Not the start we all had in mind.
Old habits die hard, and for the Boston Celtics, that habit is letting go of the rope once they’ve built themselves a comfortable lead. Two runs from the Detroit Pistons, one in the third and another 23-0 in the fourth, slammed the door on the Celtics and left us scratching our heads.
The Wheels Fell Off
The Celtics went into halftime with a 13-point lead. They’d created gaps in the defense, hit their shots, and played solid defense. The ball was moving, cutters were cutting, and everything seemed right in the world. Well, everything except for Jayson Tatum’s shooting, but we could overlook that because the team was up double digits, and he was putting in work elsewhere on the floor.
Yet, in the second half, everything changed. Detroit made defensive adjustments, primarily in how their help defense operated, and suddenly Boston’s ability to penetrate off the dribble vanished. Separation became hard to create, and touches in the paint began to dry up. The addition of former Celtic Javonte Green also swung momentum for the Pistons, as he turned into a human torch from deep.
Mitchell Robinson and Neemias Queta didn’t pay off, either. Boston was outworked on both ends of the glass. When shots were falling and the offense was clicking, rebounding seemed like something you could figure out on the fly. However, as the Celtics began to crumble under Detroit’s momentum, you found yourself begging them to take control of the boards and dictate the tempo.
Save for Paul George, who had himself a night, it’s hard to look at any other Celtics and say they played a solid game. Derrick White probably comes closest. For me, the ball stuck to Payton Pritchard too often, and Sam Hauser struggled when closing out on defense. Jordan Walsh was a passenger for most of the game, barring some boards, and neither Hugo Gonzalez nor (to a far lesser extent) Baylor Scheierman made the most of their minutes.
Boston will need more across the board.
I’m chalking it up to an early start, coupled with it being the first game of the season and the fact that the Pistons are a really good team.
Tatum Will Be Better
There’s no denying that this was a brutal shooting night for Tatum. No matter how you look at it, he struggled from start to finish with his shooting. Unfortunately, Tatum needed to perform in this game. It was the first meaningful outing for the Celtics since shipping out Jaylen Brown, and rightly or wrongly, fans were going to judge him much more harshly.
I’m of the belief that trading Brown was the right call. Both for cap reasons and for building around one star. Tatum is the more complete player. If the front office has decided that one of the two needs to go, then Tatum was going to win that head-to-head. Would I have preferred to run it back with both? Of course. Still, it’s done, and we look forward.
However, for some fans, it’s not that cut-and-dry. So, when Tatum struggled, despite leading the team in shot attempts, it rubbed salt into a still-open wound.
The good news is, Tatum isn’t going to average 26.1% from the field. His shot will get better. He will grab more rebounds. Most importantly, though, he will grow into this new role.
None of that helped yesterday, when emotions were running high. We’ve watched Tatum long enough to know he grows into the season and slowly peaks around the All-Star break. Now, though, with Brown gone, Tatum has to step up earlier in the season. You can’t ask Paul George to shoulder so much of the offense all season.
Tatum will be better. Once he finds his footing, Boston’s offense should go to a totally different level. Let’s just hope we don’t have to wait too long.
The Celtics Are Missing A Penetrator
When the Pistons shut down Boston’s offense for stretches of the second half, you could feel the shift. The Celtics are at their best when they’re getting into the paint, manipulating the defense and finding open shooters. Early in the game, the Celtics did this by manipulating the tagger before finding the open man — either on dribble-drive kickouts or swing passes.
Once the Pistons fixed their help scheme, the Celtics rarely got into the teeth of the defense. As such, Boston was trying to break Detroit down once they’d gotten set, and that led to some choppy possessions. Penetration made way for more perimeter screening actions, and they led to more contested jumpers. Shots that did come from two-point range were rarely at the rim hadn’t come via forcing rotations to the point where the Pistons had begun to bend.
After the game, I tweeted that we shouldn’t use Mike Conley. While I was serious about the idea that Conley could have settled the offense down in a short stretch, that wasn’t the tweet’s real aim. Instead, I wanted to point out that Boston didn’t add another guard they actually planned to include in the rotation, even though we all knew it was an area of concern heading into the summer.
Yesterday, the Celtics needed an extra player who could create off the bounce and get into the teeth of the defense. Someone who could penetrate and reliably make reads, be it scoring or playmaking. Both Pritchard and Tatum can fill that role, and they’ll likely thrive as the season progresses. Yet, when a defense is honing in, you need a wildcard. Right now, someone off the bench has to prove they can be that guy.
A Look To The Playbook
On a happier note, we did see some stuff from the Celtics offense that looks repeatable and impactful. One simple play that I was a fan of, was having Robinson slip out of a stagger screen to open up a lob pass for White.
What I liked about this play was that the setup was simple and the execution was repeatable.
The Celtics set up a stagger screen, with George as the first screener and Robinson as the second. As White came off Robinson’s screen, and John Collins looked to contain White should he turn the corner, Robinson rolled hard to the rim. With no one guarding the passing lane between White and Robinson, an easy lob pass ended in a quick two points.
Given the size Boston now has in the middle of the floor, I’m expecting to see a lot more of these quick-hitting, easy scoring plays as the season continues — especially when Tatum has found his rhythm.
It Wasn’t All Bad!
When your favorite team falls to defeat, despite holding such a sizeable lead, it’s easy to focus on the negatives. However, the Celtics also showed some good signs, especially early in the game. They’re much more active at forcing turnovers, which in turn is allowing them to get out in transition more. That high tempo will likely be sustained by what is hopefully a long, sustainable period of dominance on the glass, too.
If we’re talking about positive performances, we’ve also got to look at George. After a summer when Celtics fans were vocally dejected about his arrival, he quickly endeared himself. It’s unlikely what we saw from him last night will become the new normal, but knowing he’s got that in his locker will offer some comfort when you’re looking to someone for a quick bucket or two.
We’ve also got to credit the Celtics for how active their hands were in the passing lanes. They ended the night with 23 deflections. Also, it’s not like the team shot poorly all night. They walked away from the game having hit a steady 40.5% from deep on 17-of-42 shooting.
Once you factor in the spurts of solid defense and the way the Celtics looked on offense during the first half, there’s a lot to be excited about. They’ve just got to figure out how to keep hold of their leads, because while they might have a solid track record of eking out wins after being up double digits, too often they’re rolling the dice after letting things slip away.
Next up is the New York Knicks on Friday. It’s another tough test for the Celtics, and one that will undoubtedly highlight more areas the team needs to work on. That’s what the early part of the season is about. I’m not worried. I trust Mazzulla, the roster, and the rest of the coaching staff. Still, that doesn’t make losses like yesterday’s any easier to stomach.
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