Celtics-Knicks Game One: Two exploitations you may not have noticed
If you want to explore the x’s and o’s behind Doc Rivers’ genius play-calling skills, I suggest reading Sebastian Pruiti’s piece. If you want to see Rivers described as “the Picasso of the dry erase board”, read Chris Forsberg’s. Actually, read them both; your time will be well spent. But those final sets, as brilliant as they were, weren’t the only times the Celtics showed off good coaching and smart play. In the fourth quarter, with Game One on the line, Doc’s team earned a win in part by exposing two of New York’s weaknesses.
You’ll read a lot about Rivers’ ingenuity today, and Rivers certainly spent last night’s fourth quarter pantsing Mike D’Antoni. If I wanted to relay a tired joke, I’d call him Mike ‘Antoni, since he obviously has no ‘D.’ But I’m not that corny (okay, yes I am, but still), so I’ll call him D’Antoni. Either way, Doc abused him with brass knuckles.
There was the inbounds play, which resulted in an alley oop that took only 0.4 seconds off the clock. There was the final play, when Ray Allen (only the greatest three-point shooter in history) was freed for an open look. There was D’Antoni (or maybe you prefer ‘Antoni, or “the coach whose teams never play a lick of defense, although they did play quite hard last night”) calling his final timeout with 37 seconds left, leaving his team out of sorts when they had one final shot to tie or win the game. (To be fair, the Celtics were also all out of timeouts, and would have been in trouble if the Knicks had scored or Ray Allen had missed his three. They had used their final timeout while struggling to inbound the ball before the three. But I digress.) You remember all those plays, and you likely read plenty about them this morning.
What will get lost was Rivers’ willingness to let his stars make simple plays, especially when they had mismatches. Specifically, the Celtics identified two weak links they must have spotted either in game film or during earlier portions of the game.
One of the two simple plays the Knicks had trouble defending was Paul Pierce coming off a pick and roll. The Knicks switched the play every time, leaving Pierce defended by a big man. Armed with that knowledge, the Celtics went back to the well three separate times in the fourth quarter. Pierce scored on two of them.
Looking forward, Pierce’s shot-making ability will likely prove crucial during Boston’s title run. Last year, when Pierce nursed an injured knee that nobody knew about, he struggled to take Boston home, and Boston, predictably, failed to close out many games down the stretch. (Note: The team’s flaw reared its head at the worst possible time. And I am currently contemplating lighting my head on fire and jumping out the window. I’m not sure in what order.)
But now Pierce’s mobility his mobility has returned, and his shot-making ability has come with it. On Boston’s first time running the big-on-small pick-and-roll, Pierce hit a jumper over the outstretched arms of Amare Stoudemire. It was a good contest, but Pierce still had enough space to get the shot off comfortably.
The next time the Celtics ran the big-small pick-and-roll for Pierce, the Knicks again switched, except this time the unlucky defender was Ronny Turiaf. Pierce dribbled closer to the basket and stopped on a dime, using his quickness to create space for the jumper. Another bucket.
When Boston ran the same basic play a third time, Pierce finally missed. But the Knicks had again switched, and Pierce had again gottten a good look at the basket. I don’t know whether Mike D’Antoni told the Knicks to switch (in fact, I don’t know whether he discusses defense at all—*zing*), or whether Carmelo Anthony simply refused to work hard enough to get over the screen. Either way, when the Knicks switch in that situation, they are at Pierce’s mercy. They can only pray for a miss.
Pierce wasn’t the only Celtic who took advantage of New York’s defensive shortcomings. Because the Knicks spent a lot of time playing smaller shooting guards (Toney Douglas, for one), Ray Allen was able to show off his oft-overlooked, yet surprisingly polished post game. When Landry Fields had defended Allen, Allen could barely get a shot off. But Fields was stapled to the bench for most of the second half, allowing Allen to take advantage of the midgets. As my friend would say when a smaller defender guarded him, “Mouse in the house.”
First, Allen put Douglas in the blender. Sorry, little guy. You can’t stop this. Not without some stilts, at least.
Because Douglas was afraid Allen could shoot over him, he tried fronting him. With no backside help, that didn’t work either. A simple lob from Rondo led Allen straight to the hoop, where he made an and one.
If Chauncey Billups misses Game Two, the Knicks will obviously miss his presence. But one positive side effect will be less Toney Douglas at shooting guard; in that case, against a Celtics team that thrives on reading mismatches and taking advantage of them, the less, the better.
The best coaching doesn’t always come in the form of flawless late-game sets. Sometimes, the simple plays work just as effectively. Two New York weaknesses, five Boston possessions, nine Celtic points. And with that, along with some gritty defensive play, the Celtics had set the table for Ray’s last-minute heroics.
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Celtics Blog | Jay King | April 18, 2011
These video post are the very good and entertaining. Keep up the good work.
The celtics have so many weapons and they know how to exploit their weapons that is what makes them so good in the playoffs. They have more time to prepare allowing them to exploit these miss matches.
Last year KG killed Cleveland in the post.
Go C’s All About Banner 18
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Like the Cs, your work is improving with the playoffs. I second Nate. Go Cs…
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This stuff is great, Jay, but I’m not sure those Pierce jumpers are as terrific as you make them out to be. The first shot is right in his comfort zone, but the second is a baseline fadeaway with Turiaf draped all over him. Sure, it went in, and Pierce is a good enough shooter that it’ll go in fairly often, but at best its a dicey proposition.
However, I think the Pierce P-and-R is still a great play for a few reasons:
-Given Carmelo’s notorious tendency to overswitch on screens, I suspect we’ll continue to see switches. In this scenario, I’d like to see Pierce driving to the basket more often, since he has the quickness to blow past Turiaf or Amar’e even if they play off him some (and if they do, they concede nice easy 16-19 ft jumpers). Moreover, he has the sort of herky-jerky fakes that should easily be able to get a big man in the air for foul shots or an and-one (and get either Amar’e or Turiaf (their best defender)) in foul trouble). For instance, in the second clip, if that fadeaway attempt is a pump-fake, Turiaf almost certainly bites on it, especially since he’s an energy guy who is baited into a few of those fouls each game.
-I’d occasionally like to see one of the Celtics bigs exploit this matchup, especially if it’s KG. Once the switch is made, KG can post Carmelo all day long, as ‘Melo just doesn’t have the length to properly contest KG’s fadeaway jumper and KG has the court vision to exploit a double-team, if it comes. Jermaine may have a tougher time, since he’s not much of a post-up threat any more, but he’s still probably strong enough to get to his spot versus ‘Melo and get a good look.
-As in the third example, switching one of the Knicks’ bigs on Pierce increases offensive rebounding opportunities. ‘Melo is a pretty good defensive rebounder, but KG and Jermaine are longer than he is and Baby can probably muscle him out of position. Watch KG in that third clip– he easily gets good post position versus ‘Melo (but the ball bounces the other way).
PS: Love the rest of the work.
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Guys, thank you all. Thanks so much.
I have been told the Knicks had a “switch everything” pointer written in their locker room, so it wasn’t just Carmelo being lazy. It was their strategy, sadly.
And I don’t know if you’re giving Pierce enough credit. Maybe those shots weren’t great, but if he gets that switch, eight times out of ten he’s going to get a very make-able shot.
The point you make about offensive rebounding is a great one. The Knicks should probably stop switching everything.
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nice work
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Listen, we all know that the Celtics run good plays, and that Doc has a lot to do with that. It’s fun to remember that scene from the Association, where Hondo gives Doc a play, and the two of them chortle over it excitedly, like it’s Christmas and one of them just got a bb gun, and they live next door to an old greenhouse. But I think it’s a good idea to give some credit to the players too. They have a high Baskeball IQ as a group.
Also, it’s nice to see Doc making some comments where he finally seems to be admitting – though one has to read between the lines a little – that maybe The Trade really did kindof suck for the team. It’s good of Doc to back off a little from his Ainge Is Always Right and If the Guys Don’t Like It, They Suck stance.
But I think it’s a little rich to sing Doc’s praises as enthusiastically as folks have been doing after just one win, which we barely got. Also, while it’s great that the Cs love to run plays, it’s not so great that they constantly try to control the pace by walking the ball up (ie. letting the defense set, giving up initiative), and then standing around while the clock runs off, before running a play that has lost its dynamic punch by the time the Cs run it. Also, this approach plays into Rondo’s unfortunate tendency to tune out of a game, to fall asleep on his feet.
The Cs ought to press the ball up the court, when they go on offense, looking for opportunities in transition and pushing the defense off balance. Now I don’t mean that they should run out of control. It’s possible to push the ball without being out of control. Then, if they (Rondo) don’t see a good opportunity in transition, then it’s time to run a play, but WITHOUT giving the D plenty of time to set itself. Ideally, you want to run your play just as the opposition starts to set its D, but before it actually sets the D. That gives your play a better chance to work, and if it doesn’t produce a good look, then you still have time to either run another play, or to make something up. No matter how sophisticated plays become, basketball remains a game of energy and improvisation.
Or the Cs can continue to walk the ball up, wait for the D to set, wait for the clock to run down, and then run a play which had better be brilliant if it is going to work at that point.
Folks get so engrossed with the technical wizardry of plays that they lose sight of the forest for the trees. They start to think of basketball like it’s football. They forget about the larger picture. Mock D’antoni all you want. The Knicks are a young team with a lot of firepower, and they seem very hungry. Running clever plays is great, but the Cs could clever themselves right out of this series. The team that wants it more and pushes harder against the other team will win.
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I take it back about Doc.
” “I think our team’s fine, but outside, it’s going to keep getting talked about. Perk will probably have 20 and 20 in his game tonight, and it’ll start all over again.”"
Obviously he’s just going to front for The Trade no matter what. I’ve lost all respect for him.
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Listen, Doc, people will be talking about The Trade for years to come, whether the Cs win a championship or not, because whether it was brilliant or heinous, audacious or reckless, it was just an amazing thing that a team on the verge of the playoffs, arguably in the lead of the stretch run for a championship, would reboot the way the Celtics did.
But you know that, ya shill.
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