I had a recap written, a morose send off to a lost season, but like so many times before the Celtics made me tear the whole thing up. When Avery Bradley stole the ball and cut the lead to four I believed, in that moment I doubted the obituary I had resigned myself to writing and though the C’s came up short I wonder what comes next. When the Knicks’ lead ballooned to twenty I thought I knew, now I’m not so sure. I’ll need to think on it for a while. What I do know is that in the fourth quarter the Celtics refused to lay down and die, and if this is the end of an era at least it ended with a tremendous display of Celtic pride. “We came together and said ‘If we’re going to go out, we’ve got to go out fighting.’” Green said afterward. Let’s run through the bullet points one last time:

• Kevin Garnett played his heart out tonight. One of the few Celtics to play a competent offensive game through the first three quarters, Garnett finished with 15 points on 7-10 shooting and 10 rebounds. I’m not sure what comes next for KG, when he was asked about it after the game Garnett didn’t have answers either, “I haven’t really thought about it, to be honest with you. I’m kind of digesting , obviously, the current, and Doc came to me, pulled Paul and I to the side and all three of us agreed to speak later — too emotional. Obviously, it was a big game, tough loss, especially at home. But more importantly in the future, it’s a different day for that conversation.”
• Coming off a team-high 44 minutes in game five, a fatigued Paul Pierce struggled all night long, calling his performance poor would be kind. Pierce finished with 14 points (dreadful 4-18 shooting), seven rebounds, five assists, and (of course) five turnovers. “I didn’t perform at my best,” Pierce conceded. “I really struggled the last couple games offensively.” At 35 Pierce can’t bear the load he used to, his body can’t take it, but Pierce said he’s not done, “I definitely expect to play next season.”
• Jason Terry showed up for the third game in a row, scoring 14 points on just six shots. Like Pierce, JET said retirement was not on the table, “I have to get back to Sixth Man of the Year form,” said Terry after the game. I think that’s Terry language for “man, I was pretty bad all season.” That said, Terry was also one of the only reasons the Celtics had a chance in this series so I think he’s growing on me, like some sort of incessantly talking fungus. On the other hand, Jordan Crawford and his magic socks played three minutes and scored zero points. Remember when I was advocating Crawford over Terry? Yeah let’s all pretend that never happened.
• Avery Bradley was the catalyst for the Celtics’ late game surge, with all 10 of his points (and all three of his steals) coming in the fourth quarter. Bradley isn’t a point guard and he probably never will be, but in those final minutes it was great to see him look like himself again.
• Jeff Green played 43 hard minutes, ultimately fouling out while running on fumes during the Celtics’ comeback bid. Green did most of his damage from the line (11-14 there) and finished with 21 points on 12 shots. Green has come a long way since his early season struggles, and was arguably the Celtics’ best player in the series.

“If I had a wish, everybody would be back. Healthy, like the way we started.” Green said after the game. That might be the sentiment we’re left with in a lost season. Even when the Celtics were healthy this team never showed enough for C’s fans to feel that the Basketball Gods had wronged them, but on a night like tonight you can’t help but wonder what might have been. I’ll leave you with these words from Doc Rivers:

“I couldn’t be more proud of a group of guys who went through (so much) adversity. They never didn’t think they could (do it).”

Follow Jordan on Twitter: @HiggsOnHoops

The idea that Mike Woodson might realize that this man needs to be more involved should be frightening to Celtics fans.

Note: I was too depressed to write a playoff playbook post after Game 3, and after Game 4, I was just relieved Boston wasn’t going to be swept. Now that the Celtics seem to have made this into a real series once again, let’s take another in-depth Xs and Os look at Game 5. And let’s hope, once again, that it’s not the last one of the season.

Like any good solution, let’s start by examining the problem. Here it is:

Do you feel like you just got repeatedly punched in the crotch watching those? No? Do it again. You’ll get there eventually.

Pick and rolls have destroyed the Celtics defensively throughout this series, and the combination of Raymond Felton and Tyson Chandler has been particularly deadly. This shouldn’t be a surprise: We’ve discussed this before, but the Knicks are currently #3 in P&R Ball-Handler points per possession for the season, according to mySynergySports.com, and second in P&R Roll Man PPP. Simply put, the Knicks are good at this play, and it’s inevitable that they will get a lot of points out of it.

Or at least, they would get a lot of points out of it if Mike Woodson would run it more often. Here are some interesting numbers from Synergy:

New York’s offensive efficiency in Game 5

• Isolation: 26.3% of all possessions. 26 plays overall. 0.69 PPP.
• P&R Ball-Handler: 17.2% of all possessions. 17 plays overall. 0.65 PPP.
• P&R Roll Man: 5.1% of all possessions. 5 plays overall. 1.6 PPP.

You will notice, first and foremost, that the Isolation play efficiency is awful, but we already knew that. If you want a nice examination of how Boston has been shutting down New York’s isolation plays — specifically against Carmelo Anthony — by packing the paint, go check out this HoopChalk.com article on that subject. To sum it up, the Celtics know that Brandon Bass has the strength to withstand Anthony’s drives, and enough foot-speed to avoid utter embarrassment. They also know that if Bass is guarding against Anthony’s drives and the defense packs the paint whenever Anthony gets the ball, they have a solid chance of forcing Melo into a bad, contested jumper. Occasionally, these shots go in, but Boston can certainly live with 0.69 points per possession on 26% of New York’s possessions. We can probably expect to see the Celtics pack the paint against J.R. Smith tonight as well, since they can’t very well rely on Smith to have another 3-13 evening if he’s driving to the basket consistently.

Next, you may note that despite all appearances, the Knicks actually scored just 0.65 PPP against Boston in Game 5 in P&R Ball-Handler plays. These plays were the second-most popular for New York, and there was essentially one unifying factor between the sets that worked and those that didn’t: Tyson Chandler.

Much has been made about Chandler’s apparent absence from this series, but the fact remains that when the Knicks run pick-and-rolls through him, good things happen. When they don’t, the paint can get very crowded for Felton and other ball-handlers. Here’s an example:

First (and you may not be able to tell, due to the shoddy video quality), the screener is Kenyon Martin. As Felton attempts to go around the screen, Kevin Garnett actually manages to stay in front of Martin quite nicely, and Jason Terry rolls underneath the screen — something Felton hasn’t been able to punish the Celtics for throughout the series.

Since Martin’s screen was somewhat mediocre (and his roll was essentially non-existant), Terry is able to get around it fairly easily and cut off Felton’s progress.

You can see in the picture above that Felton sees his lane closing. You can also see how lackadaisically Martin is rolling to the hoop. In fact, he seems to either be setting a screen for J.R. Smith or inexplicably boxing out Paul Pierce. Either way, Martin’s roll is confusing here, and as a result, with Martin hanging well back away from the play, Garnett is able to dive into the lane and double Felton, who is forced to try to create a very difficult shot.

Smith is, indeed, starting to fade a little bit away from Pierce, and Martin almost seems to be screening him, but since Garnett is so comfortable helping in this situation, Felton is screwed. He can’t pass out to Smith, he can’t get the ball to Martin, so he is forced to throw up a wild shot. It gets blocked, and Boston is off the other way.

Throughout Game 5, the film shows that many of the pick-and-rolls involving ball-handlers and Carmelo Anthony, Kenyon Martin and any other Knick big fail because the roll man doesn’t quite do his job.

When Tyson Chandler is the roll man? Well…

Pick and rolls. Slip screens. Dunks on dunks on dunks. You get the idea.

Chandler’s success as a roll man is, of course, incentive in itself for the Knicks to run more pick-and-rolls with him. But it’s not the only incentive: Chandler’s success, logically, creates spacing issues for Boston’s defense since hedging and helping become considerably more difficult when the roll man is doing his job.

The first play is the biggest problem Chandler presents. His screen is PERFECTION: Terrence Williams can’t help but run straight into it, and there’s noticeable contact. This forces Garnett to try to hedge on Felton, which gives Chandler plenty of space to roll.

Garnett then has two options: Hope that Williams can recover on Felton or surrender the lob to Chandler and hope he can bat it away. Garnett chooses the former, and because Chandler’s screen has thrown Williams so far out of the play, he can’t recover. Felton scores easily.

The second play takes place a few minutes later, and it builds on the first. Once again, Felton receives a screen from Tyson Chandler. Once again, it’s a picture-perfect screen that creates plenty of contact, this time with Jeff Green, taking him out of the play. And once again, KG is forced to hedge too far to his left. The difference? This time Felton crosses over and splits the gap between Garnett and Chandler, driving to the hoop for the layup.

It’s essential that Doc Rivers finds a way to combat the effectiveness of Chandler’s screens defensively. Knicks coach Mike Woodson hasn’t been calling Chandler’s number enough on offense, but it would be risky to the point of fool-hardiness to assume that A) Chandler will be in foul trouble once again and B) Woodson will continue to rely too much on Anthony and Smith in isolation in Game 6.

I’m not sure what that solution is, but take comfort in this, if nothing else: Doc Rivers is much smarter than us. We can only hope that translates to effective defensive adjustments.

Follow Tom on Twitter: @Tom_NBA.

Hold everything. KG and the Celtics aren't quite done.

It was chippy, it was tense, it was entirely too close and too stressful and too breathless and too much like every other game in these playoffs, except that instead of folding and breaking down in the second half, the Celtics actually pulled away. And then, of course, the Knicks pulled closer again, but Boston maintained their advantage, and as a result, this series is somehow, inexplicably, improbably going to Game 6. In Boston. Friday. This season is still breathing.

Although the season is still breathing, I, quite frankly, am not. There were two moments in the second half in which most Celtics fans thought they could exhale. The first was with nine minutes to go (which should have been a good indicator that the game was far from over, but such is life) when Jeff Green swooped down the lane and smashed the ball through the net to give Boston a 15-point lead. 15 points! A 15-point lead AGAINST the Celtics is doomsday, since the Celtics have struggled to score 15 points in an entire 3rd quarter this series.

Unfortunately, against the Knicks, 15 points is quite doable, especially when Boston’s offense stops scoring until the 5:39 mark. By the time Brandon Bass tossed in a shot in the post against Tyson Chandler (and yes, you read that right), New York had closed the gap to 10. Jeff Green scored eight straight points to push Boston’s lead to 12 with about 2:30 left including back-to-back corner 3-pointers that completely quieted the MSG crowd. That was the second moment. I exhaled.

Then JR Smith made a couple of 3-pointers that brought New York within five with a minute remaining. If there was a heart-breaking way 2013 could end, it would be blowing a 12-point lead with two minutes left. But KG wasn’t done. He pump-faked Chandler into the air, stepped to his left and buried a cold-blooded mid-range jumper that stopped New York in their tracks. The Knicks missed a couple of desperation threes, and the Celtics pulled off a must-win victory. Boston is not dead just yet.

I realize that, for the most part here at Celtics Town, our run-ups to the bullet points are rarely this long, but we rarely have games like this one. So without further (further) ado, let’s get to the bullet points.

• At this point, nothing is about efficiency. Neither team has been efficient. The Celtics shot EXTREMELY well from 3-point range (11-22), but Pierce and Terry were both inefficient overall (6-19 and 6-16 respectively). Jeff Green was efficient (18 points on eight shots), but he was rarely used. It was the Celtics’ defense that won this game. The Knicks shot 39.5% from the field overall and 22.7% from the 3-point line. Boston still can’t stop Felton’s P&R game, but they defended everything else very well.
• JR Smith had perhaps the worst game of his life in his return from a suspension. Smith finished with 14 points, but he needed 14 shots to do it, and even that inefficiency undersells how bad he was. He didn’t make his first field goal until the 2:48 mark of the 4th quarter, and he seemed hesitant and uncomfortable all game. You can bet Boston’s crowd is going to let him have it in Game 6, and if Game 5 was any indicator, Smith may not respond very well to the pressure.
• Terrence Williams was good and bad. He didn’t turn the ball over in 17 minutes as a point guard, he brought the ball up the floor more reliably than any Celtic has so far in the playoffs, and he (wait for it) COMPLETED ENTRY PASSES. I know. I was surprised too. On the other hand, he attempted three 3-pointers, and while one of those was an end-of-the-shot-clock heave, another was taken instead of swinging the ball to an open Jason Terry (who, despite his overall inefficiencies, was 5-9 from 3-point range). But if we assume that a few bad shots are nullified by 17 minutes of turnover-free basketball from an extremely turnover-prone team, we can also assume that Williams deserved his minutes and might get more in the future.
• Avery Bradley is shook. I don’t know what else to say. I hope this series doesn’t do him any lasting damage.
• Doc’s rotation was seven deep. SEVEN. Every non-Bradley starter played over 40 minutes. That’s going to make for some tired legs in Game 6.
• WHAT MORE CAN YOU SAY ABOUT KEVIN GARNETT. 16 points on 5-9 shooting, 6-6 from the free throw line and (get this) 18 rebounds. Garnett is not going into the sweet beyond without a fight.
• Brandon Bass didn’t do much in the second half, but let’s all take a moment and salute him for his first quarter performance that brought the Celtics back from a 9-0 hole. Bass scored Boston’s first four points and seven of their first nine. His offense seemed to calm the New York storm, and Boston managed to work the lead down to two by the end of the quarter. Great first half for Bass.

The Celtics refuse to die. New York is going to have to take a playoff series from their cold, dead, arthritic and inexplicably steadfast fingers. Win or lose Game 6 (and potentially Game 7), that resiliency is what we should take away from the KG era. It’s not easy. It has NEVER been easy. But Boston doesn’t die.

Win or lose, that’s worth appreciating. Game 6. Friday. In Boston. It’s happening.

Follow Tom on Twitter: @Tom_NBA.

I woke up dreading the obituary I seemed destined to write, but the Celtics always find a way to ward off death, at least for a time. The Celtics are still unable to play four quarters, but after blowing a 20 point lead they managed to grind out a fifth one and they were able to come away with a win. “We just need to get to overtime. We’re really good at it.” Doc joked after the game, but Kevin Garnett put it best: “Instead of talking tonight, we actually came out and did it.” Let’s get to the bullet points:

• Since we’re on the subject of talking, it took 85 games but the Jason Terry we were promised at the beginning of the season (and nightly by Jason Terry himself) finally made an appearance in Celtic green. JET was phenomenal, particularly in overtime where he scored the Celtics’ final nine points. Terry finished with 18 points on 7-10 shooting, four assists, and a miraculous zero turnovers in easily his best passing display of the season. Avery Bradley fumbled away a brilliant pass by JET early in the game, probably because he was shocked by how on-target it was. “The JET has been in the hangar a long time. It was good to let it out.” Terry said after the game, submitting his entry for understatement of the season. “Lot of Knick fans here. A closeout game and they come and take over our building, not our building. That fueled me up.”
• Paul Pierce had a few throwback moments tonight (including a tomahawk dunk!) on his way to a well rounded 29 points, eight rebounds, and six assists. Pierce shot 4-8 from downtown after entering this game shooting 13% from three, and though some of those shots were ill-advised they were a huge part of Boston’s early lead. He also continued to have a bad case of the fumbles (six turnovers) but that’s become the norm at this point, even if it isn’t desirable. Yesterday, Pierce called friends to make dinner plans in New York.
• Kevin Garnett found his legs, at least for a day, finishing with 13 points (including an alley-oop slam) and 17 (!!!) rebounds and six assists. Garnett only took seven shots, but with other Celtics picking up the scoring load he was able to concentrate on anchoring the Celtics’ defense.
• “Brandon was the star of the game as far as I’m concerned. He just defended. Did it over and over and over again,” Rivers told reporters after the game. The box score doesn’t do Brandon Bass justice (aside from the six fouls) and he played a huge role in frustrating an ISO heavy Melo on the defensive end of the floor. Melo missed 25 of his 35 shots (including all seven of his threes) and, not to be outdone by Paul Pierce, turned the ball over seven times. “I wouldn’t say I’m a great defensive player.” Bass said. “I just take a lot of pride in it.”
• In backcourt-watch, Terrence Williams played 11 minutes, Jordan Crawford played seven (and took five shots!), and Courtney Lee was glued to the bench. Williams didn’t do much (one point, three assists, three turnovers) but he can bring the ball up the floor, unlike most of the Celtics.
• Jeff Green seems to get a lot of flack for a player averaging nearly 21 points-per-game this series, and the past few months it feels like every other night he puts the team on his back. Green finished game four with 26 points, including some gravity-defying layups in transition, and six rebounds. “We rallied,” Green said afterwards. “They made their run. This is a big one for us. We’ve got nothing to lose, all the pressure’s on them.”

Green is right, though the forced comparisons to the 2004 Boston Red Sox that seem to be springing up everywhere are premature. It’s unlikely that Carmelo will play so poorly for three more games and J.R. Smith is sure to wreak havoc against the Celtics’ ever-shifting backcourt rotation. The Celtics are attempting something 103 other teams, better teams, have tried and failed. But following an admirable display of Celtic pride and some late game heroics by Jason Terry, the Celtics live to die another day.

Follow Jordan on Twitter: @HiggsOnHoops

The lead felt insurmountable when it was only three. In my miserable pessimism I’m not sure when the actual backbreaker came, but by the time the Knicks lead stretched to 18 there was no doubt what the outcome would be. In a pivotal Game Three at home the Celtics offense continued to sputter, crash, and burn. Now the Celtics find themselves down 3-0 in the series, a hole no NBA team has ever been able to dig their way out of, and on the verge of being swept. The Celtics might be able to take Game Four at home–though I’m not remotely sure of that right now–but that would only leave them primed for a return to New York and a likely 4-1 gentleman’s sweep. This team is simply not offensively talented enough to defy the odds with a rotation depleted by injuries and facing its age. In the opening moments, even layups were labors for the overmatched Celtics. Lets run through the bullet points quickly:

• Jason Terry replaced Brandon Bass in the starting lineup in an attempt to match up with the Knicks super-small backcourt and attempt to provide more spacing. It went ok. Terry scored 14 points on 4-9 shooting but many of those points came long after the game was decided (Terry was 1-4 in the first half). PER is not a perfect stat by any means, but Terry’s in the first two games approached Jason Collins territory. While tonight’s performance will certainly remedy that, he was a telling team-low -12 tonight.
• Brandon Bass struggled off the bench, not surprising for a player who had struggled all season and only recently had found his rhythm offensively. He had just two points on 1-5 shooting and seven rebounds.
• Kevin Garnett looked a bit better than he had earlier in the series, though it’s hard to tell how much of it is health and how much is heart. He scored twelve points (5-13 shooting) and grabbed 17 rebounds. The effort was certainly there (and showed on the boards, the Celtics out rebounded the Knicks 41-37) but I don’t think his legs were.
• As Paul Pierce goes, so go the Celtics and Pierce struggled mightily. The Captain finished with 17 points on 15 shots, but went a brutal 2-10 in the first half, along with five assists and five turnovers. The only Celtic with more assists than turnovers tonight was Kevin Garnett, and he had two. With no point-guard, Pierce has been the only real creator for the Celtics but he hasn’t been able to duplicate the success he had immediately following Rondo’s injury in this series and tonight was no different.
• After allegedly falling out of the rotation, Courtney Lee played 11 minutes (two less than Jordan Crawford) but had little impact.

Game Four is on Sunday and despite the dire circumstances Celtics fans should treasure these moments. There’s no telling what will happen with Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce after this season, and while we’ve said that before the situation feels more grim than in seasons past.

Follow Jordan on Twitter: @HiggsOnHoops

Boston's need for a rim protector is becoming more and more blatantly obvious.

This is the second in a (hopefully) long series of posts detailing Boston’s in-game sets and adjustments during the playoffs, featuring a positive and a negative from each game.

Positive: Hand-off plays sparking penetration

Ok, so by “hand-off plays sparking penetration,” I meant to say it in the singular. As in “one hand-off play sparked penetration.” This one, right here:

Cut me some slack: It’s a little bit difficult to find positives after that abominable second half. But let’s take a closer look at this particular set, since it’s one of the only plays that ended in a shot attempt around the rim and showed the Celtics getting any kind of penetration against New York’s defense. The play began with Avery Bradley bringing the ball up the court on the left side and passing it to Brandon Bass in the middle. Bass then dribbled to the left side, and Jason Terry cut back around him, receiving what amounted to a triple screen from Pierce, Bradley and Bass.

The Knicks were able to easily switch because they were playing their super small-ball lineup, which meant that Iman Shumpert, Raymond Felton and Pablo Prigioni were all, to a certain extent, interchangeable. Prigioni switched off Bradley on the second screen and followed Terry out behind the 3-point line, fighting through Bass’s screen and seemingly knocking the play off-kilter.

But Terry seemed to have been a misdirection, because Bradley immediately turns and cuts back around Bass, receiving the hand-off and driving to the hoop.

Bradley drives against Chandler and puts up a layup that gets swatted away (viewers disagreed as to whether it was goal-tending (it was totally goal-tending)), but it was one of the rare times that the Celtics got into the paint without crashing into someone. The Celtics only used two hand-off plays, according to mySynergySports, and one of those plays was actually a pass to Kevin Garnett for, you guessed it, a mid-range jumper. After Rondo’s injury, the Celtics have used this tactic on occasion to get penetration against tough defenses. It might be time to put a little bit more emphasis on it, especially since Jeff Green struggled to get himself going in Game 2.

Boston has always been a team that lived and died by the jumpshot, but when they exclusively shoot jumpers, there’s going to be a lot more dying and a lot less living.

Negative: Pick-and-roll defense on Raymond Felton

Much has (correctly) been made of Boston’s lack of rim protection, and nobody has taken advantage of this more than Raymond Felton. This is aggravating to say the least but not entirely unexpected. New York has the second best pick-and-roll ball-handler offense in the NBA, at 0.86 points per possession (per Synergy), but last night the Knicks managed 1.18 PPP on 8-14 shooting from the field.

One of the reasons the pick-and-roll works so well for New York is the way the bigs setting the screen dive to the hoop after they set the screen. We saw this early on as Tyson Chandler set a screen for Felton and dragged Paul Pierce to the hoop with him, stranding Chris Wilcox on Felton. Felton gets around Wilcox with relative ease and scores.

The best way to beat this strategy is to go under the screens, since Felton is much less dangerous as a jumpshooter (34% from 3-9 feet, 24% from 10-15 and 37% from 16-23, per HoopData.com) than he is at the rim (57% per HoopData). As you can see from the following videos, even the shots that go in are more difficult because Boston’s defenders saw the pick coming and went under.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is in the second video when even Avery Bradley is ducking under the screen, something he doesn’t tend to do very often. It should be noted that it’s not that Boston doesn’t respect Felton’s jumpshot (although it’s possible they don’t), it’s that they don’t have anyone who can stop a ball-handler at the rim, so they’d rather give up the open jumper. From an efficiency standpoint, this makes some sense. It’s not an ideal strategy by any means, but at this point, so many of the Celtics’ strategies are stitched-together makeshifts that this one fits right in.

In Conclusion

That was an ugly game with a lot of ugly conclusions to be drawn. One would like to hope that aspects will be cleaned up when the series shifts back to Boston, but if the Celtics can’t get to the rim or make adjustments to limit New York’s pick-and-roll game, this series is going to be over fast.

Follow Tom on Twitter: @Tom_NBA.