Ten plays that highlight Porzingis’ defensive challenges

There were a lot of expectations for Kristaps Porzingis before the series against the Orlando Magic. For the first time in his short career as a Celtic, he was starting a playoff matchup healthy, and the public was looking forward to his impact in a postseason context. Well, it’s safe to say that so far, the results are mixed.

The shooting gravity he brings is schematically very important. He still makes the Celtics the best spacing team in the league when he is on the floor. But on the other side of the ball, it has been poor in terms of individual performance. The Magic offense is targeting him, and the Celtics must find a solution. Nonetheless, the Latvian big man is aware of all that and seemed ready to address these problems after the last game:

In this article, we will look into Porzingis’ struggles on defense and look for potential solutions. We will focus on defense because that is the most alarming issue for the Celtics’ back-to-back expectations.

During this series, the Latvian big man has been matched up with Wendell Carter Jr., Jonathan Isaac, or a non-shooting guard like Anthony Black. In terms of defensive coverage, the Celtics ask him to be in drop coverage. They tried to make him switch too, but the results have been troublesome.

First example below has KP in drop coverage that didn’t stop Franz Wagner. The German is a tall ball-handler with a high release, which makes him harder to contain. But because of the drop coverage, the young star can also gain a lot of speed before getting into the shooting motion.

The speed and Wagner’s frame are enough to move Porzingis and create enough space for a floater above the defense. Plus, Wendell Carter Jr. is a step ahead of Jaylen Brown because of the drop coverage, which gives the Orlando Magic an edge at the offensive rebound if needed.

Because he has a bigger impact close to the rim, the Celtics are trying to keep him low in a roamer position. He plays like a safety because he is matched up with a non-shooting guard whom the Celtics are happy to leave alone. However, the Magic find a way to punish that with movement.

In the play below, Porzingis is matched up with Black at the end of the first quarter. The Magic game plan is to drag the big man as far as possible and set a screen to punish his lack of mobility. He followed Black high enough so that when Wagner set a screen for the guard, KP couldn’t keep up with the cut to the rim.

From another out-of-bounds action, the Magic were able to punish Porzingis’ insufficient movement patterns. Because of the drop coverage, Derrick White has to fight over the screen while the big man remains stagnant. Jaylen Brown stays on the in-bounder, and that’s another open shot for the Magic.

The pick-and-roll and the set actions were the biggest half-court defense issues in Game 3. Another example below where there seems to be a misunderstanding of the defensive coverage: Kristaps switches, but Jayson Tatum stays on the ball. This should trigger help from the weak side, but nobody is ready to rotate. Hard to tell who is to blame, but the defensive execution is problematic.

New pick-and-roll, new exposition of the Celtics’ problem on half-court defense with Porzingis. Wendell Carter Jr. sets a good screen and Jaylen Brown gets stuck in it. Because they don’t switch, this triggers help from the weak side. But Carter Jr. is pretty good on the short-roll and finds Cory Joseph open beyond the three-point line.

As the game goes on, the examples keep piling up. The Magic clearly identified that it was a weakness in the Celtics’ defense, and they didn’t stop going after him. In the next play, Brown gets stuck in the screen again, Porzingis is in drop coverage, and Wendell Carter Jr. goes behind him. This triggers weak side help from Al Horford.

Again, Carter Jr. is a smart passer and finds Wagner open in the corner. Horford tries his best but gets beat on the closeout, and the Magic have three players open from another pick-and-roll action.

Following that, Joe Mazzulla tried the Kornet/Porzingis double-big lineup. This meant one of the two seven-footers had to defend against Banchero or Wagner. Once Banchero got the ball isolated against KP, he drove and was able to find a shot position deep in the paint. Like we saw on the pick-and-roll, this triggered help at the rim, which gave space for Carter Jr. to grab yet another offensive rebound and score another putback.

New twist in the pick-and-roll action from the Orlando Magic. This time they go for a Spain pick-and-roll, with Isaac setting a screen on the ball and Wagner setting a screen on Isaac’s defender, Porzingis. As they don’t switch, Brown stays in the middle for a second and loses Wagner, who runs beyond the line and makes another open three.

And then, to finish the game and this article, let’s look at the two actions that sealed the deal and exposed Kristaps Porzingis once and for all. First, Wagner found the mismatch he wanted and was ready to attack the Latvian big man. The Celtics decided not to send help, and Porzingis backed down as the possession progressed… Once Wagner had a step in the paint, he drove, spun, and created an open three for himself.

Just a little bit later, Wagner pointed at Porzingis so KCP would come for a screen and bring him the Latvian big man so he could try to cook him.

And once again, that’s what he did.

While this looks problematic, the Celtics have what it takes to find solutions. They already did it before with Robert Williams, for example. Back in 2022, the Celtics built an elite defense while keeping the Timelord close to the rim. Every time a team tried to involve him in a screen, the Celtics would switch off-ball, and another player would replace Williams in the screening action so he stayed low.

The Celtics could also try to imitate the Nuggets’ approach with more pressure on the ball handlers. The Magic don’t have that good of spacing, so why not try that approach? We also saw some zone defense in Game 2, which didn’t always work, but it protected Porzingis and disrupted the offensive flow.

So don’t worry, the Celtics coaching staff and Kristaps Porzingis will be alright. Nonetheless, it’s better to learn how to deal with these defensive dilemmas early in the postseason. You have more time to prepare and adapt your approach for the better teams that the Celtics will face along the way.