Since the start of the preseason, head coach Joe Mazzulla has stressed the importance of finding different ways to win games. Against the Knicks and Wizards, Boston buried them under an avalanche of threes and after hitting 16 more in the first half in Detroit, it looked like more of the same.
However, the Pistons responded, erasing a 23-point first half lead and we’re up six with just over five minutes to go. The math had completely changed. After making half of their 32 attempts from behind the arc and going to the free throw line, the Celtics shot just 6-of-16 from 3 in the second half but went to the line nineteen times. Detroit adjusted their defense, not dropping down as far on screens and being more connected on Boston’s shooters.
In the fourth quarter, particularly in the clutch, the team made it a priority to get a paint touch with the Pistons playing up to touch and trying to take away the 3. That’s the pick-you-poison element of Boston’s five-out system; taking away a higher yield three-pointer leads to higher percentage looks at the rim.
Even with double bigs (Al Horford and hometown kid Xavier Tillman Sr.) on the floor, the Celtics have them in the corners with Payton Pritchard setting a screen for Jaylen Brown to go downhill and Derrick White in the dunker’s spot.
Here, it’s Horford on the short roll with Jayson Tatum at the point. The big man getting a few steps into the key compromises Detroit’s defense enough to get the strong side in rotation but not fast enough to contest one of the best corner ball shooters in the game today.
On the ensuing play, it comes in semi-transition with Brown going behind the back — his handle is greatly improved this year — sucking in three sets of eyes and kicking it out for the zing-zing-zing of passes to the open Holiday again.
Again, Boston wants to get another paint touch. Tim Hardaway Jr. is top-locking JT so he can’t come off a Horford screen at the top of the arc. Tatum reads it well and instead cuts to the restricted area with the smaller Hardaway out of position for the easy layup.
After beating the Cavaliers 4-1 in the playoffs last year, Cleveland dismissed now Pistons head coach JB Bickerstaff and Mazzulla was asked about facing him again. “I think studying the psychology and personality of a coach goes into a long way of understanding what their team is trying to do each and every night,” he said. “So we have a clear profile of what the psychological decision that each coach makes and how they kinda go into their team and what that looks like.”
Different context and different players, sure, but Mazzulla again had a counter for Bickerstaff’s halftime adjustment.
