The Celtics weren’t a whiz-bang offense like the Pacers, Kings, and Warriors. Instead, coach Joe Mazzulla instituted a muscular game plan that reduced the number of passes required to find a good shot. With a five-out alignment, the team didn’t need six passes per possession to crack the defense.
Often, the ball only had to change hands once or twice before it found the bottom of the net. As a team, they were middle of the pack in assists, ranking 14th with 26.9 dimes per night. However, they were only 24th in passes made per game.
The Celtics are also noteworthy for sharing the wealth, boasting five players averaging at least 3.0 assists per game. Derrick White led the team with 5.2 assists per game. Only Miami (Jimmy Butler, 5.0) and Utah (Jordan Clarkson, also 5.0) had leading passers with a lower number.
Rather than concentrating its playmaking on one or two players, Boston utilized an egalitarian offense with a vast number of scoring permutations available. Put another way: the top assist combination in the league was Tyrese Haliburton to Myles Turner. Haliburton assisted Turner on 215 made field goals. Boston’s top combination, White to Jaylen Brown, only connected on 84!
I wanted to look deeper at some of the team’s most prolific passing combinations, and luckily, PBPstats.com keeps that information handy for just such an exercise! (Thanks to Azad Rosay for help with the data!)
1) Derrick White -> Jaylen Brown (84 assists)
As mentioned, the White/Brown connection was the most common assist pairing on the team. The fun part is that a full 58 of those 84 were 2-pointers versus just 26 triples. Eight pairings resulted in more three-pointers; instead, the White/Brown connection was a huge component of Boston’s rim pressure.
White loved to look for Brown in semi-transition, often giving up the ball quickly to allow Jaylen a full head of steam. Many of Brown’s best dunks came off a White pass:
The Celtics also loved to run this simple Brown ghost screen out of a Horns set, utilizing Porzingis as a screener for Brown:
Frankly, the scorekeepers were a little generous with some of White’s assists (but who’s complaining?):
The numbers don’t lie. This was the most prolific and consistent A-to-B connection on the team.
2) Jayson Tatum -> Kristaps Porzingis (77 assists)
The second-most common assist duo was JT to KP (and without Porzingis’ injuries, it would have taken first place, as Porzingis and Tatum only had 52 games together compared to White and Brown’s 65).
I love the symmetry of this pairing. Thirty of the assists came on above-the-break threes, and 30 came at the rim. (*Cut to Mazzulla pumping his fist*) Most involve Tatum drawing the defense’s attention and finding Porzingis either on the pick-and-pop or as a roller, depending on the play call.
Tatum’s growth as a playmaker is most evident in disrupted or broken plays. He can keep his composure and read the floor at a glance, dropping perfectly placed dimes to his biggest target whenever things get hectic. Younger versions of Tatum might have tried to corral this lost pass and reset the offense, but last year’s Tatum turned a misstep into an opportunity:
Watching all of the Tatum/Porzingis assists gives me even more appreciation for Porzingis as a cutter, too. He’s hardly a stationary presence out there, and he’s heady about timing his cuts for when the defense isn’t looking:
3) Derrick White -> Jayson Tatum (73 assists)
The most interesting thing about the White/Tatum pairing is the distribution. Just nine of the 73 connections resulted in midrange buckets; the rest were at the rim or three-pointers. That is by far the most optimal mapping of any of the high-volume assist combinations. (*Cut to Mazzulla pumping his other fist*)
There were all kinds of buckets in this, uh, bucket, but nothing super fancy. A lot of White hitting Tatum in transition, a lot of simple swing passes to Tatum on the perimeter as a secondary action. The most enjoyable assists featured White feeding Tatum on quick flashes in the post:
I love when Tatum sets a screen for a shooter (often Sam Hauser) and then brutalizes the resulting smaller switch defender to establish position before receiving the pass. These quick post-ups showcase Tatum in his most aggressive mode, and an aggressive Tatum is a great Tatum.
4) Derrick White -> Kristaps Porzingis (71 assists)
The main thing to note here is that 73% of these assists were two-pointers, the highest ratio in the top-10. More than anyone else on the team, White took advantage of Porzingis’ ludicrous height and reach. It was Lob City, both on the pick-and-roll…
and on easy dismantling of post mismatches:
Of note: a full 20 of the 71 assists were converted in the short midrange area, by far the most of any pairing.
5) Jrue Holiday -> Brown (70 assists)
The Holiday to Brown assists are similar but not quite the same as those from White. A higher percentage were three-pointers (26/70, compared to 26/84 for White). The different passing styles of Holiday and White pop on film. White is a quick-touch passer, analyzing the floor and throwing the second an opening presents itself as he flits around the court. Holiday prefers to create an advantage with his power, dribbling into the teeth of the defense before performing a root canal with perfect drop-offs and kick-outs:
Getting into the weeds, Holiday and White drove the same number of times per game despite White averaging 10 more touches. And I found it interesting that it took this long for us to find a Holiday pairing. Again, it reinforces what sort of sacrifices Holiday made to let Derrick White shine his brightest.
Bonus: 10) Payton Pritchard -> Sam Hauser (55 assists)
You have to go all the way down to 10th for the first combination that doesn’t involve any of the starters. The Pritchard to Hauser bench mob connection is exactly what you’re thinking: a full-on shelling from three. Just two of these assists came at the rim, compared to 47 from beyond the arc.
You don’t need a video of Pritchard driving and Hauser relocating into an open three-ball, but I did the homework anyway, so I’m putting it here:
Some other quick notes:
A. Jaylen Brown’s first appearance as a passer is in the sixth spot (to Porzingis, naturally).
B. Despite his truncated season, Porzingis is still the twine-tickler in four of the top seven combinations. That shouldn’t surprise: nearly 80% of his field goals were assisted, far more than any other starter.
C. In slightly fewer possessions together, Al Horford actually had one more assist to Jaylen Brown (38) than Derrick White had to Horford (37). I don’t know why I found that noteworthy, but I did!
D. In case you’re wondering, Jayson Tatum had 45 assists to Jaylen Brown; Brown had 31 assists to Tatum.
E. In total, White generated 148 assists at the rim and 156 assists from deep, the closest to an even split of any of the top six passers on the team (White, Tatum, Holiday, Pritchard, Brown, and Horford). Tatum assisted nearly twice as many threes as shots at the rim, often collapsing the defense with drives and then kicking out to open shooters.
