Hard as it is to believe now, the Boston Celtics were a team all discombobulated earlier this season. When Marcus Smart called on the team’s stars to distribute the ball better, it seemed like the Celts’ season was headed south in a hurry.
Not only have the Celtics turned their season around, they appear as dangerous as any of the other top teams in the East. Much of the story revolves around their defense, the best in the league as of this Sunday with a defensive rating of 106.6 per Cleaning the Glass. Since January 1st, the Celtics defense has been nearly 3 points per 100 better than Dallas (?!) in second place, equivalent to the gap between Dallas and Cleveland’s ninth place defense over the same span.
Smart’s comments were about the offensive side though and Boston has pulled things together on that end as well. Boston has had a borderline top-ten offense in 2022, with a scorching 121.4 offensive rating over the last two weeks (six games). And a lot of it comes to better distribution. But this is about more than Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. The Celts are distributing the ball much better as a team. Since January 1st, Boston has had the eighth most assists in the league per Second Spectrum (nearly 26 per game). Perhaps more impressive is that over the same span, they are tied with the Kerrball Warriors for the most secondary assists in the league.1 While neither number is a perfect indicator of how well the Celtics are distributing the ball, they accord with what one sees with the Celtics these days. The ball is moving.
Watch the Celtics and one sees a lot of smart basketball on the offensive end (shoutout February Coach of the Month Ime Udoka). Against the Nets on Sunday, the Celts picked at the scabs in Brooklyn’s defense. When he got the shorter Seth Curry switched onto him, Jayson Tatum did not hesitate to take him to the elbow for an easy pull up. Boston was merciless in running Kyrie Irving through screen after screen whenever he was on the ballhandler (sometimes just re-screening him repeatedly till he gave up).
A few times, the Celts placed Al Horford in the strong side corner with Andre Drummond marking him. Here, Robert Williams III goes up to set a pick for Tatum. Kevin Durant calls for Tatum’s man, Bruce Brown, to switch onto Williams, but Drummond also pinches in on Williams’ roll. Tatum does not miss a beat in skipping the pass over to Horford for a high percentage open corner look (Horford is shooting 41% on corner threes this season per CTG).
There are a lot of things to love about this play: Even if Brown successfully switches onto Williams, Williams is bouncy and has enough of a height advantage to bring the lob threat in play. So one can’t fault Drummond for pinching in so aggressively. The thing I love even more: personnel recognition. A large center like Drummond isn’t used to marking out in the corner. He is less likely to strike the balance between tagging the roller and closing out on the shooter. And even if he does, this isn’t a mobile wing we’re talking about; the closeout is going to be that much slower. A final point on that: putting Horford in the corner also takes Drummond out of rebounding position. I even like Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown running a little misdirection on the other side of the floor (although Brown isn’t wholly committed to the bit, not that it takes much to distract Kyrie from help responsibilities). Simple and deadly.
Although his impact on the box score was small, Williams stood out to me in Sunday’s game with his ability to see plays ahead of time. Pundits like Steph Noh have detailed the creative ways in which the Celtics are using Williams on defense. They are able to do this because of Williams’ athleticism, but also because Williams is a smart defender who knows how to play that role well. Those smarts are also on display on the other side of the ball. His passing has drawn plaudits, but Williams can create baskets without touching the basketball.
Take this play: Williams has space to saunter into the lane after entering the ball to Horford in the post. The Nets think they have the lob to Williams covered with Durant playing as the backside safety and Drummond dropping back as well. But there’s a twist: Williams points Horford to Tatum in the weakside corner before setting a screen to prevent either Durant or Drummond from closing out on Tatum. That play registers as an assist for Horford and a made three for Tatum, but a lot of credit is Williams’.2
Or how about this subtle piece of acting from Williams. He starts the play by pointing at Jaylen Brown in the weakside corner. Williams and Horford look to be setting up for double pin downs to free up Brown, but as soon as Williams sees a window, he veers out of it for a wide open alley oop.3
One can see how much Williams enjoys setting teammates up, even when he isn’t actually making the pass. Al Horford has cut through the lane to the weakside corner as Williams starts his roll here. Recognizing that Horford’s man, Durant, has lingered in the lane to tag the roll, Williams frantically gestures for the ballhandler Marcus Smart to pass the ball to Horford. It’s a beautiful skip pass from Smart right into Horford’s shooting pocket and I love that Williams is alive to the options opened up by his roll.
The Celts will play many better defenses than the Nets’, but if the offense can keep doing this, that top flight defense vaults them into the contender tier.
To recap, secondary assists (also called “hockey assists”) refer to the pass that leads to the pass that leads to a basket i.e. the pass that leads to an assist.
It’s a mark of how uncoordinated the Nets defense is that the screen from Williams proves unnecessary. But in theory, that screen precludes a closeout from either Tatum’s original man Durant, or Drummond switching out onto Tatum.
The defensive communication from the Nets is just awful right now. Chalk some of it up to this group having had no game reps together, but this team can’t stop anybody right now. I feel for Andre Drummond there; he’s given up on marking Williams knowing that Kyrie isn’t going to stay with Marcus Smart coming around the screen. This may have been Kyrie Irving’s worst defensive game of the game.