#1 Sam Hauser’s movement
Sam Hauser shot 7-of-11 from deep against the Charlotte Hornets. A lot of his buckets came via off-ball movement, specifically “shaking,” — which is a fancy way of saying he cut out of the corner toward the wing or the baseline.
I’ll probably say this a dozen more times between now and whenever the Boston Celtics season ends: Hauser is one of the best movement shooters in the NBA. His timing of when to re-locate into space to generate a passing lane for the ball-handler continues to get better and better. As you can see in the above clip, Hauser “shakes” into space on the wing, where Payton Pritchard has a better angle to make the pass. From there, it’s an easy bucket.
Of course, Hauser is just as reliable as a stationary catch-and-shoot threat.
He’s not always going to have these monster shooting nights, but they’re certainly becoming more frequent. Loved what we saw from him against the Hornets.
#2 Empty side actions
Attacking open-corner actions makes sense for this Celtics team. It provides extra spacing. It removes the low help. And, it creates an open lane to drive and attack. What was interesting was that the Celtics looked to attack empty side actions in transition — specifically in the first half and primarily via drag screens.
The Celtics’ offense is versatile enough to punish empty corner actions in multiple ways. In the above clip, Tatum bursts through the defense and attacks the rim for an easy dunk. There’s no gap help coming from the corner because there’s no strong-side help defender.
Other times, we could see the Celtics look to draw a double-team off the baseline and create passing lanes on the cut, or they could simply look to get into a movement shot with little resistance.
Opening possessions with an empty corner is a good way of spacing the floor, especially if you’re looking to get paint touches for spray threes or to pressure the rim. Having someone come over and fill the corner once an action is underway is also a great way of spreading out the defense, as it’s trying to contain what’s happening elsewhere on the floor.
Watch Holiday’s movements on this possession. They end up being inconsequential, but you can see how moving to fill the corner as the possession is occurring on the other side of the floor can pull the defense and create gaps to exploit from the perimeter.
#3 Pritchard’s Nash dribble
I’ve spoken about Pritchard’s “Nash” dribble before. We’ve covered it ad nauseam in these takeaways. However, it continues to impress me. By keeping his dribble alive when attacking the rim, Pritchard has found a way to generate high-quality offense off the dribble, thus improving his value as an on-ball creator.
Two of his five dimes against the Hornets came via this type of movement, both of them were for Hauser in the weakside corner and both of them came via a one-handed dime. Pritchard’s ability to vary his pace, get low on the ball, and keep his movement going across the baseline will be a tough wrinkle for teams to guard moving forward.
#4 Same set, new variation
“Ram” actions have been a Celtics offense staple since Ime Udoka patrolled the sidelines. Joe Mazzulla has continued to utilize them during half-court sets. Running ram is a quick way to create a mismatch, both on the perimeter and with the screener.
Against the Hornets, the Celtics went to a new variation of this action. Rather than setting the down screen around the baseline, they set it near the weakside corner, allowing Al Horford to cut on a more diagonal line. Horford then rolled hard to the rim, forcing the switch and giving him a mismatch to bully in the post.
The concept was the same. The execution was the same. The location of the initial screen is all that changed. However, that allowed Kristaps Porzingis to float out to the corner and space the floor across the baseline, giving Horford more room to work out of the post and limiting the help defense that can come out of the strong.
#5 Tatum vs. Hornets
Jayson Tatum always plays well against the Hornets. Perhaps it’s because their defense has struggled for years on end. Perhaps it’s because he enjoys playing in their arena. Who knows? All we do know is that Tatum has faced them 23 times, and he’s averaging 26.9 points, 6.9 boards and 3.4 assists.
So, it was no surprise when he went for a double-double on Monday night. He had 25 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and a block. In typical Tatum fashion, he didn’t take over the game; he just took what came to him and used his gravity to generate openings for his teammates.
Still, it’s always fun to see Tatum out there doing his thing, especially against a team he’s known to cook — for no good reason whatsoever.
#6 The return of 2-1-2 press
With the end of the regular season rapidly approaching and the Celtics having very little to play for at this point, it makes sense that Mazzulla is iterating through some of the things we saw earlier in the season. One of those things was the 2-1-2 press.
Granted, we’ve seen the Celtics roll out this pressure defense at times through the season, but for a good stretch, it was seldom used. Still, it was fun to see the Celtics go back to it on Monday, and it was even more fun to see that it generated a quick turnover from the Hornets.
There will definitely be a place for this type of defensive pressure in the post-season. Having extra reps and getting some additional possessions on film is certainly a good thing — especially when there’s not much riding on the game.
#7 Grant Williams – good for you
Grant Williams was certainly a polarizing figure when he was with the Celtics. I was a fan. I liked his defensive versatility, his spacing in the corners, and the fact he was adding drives into his game to beat closeouts. Other sections of the fanbase were definitely not fans.
Either way, I think it’s great to see Williams has found a role for himself on his hometown team. He’s playing well for them. He had a solid night against the Celtics. After a tough — and surprisingly short — stretch with the Dallas Mavericks, Williams will get the additional rope he needs to keep improving and rebuilding his value around the league.
I’m always happy to see a former Celtic do well, especially one who was drafted by the team and played a role in a run to the NBA Finals. Good for him. I hope he continues to thrive.
#8 Pinch actions
“Pinch” — an action where a player (usually a big one) has the ball on the elbow or in the post (often what started as the weak side, but not always) with an empty corner behind him and usually no one on the wing or slot. It’s taken from the Triangle offense system.
In the clip above, the Celtics get Luke Kornet into a pinch action before Al Horford and Derrick White set a stagger screen for Payton Pritchard, who then goes into a boomerang sequence with Kornet before attacking off the dribble.
The Celtics like to put Porzingis in the pinch when asking him to score out of isolation. He found sucssess on two straight possessions because of it.
#9 “Fire”
If you’ve been watching JJ Redick and LeBron James’ “Mind The Game” podcast, you would have heard them discussing the term “fire” which is a double team from the nail. I had never heard that term before, but it’s something I’ve been looking out for.
So, it was a cool moment when you could hear Steve Clifford yelling out “fire” to send a double at Tatum from the nail on Monday.
#10 Porzingis’ size will always be a factor
Porzingis size and versatility will always be a factor for the Celtics. He held his opponents to 28.7% shooting on the perimeter and 11-of-21 on the interior. He worked on the glass; he provided size around the offensive rim.
There’s a reason why he is the Celtics X-Factor for the postseason. He just brings so many different dimensions to Boston’s rotation. I know this isn’t much of a game-based takeaway, but I just wanted to shout out his on-court impact again, it definitely felt like it had been a while since I’d done that.
Looking ahead
The Celtics will face the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday. It’s arguably their last “big” match of the regular season. I’m excited to see a competitive game with both teams looking to learn something about themselves and each other. Still, I’m not going to put much stock in the result. Another side could choose to mail it in on the night.
Nevertheless, I am hopeful we get to see some high-level competitive basketball.
