The Celtics are built for the playoffs, just ask our usual tropes (part 1)

Identical to in literature, films, and tv, basketball is an ever-changing narrative panorama. Plots that felt novel and distinctive within the 90’s are actually weathered tropes that most likely get solved with a cellphone. Seinfeld and firm aimlessly strolling by means of a parking storage is solved by a easy look down at your iPhone’s parked automotive function. So too have we seen a few of our beloved NBA Playoffs tropes eroded to extinction with the passage of time and evolution of the sport.

Certainly one of my favourite lifeless tropes is that “soar taking pictures groups can’t win the title.” Whereas Steph Curry and the Warriors had been the start of the tip for this one (and perhaps the tip of the tip in 2022), each fashionable NBA crew would qualify as a soar taking pictures crew when in comparison with the early 2000s.

There are, nevertheless, some basic tropes that also maintain robust, three of which we are going to soar into right now. First, we’ve a crowd favourite: “the sport slows down.” The second might be much less relevant given the best way refs have began calling video games, however alas, it’s additionally true within the playoffs: “the refs swallow their whistles.” The third is an amalgamation of some tropes, issues like not turning it over and defending the defensive glass. I’ve summed it up into one catch-all trope: “you must win the possession battle.”

*Half 2 will focus on “the refs swallow their whistles” and “you must win the possession battle.”*

Trope #1: the sport slows down

This one sounds a bit like me making an attempt to persuade my pals to look at The Wire (it’s slower, but it surely’s completely price it, I promise). Once we speak in regards to the recreation slowing down, that’s mainly shorthand for saying defenses get again faster and crisper. Groups are extra cautious on offense, which limits transition alternatives. To sum it up, playoff basketball is half-court basketball. Nicely, excellent news, everybody!

The Celtics elite offense is, shockingly, elite within the half-court (stats per Cleansing the Glass). Like G.O.B. trying right into a paper bag labeled “lifeless dove,” that may appear ridiculously apparent, however there have been glorious common season offenses that relied closely on transition buckets to bolster their effectivity. A few of the Nick Nurse Raptors groups match that profile. It’s like Seinfeld discovering a girlfriend, seems nice on paper, however they’ll have hassle placing a hoop on their finger (most likely as a result of dimension of her fingers). Though the Celtics do rank in the midst of the league in distinction between complete offensive effectivity and halfcourt offensive effectivity.

There are a number of causes for the offensive eliteness, one merely being the ridiculous quantity of expertise on the roster. The Celtics’ half court docket offense is the NBA equal of the Cheers forged. However expertise is meaningless if it isn’t deployed correctly, and Joe Mazzulla has these guys drilled to a Dr. Cox degree of sensible crew basketball.

To state the plain for a second time on this temporary part, a part of the Celtics’ effectivity is their 3-point assault. Lovingly described as Mazzullaball by some, and mockingly so by others.

All charts from pbpstats.com.

Irrespective of your private emotions on the Cs’ three-point heavy assault, it has been extremely profitable. However we noticed in final 12 months’s Jap Convention Finals what it may well appear to be when the 3s aren’t falling.

Mazzulla promised to develop some curveballs within the offseason to get the offense buzzing when the 3s aren’t blowing groups off the court docket. Nicely, Joe will need to have watched some Sandy Koufax tape (excluding that point Mister Ed hit a homerun off him) as a result of he got here up with an elite one: the put up up.

There are 83 gamers which have 30 or extra put up up possessions this season (per Synergy), 4 Celtics are within the top-25 of effectivity: Jaylen Brown (twenty fifth), Jayson Tatum (seventeenth), Al Horford!! (4th!), and Kristaps Porzingis (1st!). All 4 are deployed in a different way, which supplies the Celtics a various assault even inside the identical playtype. Porzingis could be very typically used as a high-post hub the place he can shoot excessive or work himself nearer to the ring. JB’s post-ups are normally simply instruments for getting off his elite mid-range jumper, and Tatum typically assaults with spins and fall-aways close to the blocks. Horford post-ups are the equal of a clip present: they aren’t your choice, however typically they work simply positive. He punishes small defenders and poor alike when groups attempt to conceal them on him.

Add the post-ups with the Celtics long-range assault, and together with their different numerous units that result in decide and roll possessions and buckets off cuts, and it’s simple to see why their half court docket offense is so lethal. Not many groups can boast 4 elite put up up choices and seven of their high 8 taking pictures 37.5% or higher from three (Jaylen being the one man beneath that mark). The Celtics have extra counters than Avon Barksdale. There may be simply no good approach to defend this crew.

Now, let’s flip to the opposite facet of the court docket. Celtics followers can, at occasions, faucet into their interior Kahn and Mihn from King of the Hill. We turn out to be the overbearing guardian anticipating the crew to earn an A+ in each topic, which is objectively unattainable within the NBA. On this occasion, the C’s half court docket protection would carry disgrace to the household because it fails to fulfill that lofty commonplace and settles in across the A- vary.

Per Cleansing the Glass, the C’s have the fifth finest half court docket protection within the league, and the third finest protection general (they’re ridiculously good in transition). Their statistical profile is encouraging. The purpose of the Celtics is to guard the rim and restrict straight-line drives that drive assist and result in simple 2s and wide-open 3s. They’ve been extraordinarily profitable at this; not solely do they restrict the makes an attempt on the rim, however they drive a better share of misses on the pictures that do get off.

And whereas the Cs are center of the pack in opponent three-point fee, they’re elite at defending the road.

In addition they drive the 4th most worst pictures in basketball, the Sandy Lyle memorial lengthy mid-range jumper (“rain dance!”). Whereas Sandy was exceptionally horrible, his effectivity was exponentially broken by his reliance on the lengthy middy, and NBA offenses aren’t any completely different. You need opponents counting on these pictures to generate offense, as a result of the mathematics will win the day over the long term.

Permitting round 42.5% on these pictures, which is about common, is equal to an offensive score of 85 factors per 100 possessions. Even the Celtics’ middling middy protection equals a defensive win after they drive opponents into this look. That effectivity would rank lifeless final even in a number of the NBA’s most offensive starved eras.

Very similar to Dr. Evil’s Preparation H, the Celtics’ gameplan is working, and the entire stats above are proof of such. The Celtics usually are not an aggressive defensive crew, and mainly don’t drive turnovers (which we are going to focus on partially 2).

As a substitute, Mazzulla has instituted nearly a include type protection, maintaining all the pieces in entrance on the perimeter and funneling drives in direction of the Celtics’ Bond villain stand-in, Kristaps Porzingis. Their elite wing and guard defenders will help and recuperate towards any kick-outs from deterred rim assaults, permitting groups to generate threes, however typically towards a tough contest.

Enjoying protection this manner doesn’t serve to strangle offenses in fairly the identical method that the Celtics’ aggressive, switch-everything type underneath Udoka did. The Cs invite groups to shoot lengthy midrange jumpers (though Jrue and White are so good getting round screens, lock and trails, and rear-view contests that it’s not as open as our technique would usually dictate), so groups with gamers snug within the midrange can generate an honest shot practically each possession.

And that’s simply positive, the Celtics half court docket offense and protection is enjoying the mathematics, betting they’ll outscore you with 3s and rim assaults whereas forcing you to shoot the lights out on the league’s least environment friendly shot or make some effectively contested threes. To cite Ron Burgundy, “it’s science!”