The Celtics are constructed for the playoffs, simply ask our typical tropes (half 1)

Identical to in literature, films, and tv, basketball is an ever-changing narrative panorama. Plots that felt novel and distinctive within the 90’s at the moment are weathered tropes that in all probability get solved with a mobile phone. Seinfeld and firm aimlessly strolling by a parking storage is solved by a easy look down at your iPhone’s parked automobile characteristic. So too have we seen a few of our beloved NBA Playoffs tropes eroded to extinction with the passage of time and evolution of the sport.

One in every of my favourite lifeless tropes is that “leap capturing groups can’t win the title.” Whereas Steph Curry and the Warriors had been the start of the top for this one (and perhaps the top of the top in 2022), each trendy NBA workforce would qualify as a leap capturing workforce when in comparison with the early 2000s.

There are, nonetheless, some traditional tropes that also maintain robust, three of which we’ll leap into right now. First, we now have a crowd favourite: “the sport slows down.” The second might be much less relevant given the best way refs have began calling video games, however alas, it’s additionally true within the playoffs: “the refs swallow their whistles.” The third is an amalgamation of some tropes, issues like not turning it over and defending the defensive glass. I’ve summed it up into one catch-all trope: “you must win the possession battle.”

*Half 2 will talk about “the refs swallow their whistles” and “you must win the possession battle.”*

Trope #1: the sport slows down

This one sounds a bit like me attempting to persuade my associates to look at The Wire (it’s slower, however it’s completely price it, I promise). After we discuss concerning the sport slowing down, that’s principally shorthand for saying defenses get again faster and crisper. Groups are extra cautious on offense, which limits transition alternatives. To sum it up, playoff basketball is half-court basketball. Properly, excellent news, everybody!

The Celtics elite offense is, shockingly, elite within the half-court (stats per Cleansing the Glass). Like G.O.B. wanting right into a paper bag labeled “lifeless dove,” which may appear ridiculously apparent, however there have been glorious common season offenses that relied closely on transition buckets to bolster their effectivity. A number of the Nick Nurse Raptors groups match that profile. It’s like Seinfeld discovering a girlfriend, seems nice on paper, however they’ll have bother placing a hoop on their finger (in all probability as a result of measurement of her fingers). Though the Celtics do rank in the course of the league in distinction between whole offensive effectivity and halfcourt offensive effectivity.

There are just a few causes for the offensive eliteness, one merely being the ridiculous quantity of expertise on the roster. The Celtics’ half courtroom offense is the NBA equal of the Cheers solid. However expertise is meaningless if it isn’t deployed correctly, and Joe Mazzulla has these guys drilled to a Dr. Cox degree of sensible workforce basketball.

To state the plain for a second time on this transient part, a part of the Celtics’ effectivity is their 3-point assault. Lovingly described as Mazzullaball by some, and mockingly so by others.

All charts from pbpstats.com.

Regardless of your private emotions on the Cs’ three-point heavy assault, it has been extremely profitable. However we noticed in final 12 months’s Japanese Convention Finals what it might probably appear like when the 3s aren’t falling.

Mazzulla promised to develop some curveballs within the offseason to get the offense buzzing when the 3s aren’t blowing groups off the courtroom. Properly, Joe should have watched some Sandy Koufax tape (excluding that point Mister Ed hit a homerun off him) as a result of he got here up with an elite one: the submit up.

There are 83 gamers which have 30 or extra submit up possessions this season (per Synergy), 4 Celtics are within the top-25 of effectivity: Jaylen Brown (twenty fifth), Jayson Tatum (seventeenth), Al Horford!! (4th!), and Kristaps Porzingis (1st!). All 4 are deployed in a different way, which supplies the Celtics a diversified assault even throughout the similar playtype. Porzingis may be very usually used as a high-post hub the place he can shoot excessive or work himself nearer to the ring. JB’s post-ups are normally simply instruments for getting off his elite mid-range jumper, and Tatum usually assaults with spins and fall-aways close to the blocks. Horford post-ups are the equal of a clip present: they aren’t your choice, however typically they work simply positive. He punishes small defenders and poor alike when groups attempt to disguise them on him.

Add the post-ups with the Celtics long-range assault, and together with their different varied units that result in choose and roll possessions and buckets off cuts, and it’s simple to see why their half courtroom offense is so lethal. Not many groups can boast 4 elite submit up choices and seven of their high 8 capturing 37.5% or higher from three (Jaylen being the one man beneath that mark). The Celtics have extra counters than Avon Barksdale. There’s simply no good approach to defend this workforce.

Now, let’s flip to the opposite facet of the courtroom. Celtics followers can, at instances, faucet into their internal Kahn and Mihn from King of the Hill. We turn out to be the overbearing guardian anticipating the workforce to earn an A+ in each topic, which is objectively inconceivable within the NBA. On this occasion, the C’s half courtroom protection would carry disgrace to the household because it fails to satisfy that lofty customary and settles in across the A- vary.

Per Cleansing the Glass, the C’s have the fifth greatest half courtroom protection within the league, and the third greatest protection general (they’re ridiculously good in transition). Their statistical profile is encouraging. The purpose of the Celtics is to guard the rim and restrict straight-line drives that pressure assist and result in simple 2s and wide-open 3s. They’ve been extraordinarily profitable at this; not solely do they restrict the makes an attempt on the rim, however they pressure a better share of misses on the photographs that do get off.

And whereas the Cs are center of the pack in opponent three-point price, they’re elite at defending the road.

In addition they pressure the 4th most worst photographs in basketball, the Sandy Lyle memorial lengthy mid-range jumper (“rain dance!”). Whereas Sandy was exceptionally horrible, his effectivity was exponentially broken by his reliance on the lengthy middy, and NBA offenses are not any completely different. You need opponents counting on these photographs to generate offense, as a result of the maths will win the day over the long term.

Permitting round 42.5% on these photographs, which is about common, is equal to an offensive ranking of 85 factors per 100 possessions. Even the Celtics’ middling middy protection equals a defensive win after they pressure opponents into this look. That effectivity would rank lifeless final even in a number of the NBA’s most offensive starved eras.

Very similar to Dr. Evil’s Preparation H, the Celtics’ gameplan is working, and the entire stats above are proof of such. The Celtics are usually not an aggressive defensive workforce, and principally don’t pressure turnovers (which we’ll talk about partially 2).

As a substitute, Mazzulla has instituted virtually a include fashion protection, protecting the whole lot in entrance on the perimeter and funneling drives in the direction of the Celtics’ Bond villain stand-in, Kristaps Porzingis. Their elite wing and guard defenders can assist and recuperate in opposition to any kick-outs from deterred rim assaults, permitting groups to generate threes, however usually in opposition to a tough contest.

Enjoying protection this fashion doesn’t serve to strangle offenses in fairly the identical manner that the Celtics’ aggressive, switch-everything fashion beneath Udoka did. The Cs invite groups to shoot lengthy midrange jumpers (though Jrue and White are so good getting round screens, lock and trails, and rear-view contests that it’s not as open as our technique would usually dictate), so groups with gamers comfy within the midrange can generate a good shot almost each possession.

And that’s simply positive, the Celtics half courtroom offense and protection is enjoying the maths, betting they’ll outscore you with 3s and rim assaults whereas forcing you to shoot the lights out on the league’s least environment friendly shot or make some properly contested threes. To cite Ron Burgundy, “it’s science!”