be. One second, you’re using the crest of a wave, controlling each facet of the sport; then, within the blink of a watch, the tides flip.
When dealing with the Golden State Warriors in final season’s NBA Finals, the Celtics had been as soon as once more reminded of the affect ill-timed turnovers could cause and the way over the course of a collection, it will probably really feel like loss of life by a thousand paper cuts.
Turnovers are inevitable on the NBA stage the place you’re confronted with one of the best, most athletically gifted defenders on this planet and are pressured to assault at tempo within the hope of making some daylight. But, one of the best groups discover a technique to care for the ball when it issues.
Happily for the Celtics, it will seem that they’re now passing on these powerful classes and snatching away momentum at each attainable flip. We noticed it of their victory over the Sacramento Kings, the place Boston pressured 14 turnovers.
“They kicked our behinds,” Mike Brown stated after the sport. “Begins with me. All of us acquired our behinds kicked. There’s nothing difficult or hidden behind what I’m saying. They switched all the pieces and turned us over. We had 14 turnovers, they usually capitalized on virtually each turnover. So, they beat us within the turnover sport. They’d 5 turnovers, and we scored six factors off their 5 turnovers, so proper there, they outscored us by 15 factors within the turnover sport…That’s the ball sport, and you bought two guys like Tatum and Brown, they usually’re a load. We didn’t have a solution for them. So, you gotta give the Celtics credit score.”
But, turnovers are sometimes the byproduct of poor decision-making and never all the time because of defensive depth, which is why the Celtics have been placing in extra effort to steal the rock at each given alternative. Towards the Kings, they secured 9 steals earlier than bullying the Indiana Pacers by collaborating in grand theft basketball 11 occasions — and it’s all because of their elevated strain on the defensive finish.
Pay attention to the best way Boston took away the paint earlier than cranking up the strain, resulting in a nasty cross, which Marcus Good was well-placed to intercept.
All of it begins with Sam Hauser working in lock-and-trail protection as T.J. McConnell comes off a display. Grant Williams and Al Horford pinch into the paint to remove the driving lane and pressure a cross out to the nook. Hauser follows the rock and helps information Jordan Nwora towards Williams earlier than switching again out to McConnell, who has crammed the empty nook spot.
With nowhere to go, Nwora tries to get fancy with it, and from there, Boston is out to the races in transition.
As soon as once more, we see the Celtics ramp up the on-ball strain when defending the pick-and-roll. This time, it’s Good working within the lock-and-trail with Horford working in drop and Jaylen Brown turning the screws with a well-timed dig towards the ball, which scrambles Tyrese Haliburton’s mind for a quick second and offers the Celtics one more alternative to get the ball shifting at tempo and assault a scrambling Pacers protection.
To start with, let’s give the Celtics’ pick-and-roll protection some credit score. Of their final two video games, Boston has confronted two of the shiftiest younger guards within the league and located methods to comprise them and restrict their skill to get downhill and make issues occur. That’s not straightforward and will definitely be seen as an encouraging signal as we head towards the postseason.
However, Boston didn’t simply create havoc when defending the NBA’s most prevalent motion. As an alternative, the Celtics additionally discovered methods to do injury within the steals column by anticipating the offense’s subsequent transfer and outworking their counterparts when going for 50/50 balls.
Right here is an effective instance of anticipating the cross. Whereas it won’t look or sound prefer it on TV, elite defenses are in fixed communication with one another, so there’s little or no probability that Hauser wasn’t conscious of Nwora’s presence within the nook. After each Horford and Williams shut down the preliminary rim drive in transition, and the ball makes its method out to Buddy Hield, the Celtics’ protection settles in, with Derrick White forcing Hield to drive out of the nook, the place he’s met by Horford.
Herein lies the anticipation issue. Hauser can’t make certain that Hield is trying to skip the ball to Nwora, however he has to anticipate it, particularly if he desires to deflect or safe the rock. Certain sufficient, Hield sees Nwora sitting open on the weakside nook and appears to make the cross. Stolen.
In each sport, setting traps is a part of an elite protection, and whereas I’m not saying that the steal was courtesy of a well-laid entice, there’s a excellent probability that’s the case.
I’ve added this ultimate clip in for the vibes. Robert Williams is again, child, and the Pacers sport was arguably his greatest efficiency of the season. So, for Haliburton to be so brazen as to try an over-the-top cross on probably the most athletic bigs within the NBA, just for the ball to be stolen and Williams to deliver it over halfcourt — it’s the stuff Celtics followers dream of.
All through the six-game highway journey, there have been loads of moments the place Boston’s protection gave the impression to be lackluster and unreliable when the strain was on, with a number of blown leads the right proof. Nevertheless, within the final two outings, we’ve seen a model of the Celtics that we grew to become extremely accustomed to this time final 12 months. The trouble, hustle, and need have all been evident, so if that’s what we’re going to see shifting ahead, we could possibly be witnessing the following evolution on this group’s defensive identification; however that will probably be up for dialogue additional down the road, not after a two-game pattern dimension.
Nonetheless, with simply eight video games remaining within the common season, there are some good indicators and causes to be excited for what’s to come back. Hopefully, the Celtics can proceed to construct upon their rearguard performances of the final two video games after they face the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday night. In spite of everything, the Celtics have been taught these powerful classes previously; perhaps now it’s time for the scholar to imagine the function of trainer and reap the rewards that graduating tends to supply.
