The Boston Celtics are suffering from elite three-level scorers on their roster. They’ll assault you in some ways and discover gaps in any protection thrown their means. With the Celtics set to face a Dallas Mavericks crew that struggles to protect the perimeter by way of impacting photographs, it is smart that Joe Mazzulla’s crew might lean into some units which have labored effectively all through the season.
Stampede cuts
If the Celtics are going to attract a crowd on the perimeter, they need to look to punish the extra house with forceful cuts towards the rim. Dallas has been utilizing Kyrie Irving in an identical spot and did so to finish the primary quarter of Recreation 4.
If the Celtics are going to lean into attacking through stampede cuts, Jaylen Brown is the most certainly candidate attributable to his explosiveness and the way a lot he appears to take pleasure in bully driving his strategy to the rim.
Above is an efficient instance of how one can generate rim strain with out counting on perimeter-based actions. Everyone knows the Celtics will draw a crowd when working PnR units with Jayson Tatum or Brown because the ball-handler. However what occurs when the protection is about within the half-court and each forwards are working off the ball?
On this clip, the Celtics get Tatum out of the dunker spot and onto the perimeter through a Zipper Lower. On the weak facet of the ground, Sam Hauser units a large pin-down for Brown, who curls over the display screen and stampede cuts after receiving the go. Discover how Hauser lifts out of the nook because the protection collapses to supply a passing outlet for a straightforward three.
By leaning into stampede actions, the Celtics shall be testing the Mavericks’ capacity to guard the rim whereas additionally testing their reactivity on the perimeter. It’s a great way of punishing the protection for making an attempt to load up on the ball-handler whereas additionally discovering straightforward scoring alternatives that include the prospect of drawing a foul.
If the protection adjusts and appears to kill the drive, each Brown and Tatum are adept at countering by pulling up within the mid-range. As we’ve seen, the Mavericks are keen to stay with that shot, and don’t have monitor document of impacting them at a constant fee.
Horns units
One other strategy to leverage the Celtics’ three-level scoring is to lean right into a sequence they’ve run all yr: Horns. Mazzulla has a deep playbook out of this alignment, all of which might result in scoring alternatives throughout the ground. Probably the most prevalent choice is chin, which has been a staple all season however has not often been leaned on throughout the postseason.
The clip above is the fundamental chin set. It begins in a Horns alignment. The ball-handler feeds one of many gamers on the elbow earlier than coming off a display screen from the opposite participant and chopping on the non-ball facet of the ground. That motion normally opens up a straightforward lane to the rim.
In fact, if the protection reacts shortly, the cutter can flip right into a short-roll creator in seconds, utilizing the gravity of his minimize to hit an open shooter within the nook.
If the cutter isn’t able to obtain the go as a result of protection studying the motion, the screener can circulate right into a veer motion to open up a chin veer which supplies the ball-handler a possibility to get downhill because the protection recovers from preliminary rotation on the entry minimize.
The potential outcomes from this play are the identical as working Chin. The first distinction is the strain it places on the cutter’s defender in the event that they’ve been bought on the display screen and have tried to go beneath or to attempt to cancel the display screen, which, as you possibly can see within the clip above, can generate some extra house.
One variance with the UCLA motion that Boston has favored to deploy at instances this season is having the UCLA screener pop into house across the slot. The minimize then acts because the decoy, whereas the actual motion is getting a shooter popping into house whereas the protection reacts to the specter of the minimize.
Stack actions: A.Okay.A Spain Choose-and-Roll
I’ll preserve this part brief.
Final season, the stack was a main a part of Mazzulla’s offensive playbook. This season, it’s been much less prevalent, and when the Celtics have gone to it, it’s been designed as window dressing earlier than the actual motion came about. Nevertheless, given the Mavericks’ want to defend the perimeter, leaning into some stack actions may very well be ploy to generate some straightforward seems.
Hauser is normally the beneficiary of those actions. It is smart given his elite catch-and-shoot risk. Nevertheless, Payton Pritchard, Brown, Tatum and Porzingis all make sense on this spot, particularly if you happen to really feel just like the popper (Hauser within the clip above) could have to take a 1 or 2 dribble pull-up to assault a closeout.
Nonetheless, if you happen to’re trying to create house on the perimeter and lean into your id as a fearsome three-point crew, working stack in opposition to a protection that struggles to influence the perimeter may very well be a clever wager.
I’m anticipating to see extra actions than those laid out right here. Nevertheless, these actions have labored in opposition to questionable perimeter defenses all season and really feel like logical choices heading into the sequence in opposition to Dallas. In fact, issues might change. Changes are half and parcel of the playoffs, and that features shifting away or towards totally different components of your playbook.
However, I’m excited to see how the chess battle unfolds and whether or not Mazzulla has been holding something again for this late stage of the playoffs.
CelticsBlog graciously allowed this text to be cross-posted from my “Celtics Chronicle” e-newsletter.
