When the Boston Celtics play a basketball game, the directive is simple—give Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown the ball and work from there. Teams continuously throw pressure at Tatum and Brown, giving them room to kick to a slew of elite shooters behind the three-point line. With guys like Derrick White, Payton Pritchard, and Kristaps Porzingis to pass to, the Celtics offense flows beautifully.
And if Tatum or Brown is left on an island, they simply take on their matchup in isolation. That’s a very dangerous game to play for opposing teams, which is why they usually send help, leaving Boston with open passes.
But on Tuesday night against the Brooklyn Nets, the Celtics had to find new versions of Tatum and Brown.
Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford filled in for Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown in Celtics win vs. Nets
For the first time all season, the Celtics had to find a way to win without Tatum and Brown in the lineup. Both were effectively given the night off, leaving the Celtics with a starting lineup of White, Jrue Holiday, Sam Hauser, Al Horford, and Porzingis.
Boston’s offense is run with a focus on mismatches. Those mismatches are almost always given to Tatum and Brown. But with them sidelined, the Celtics had to forget about those perimeter advantages and focus on the post. And it wasn’t all about Porzingis.
Porzingis gets plenty of post touches, even when Tatum and Brown are in the lineup. The Celtics work to get him mismatches in that spot, and he works from there. But those opportunities usually end in a shot rather than a pass.
On Tuesday night against Brooklyn, the Celtics fought tooth and nail to get mismatches in the post and turn them into open shots. Porzingis and Horford battled to use screens to their advantage, get a smaller guy on them in the post, and pass out to open shooters. But the Celtics were cold from three, so their efforts will go largely unnoticed.
Time and time again, the Celtics got the ball to Porzingis and Horford in the post, who were then tasked with running the offense by reading the defense. Brooklyn’s relatively small lineup was forced to sink in to prevent easy buckets, which created a bunch of open threes for Boston.
Boston relentlessly hunted these chances, as with Tatum and Brown out, they were their best opportunity to force the Nets to bend their defense.
Had the threes fallen, Boston likely would have jumped out to an early lead, and there’s a chance they could have ridden it into a comfortable victory. Instead, they needed a huge performance from Baylor Scheierman to get the job done.
Still, though the results didn’t occur in the way Boston may have hoped, the process was very intentional—and it worked well. They created a bunch of quality looks from distance.
In the first quarter alone, the Celtics created five open shots (closest defender 4-6 feet away) and seven wide-open shots (closest defender six or more feet away). They shot 3-of-12 on those opportunities. It didn't get much better in the second quarter, when they shot 3-of-11 on the same two types of three-point looks.
Boston's offensive strategy works. The shots just didn't fall.
Porzingis and Horford effectively played the same role that Tatum and Brown do for the Celtics, which is that of the advantage-taker. But instead of attacking mismatches on the perimeter, they were working out of the post.
No matter who’s in the lineup, the Celtics will look to find mismatches and work from there. So, with Tatum and Brown out, they turned to the next most obvious advantage they could pick on: Size.
Just because the results didn’t find the same success as the process doesn’t mean the strategy didn’t work.
