Kristaps Porziņģis takes a seat in the locker room when he speaks after games, talking in detail about what he saw on the floor. It’s a fireside chat for Xs and Os junkies.
After the Celtics beat the 76ers taking a season-low 22 three-point attempts, he described how Philadelphia guarded him, even getting up and motioning how the Sixers veered rather than directly switched against his screens.
“I saw that they saw I’m popping and they’re early veering, so right away, the guard is coming with me so we don’t get an advantage and I’m standing on the perimeter,” he said. “As the game went on, I started to hit under, set the screen underneath and start to roll. J.T. and DWhite, they found me a couple times, or we got a mismatch and we kicked from there, or sometimes I just roll and bring in some guys and then we can get some kick-outs, because some help is coming in. So just creating small advantages within those situations … we have to be a smart team where … boom … if they start doing this, we go to this and we always need to have the answers.”
Jaylen Brown called it being the smartest team — diagnosing defenses on the fly, coming up with a creative solution and doing that repeatedly until the opposing team adjusts. Then, Boston moves on to the next set that it works out of. It might produce different shots or results each time, but the Celtics have an answer for every defense, especially with their diverse personnel.
It’s resulted in Boston being able to win different ways and an offense that appears more sustainable than last year’s three-point reliant approach. The Celtics rank No. 1 in offense by nearly two points per 100 possessions over No. 2 Indiana, and have won 14-of-25 when shooting below 36% from three, a marked improvement over 19-20 last year.
Porziņģis remembered a conversation he had with Brad Stevens last month regarding how easily teams, including the Celtics, guarded the big man during his early NBA days with the Knicks. Asked by CLNS Media/CelticsBlog to reflect on when he got such a sharp handle on how teams guarded him, to the point where his response became almost instantaneous, he pointed at Stevens’ strategy.
“He said it, it was ok, because he’s going to be shooting threes if a big is guarding him, we can put Marcus Smart on him or some guard who’s going to be in my knees, be super physical,” Porzingis remembered. “I was struggling with that early in my career, then I started to figure that out. Then there’s the veers, they give me the pop, then they take it away. So it takes some time. At this point in my career, I’ve seen all the coverages, I know the different things they’re going to throw at me and I’m just a much more complete player to create advantages out of those situations … I’m always looking for ways to improve, to anticipate things, to see who’s going to guard, what they’re gonna do. It’s a game within the game.”
Jayson Tatum and Brown went through the same process several years later, first becoming primary ball-handlers between 2020-22, then diving into the attention that comes with being a team’s top option. They studied double-teams, blitzes and the way they could bend defenses by driving-and-kicking. Smart infamously called on them to pass more, and they spent long film sessions assessing their uneven improvement.
Brown, after the arrival of Derrick White and Jrue Holiday, asked to stay involved in the facilitating dynamic after one of the biggest letdowns of his career in Game 7 against the Great playing that role. He’s responded by committing his fewest turnovers per game since 2020 (2.3) and developing a rapport with Porzingis.
That system also naturally solved one of the largest questions entering the season: how the team’s stars would sacrifice. Who would get the most shots, and when? Joe Mazzulla wouldn’t have to answer that question anymore. He could always point to matchups, and the Celtics during their recent 11-game win streak reached a relentless level exposing them. If you couldn’t defend on the opposing side, Boston would find you and drive you off the court. Porzingis emerged as the league’s most devastating post force and Brown in recent weeks began bringing smaller players to the rim routinely.
The Celtics shot 53.8% targeting Jordan Clarkson on Tuesday, 64.7% against Anfernee Simons, 63.6% versus Bradley Beal in Phoenix, hit all six shots they took on Steph Curry and a whopping 73.3% with Luka Doncic guarding early this month. Boston converts 57.5 eFG%.
“We don’t want to be forcing too much … that’s why J.T. deserves a lot of credit,” Porzingis said. “If they’re switching and they have a guard on me, I know this guy and DWhite, all these guys are gonna give me the ball five times in a row if necessary. This is the type of team we’re becoming. If we see something that we like, we just selflessly go to that one player or that one situation, and we go back to it again and again and again until the other team makes an adjustment. Then, when they make an adjustment, boom, we have another thing to go to. That’s the cool thing about this team and I don’t want to go on a rant, but to be honest, this is how I feel and that’s why we have so many wins.”
Boston’s players, including Brown, have praised Mazzulla for instilling that mindset and allowing them to play that free-flowing style. He’s compared the offense to soccer concepts in their fluidity, and even pulled routes from the football field when he visited Patriots coaches Bill Belichick and Jerod Mayo last year.
Mazzulla has proven flexible, too, saying after the latest win over Philadelphia that he’s not focused on getting a certain number of threes up. It’s about putting up the right shot, he said, a change from last season when he called the three-point attempt rate the most important statistic in basketball after he believed it caused the Celtics’ 28-point collapse against the Nets last March.
Mazzulla also mentioned another shift after playing the Nuggets last week, noticing the layers of offense needed to get past a defense trying to take the three away. In a film session before the Portland game, he implemented that approach and watched Tatum execute all five emphasizes he set for him, praising the performance that allowed Payton Pritchard and Sam Hauser to rain from three against the team that allowed the sixth-fewest attempts. Mazzulla talked about side-to-side actions, three or four in a possession, after often saying the Celtics need to take the first open shot during 2023. It’s not promised another one would come, he’d say.
“When you have talent and a lot of talent, you have to challenge them and hold them to a really high standard, but also have them look at the game in a way of where it’s like, I can rely on my talent, but I can be even better if I look a step or two ahead and almost anticipate,” Mazzulla told CLNS Media/CelticsBlog last month. “I think you see some of the best players in the NBA, over the course of time, talk about as they get older, they adjusted their mental approach to the game. When you study that and you want to help your guys grow, I think that’s part of the game … credit to our guys, they really spend a lot of time in that as a team. Game management awareness, what goes into starting a run, what goes into ending a run, what goes into a play call execution, noticing coverage change ups.”
The 76ers game, a slog at times, became Mazzulla’s favorite game of the season. The Celtics created paths downhill with the three unavailable against the level of switching defense that devastated Boston in their biggest loss of the season to the Clippers at home. That approach, the most effective at staying attached to shooters, still stands out as a potential playoff weakness despite only a small number of teams being able to execute it against the Celtics. Their emphasis on pace began in December, in part, to combat that.
The game didn’t mark a transition away from the three, Boston still attempted 40 threes or more in four of its last seven games since. That average (42.3) still positions them first in the league over that stretch. Between post-ups, mid-range shooters and an array of screens and sets, the Celtics have all the answers to win a championship. They just have to find them when they need them.
“(Opponents) might switch, they might maintain, they might go small, they might go double-big,” Brown said. “They’re trying to figure out which is the remedy for success against us. We’re able to adjust, we’re versatile, we’re able to read the game differently … We’re a more organized team this year. We have actions, we’re thinking the game … we take our time, we identify mismatches and we play the game the right way. I think this is one of the best years that we’ve done that since I’ve been a Celtic … realizing fast, but playing slow. Recognizing what they’re in, how they’re guarding you, where the advantages are on the floor and then taking your time … not allowing teams to try to muck up the game.”
“We’re the more talented team. We gotta be the smarter team as well.”
