After Blowing Out The Hawks, The Celtics Redemption Playoff Run Is Off To A Great Start
Maddie Meyer. Getty Images.1 down, 15 to go.
As far as Game 1s go, I'd say things went fairly well. Considering the Celts 13 point win was their largest margin of victory in a Game 1 since the 2008 title season, I'm not sure how anyone could disagree. The final score may have said 112-99, but it was not that close. The Celts found themselves up 22 points just 19 minutes into this game and never really looked back. A lead by as much as 32 points, things went how most predicted when talking about this matchup. There were no real surprises, the Celts looked locked in and prepared from the opening possession, and the results speak for themselves.
Now, it should be stated that you do not win a series by winning Game 1. That is not how things work, unfortunately. You need 4 of them. But what they can sometimes be is a tone setter for a series, and as they say, you can't win 4 before you win 1. All this win did was give the Celts a 1-0 lead. It did not guarantee a Game 2 win and it did not guarantee a series win. The Celts are still going to have to come out with the same level of focus and energy on Tuesday, because I imagine you'll get a little bit more desperate of a Hawks team. Maybe that won't matter, but we are not yet in a position where you can think this series is over. This is part of what we're going to learn about Joe in his first playoff run. Can he keep them locked in even amidst success?
What we did see, is a Celtics team that can win the NBA title.
One of the questions about the Celts was what would they do in a playoff series when their 3s weren't dropping. I was told they were unable to adjust, that Joe didn't know what he's doing and only relies on his team to make 3s. Well, yesterday the Celts did not hit 120 points, they had over 15 TOs, and they made below their season average of 3PM (13 vs 16)……and they still won by double digits and were never truly threatened. They basically got an offensive stinker out of the way and still won. That has to make you feel pretty good moving forward, knowing this team can play even better.
It felt like Game 1 was a release of frustration and pain that had been brewing for the last 300+ days. Let's talk about it.
The Good
- This time of year, it's time for your best players to go up a level. Role players are important and you need them to win at a high level, but the NBA Playoffs are truly the time for stars. Your best of the best needs to show up and carry you.
Coming into this game we were all curious as to what Jaylen Brown would look like with that cut hand. Maybe it would impact his play, maybe it wouldn't. People (me) were dissecting blurry photos and videos from practice trying to get a feel as to what he might look like.
The answer? Better than ever
If there's one thing I think is becoming crystal clear, it's that we can rely on Jaylen Brown in the postseason. He's that guy I'm afraid. How would he look with a busted up hand? Oh I don't know, just led the Celts in points and rebounds while shooting over 50% from the field while not missing a single FTA. He did say he re-split it open which sounds pretty fucking gross and I can't say I love that, but he told us it wouldn't be an issue, and given what I just watched, I tend to believe him.
The NBA Playoffs are about matchups, and as expected Game 1 gave us no reason to think the Hawks are going to be able to have the consistent high level perimeter defense that you need if you want to beat this Celtics team. Jaylen Brown got wherever he wanted, whenever he wanted. He just goes through you. It didn't really matter who the Hawks tried, Jaylen is too strong. Even with a shot blocker like Capela on the floor, does this look like a guy who was afraid to take it strong to the rim?
How many times did we see the Jaylen/Smart backdoor cut? 3 or 4 seperate times? That is quickly becoming the most unstoppable set in basketball, and it's all due to chemistry. Those two connect on that play by simply sending brain wavelengths to each other. I'm not even totally sure if that's what it's called because I'm not a science guy, but I am a find a teammate on a backdoor cut for an easy dunk guy.
The turnovers were a disaster (more on this in a minute), but overall? If this is the Jaylen I'm getting for the next 2 months, I am very excited.
- We lived in a time when there were real people who had real takes that Brad Stevens overpaid in his trade for Derrick White. You would hear legitimate crying that Brad was stupid to include a future pick swap in the deal. A pick swap.
What he got was a player that looks like he was born to be a Celtic. The Derrick White experience has been tremendous since the very first second he stepped on the floor, and it continues to get better and better. Take this season for example. Derrick had probably the best overall season of his career, he's about to make an All NBA Defensive team, he's regarded as one of if not the best role guys in the league, he fixed his shot, and he came out in Game 1 and looked incredible
I'll take 7-13 (4-7) shooting and a nice little 24/5/7 line with just 2 TOs in 38 minutes. Derrick White fixing his shot is easily a top 10 best thing to ever happen to me, and watching him shoot with confidence and with fixed mechanics was quite the way to spend a Saturday afternoon. It starts with White being completely straight on his jumper. No lead, no fade. A straight ass line.
The biggest difference in Derrick's jumper from this year to last year is the consistency of his form and his release. It's quicker, it's positioned well, and his body stays straight. This doesn't happen overnight, it happens by spending hours and hours and hours in the gym. You get that through creating good habits and good muscle memory which comes from hard work. When Derrick would have his inconsistency last year, it was in part because his form/release wasn't consistent. So this year, it wasn't so much a re-creation of his shot as it was to just learn how to replicate the good ones and make that become the norm.
Defensively, we got what we expected. Derrick had Trae Young in hell. White guarded Trae for 31 possessions and held him to just 6 points on 2-7 shooting. On the other end, he didn't settle and used his size to get Young into the paint, and then he simple shot over him. This is a problem the Haws are not going to be able to fix as long as Young is on the court. Having gone through teams with Isaiah and then Kemba, this is just what happens this time of year. It's why having a team with a 3 headed guard rotation of 6'3 and 6'4 guards who are strong as shit is a pretty massive advantage.
- Let's be perfectly clear. The first 24 minutes of this game were pure Celtics crack. I'm talking the good shit. When we get a taste of that version of the Celtics….man. They become untouchable. Seeing that shit in the playoffs makes it all the more intense. Just knowing they are capable of reaching a level like that on both ends of the floor is so goddamn intoxicating.
It all starts on the defensive end. This was only the 3rd time ALL SEASON the Hawks were kept to under 100 points. The Celtics told us all year they were one of if not the best defense in the NBA, they finished the year top 2 and entered the postseason completely healthy. For their debut to be against a top 10 offense and to completely shut them down like this told us that them "flipping a switch' or whatever defensively is real. Where did that start? As it always does. With the guards.
When the Celtics defense is playing at a championship level, it starts with their perimeter defense and their guard play. We know what's waiting on the back line, but when the guards/wings guard their yard and make an impact defensively, opposing teams have no shot. During the year outside of Derrick, we saw some regression from the perimeter defenders on this team. Last night, we got maybe the best defensive showing of the season from that group
Think of how the Hawks score. If you take away their drive and kicks, like we see here
the Hawks are in trouble. Look at these scrambles and closeouts. Everyone is on a string and working as a cohesive unit. Sure I don't love all that OREB in that possession, but I love how the Celts recovered.
The Celts were also MUCH better at defending P&R, which is the most important part of the Hawks offense. To be blunt, the Celts were dogshit during the year at guarding P&R. I'm talking 37th percentile. Did it feel like Trae killed this team at any point in P&R? Sure there was maybe a lob here or a floater there, but the Celts were ready for it and did about as well as you could ask in limiting it.
- Rob looks like Rob and I cannot contain my excitement. I'm busting Jerry, I'm busting!!!
There's a reason I call Rob the biggest ceiling raiser on this roster, and yesterday was the perfect example of why. He just changes everything on both ends. Defensively? Tell me that's not the Rob you know and love. The rebounding, the rim protection, the fear that he instills in opposing players whenever they get into the paint. It's all incredible.
Offensively, there's the OREB, the passing, and of course, the lobs. It seems as though everyone is remembering that when it doubt you can just throw the ball high as shit to Rob, and he's going to dunk it on everyone's head. Add in the fact that he only played 22 minutes, and this was the perfect Rob game.
- Can you believe we went this long and didn't event talk about Tatum's first half? You forget he also had 21 points at the break and just like Jaylen, looked like he could get whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted
- Joe looked more than ready and prepared for his first playoff game. The moment did not look too big for him which should surprise no one, because immediately he showed us that coaching in the NBA wasn't too big for him. Joe might actually be the chosen one. I thought his rotations were great, his timeout usage was that of a 25 year NBA vet, and I loved everything about what he said postgame
When will these people learn that Joe does not give a shit about this? He already let us know his thoughts on the topic back in February
and one of the questions we wanted to see was if Joe could adjust when his team wasn't making all their 3PA. The answer so far, is yes. Only 33 of the team's 88 FGA were 3PA, so that tells me Joe has the ability to recognize an opponent's weakness and then tweak his approach to exploit it. That's playoff basketball.
- Al Horford is just the perfect human. I don't know how else to say it. He's perfect
Huge on the glass, makes timely buckets, has gigantic blocks late, Playoff Al is everything you want in a player, and more. Now he gets 2 days off to recover and be ready for Game 2 and I cannot wait to see what he does as an encore. There's a reason everyone talks about him like this
The Bad
- I have to admit, I was a little surprised to see Grant be a DNP-CD in this game. Maybe it's a matchup thing, maybe they're saving him for a potential Embiid assignment, who knows. I can't imagine he's a DNP all series, but it's clear that Joe is riding with Hauser as that 8th guy at least for the first look. He didn't do all that much yesterday (0-2) so this is something to keep an eye on. We've seen Joe not play Grant one game and it immediately tanking his psyche, so that's something to monitor.
The Celts are going to need Grant during this run at some point, so hopefully this doesn't completely ruin his mentality.
- If the Celtics want to make a deep run, they cannot make their lives harder on themselves. That starts and ends with turnovers. Having lived through last year's run, it's pretty simple. When the Celts turn the ball over more than 15 times, they're usually fucked. Under 15? You're not beating them.
So, I could make the case that in some ways, the Celts were fortunate to overcome their 16 TOs. That's simply way too many against a team that cannot play defense. A large portion of them came from Jaylen (6), who did have several turnovers that I would attribute to his hand injury. Just weird dribbling turnovers followed immediately by him grabbing his hand. Can't say I love that.
But he wasn't alone. Smart was throwing some brutal and lazy passes early (finished with 2 TOs), they just didn't look focused at all times when it came to ball security. That was a huge reason why the Hawks won the fastbreak point battle 17-4, because all of these Celts TOs were live ball TOs.
Those 16 TOs led to 19 Hawks points, which was basically 20% of their total. Against teams that can't shoot, giving them easy transition baskets off your own stupid mistakes is just asking for trouble. This has to be cleaned up on Tuesday.
- Only making 13 3PM in a game was very weird to watch considering the Celts usually do that in a half. They shot well from deep (39%), but the overall volume was certainly not something I expected against a poor defense.
- Not a great Celtics debut for Malcolm Brogdon, just 1-6 (0-3), but that one bucket was a pretty big baseline jumper in the 4th quarter so I wouldn't worry too much about it. Something tells me Brogdon is going to be just fine in this matchup, this was just one of the random off nights he has from time to time. He's shooting 47/38% over his last 13 games, so I feel OK saying a 16/0% showing is more of a fluke than anything else.
- In terms of playing with fire when it came to TOs, the same is true with OREBs. The Hawks finished with 14 on the night, including 6 in the 2nd half and 5 of those 6 coming in the 4th quarter. That's a big no-no for anyone who has watched the Celts this season. Their 4th quarter defensive rebounding has to be MUCH better in Game 2.
When the Celts find themselves letting go of the rope a little bit, you can bet your ass turnovers and OREB are the root of it. Limit those, and there's no issue.
The Ugly
- I mean, I'm not sure where else you would put a 32 point lead getting cut down to 12. As awesome as the first half was, that's how poor the final 24 mintues were. Some of the most disgusting offensive basketball of the Celts season. It was everything we hate about how they sometimes play. They stopped playing fast and instead looked like a team that was playing the clock/isolation offense.
Gone was the movement, both player and ball, that made the Celts offense such a wagon in the first half. Add in some missed bunnies and turnovers, and that's how you spark runs. The Celtics finished with 38 points over the final 24 minutes on 34/23% splits with 8 TOs. That's pretty gross.
Tatum finished that half just 1-8, Smart went 1-5, and Brogdon 1-4. Those are three pretty important players in terms of offense that went a combined 3-17. Tatum especially was weird because he just stopped being aggressive and attacking the rim. When he did decide to attack, he missed 4 of his 5 shots in the paint.
Technically, the Hawks never got it to under 12. When things got close, the Celts did immediately respond and got the lead back to 20 in the closing minutes, so it's not as if the game was ever truly up for grabs. But it is bullshit that I had to sweat even for a second in a game in which the Celts were up by 32 points. Enough of that shit. This is about to be a stressful 2 months, I don't need the blowouts to be stressful too. Those are the ones I'm supposed to be able to breathe and not doing scoreboard math with like 5 minutes to go.
- 5 FTA combined for Tatum/Brown when they spent the majority of their night being aggressive and attacking the rim was….interesting.
Look, at this time of year it's not about how you get the win or what it looks like. You just have to get it. The goal is to stack Ws. Period. You need 16. The Celtics, now need just 15. Here's to making it 14 in a few days.
Love and Trust.