ECF: Looking back and ahead

A look at the tactics that produced a Game 1 blowout and what could be in store for Game 2

Not many people would have guessed that would happen. I expected Boston to win Game 1 over Cleveland and fairly comfortably, but not in the total undressing fashion everyone saw in the series opener. I thought this series would and will go seven games, and I’d stand by Cleveland winning in TD Garden in Game 7. That’s a long way off, but Game 2 is around the corner, and there’s plenty to take away from Game 1.

• Boston’s defense was locked in in Game 1. Whether it was loading help from the weak side, shading against LeBron James and Kevin Love post switches or executing “scrams” or “kickouts” to get out of a few other mismatches, the Celtics’ defense shrunk the floor and sealed up driving lanes in Game 1, while still holding down the 3-point line, where Cleveland’s attempts, makes and quality looks were all diluted in Game 1.
• Everyone knows Cleveland wants to target switches of Terry Rozier onto James and Love. Boston didn’t overreact to avoiding them with hard hedges in James pick-and-rolls (PNRs). They generally switched and either scrammed afterward, doubled or shaded hard to the mismatch.

That’s not an easy trick to pull off with exactitude in such high volume, but it’s a mainstay of Boston’s defensive principles. The Celtics load their help defense very well; essentially, if James posts up, for example, Boston chokes off the space he has to work with by way of premature help. They’re already saddling the paint ready to provide aid. James will face these sort of cramped quarters with all eyes on him and the paint borderline flooded all series long.

James can still eviscerate a team under these circumstances, especially with intel he gathers throughout the series in terms of what advantages he has against what defenders, where and if Boston is typically bringing help and how quickly. James was a bit passive in Game 1, and it may have been him feeling out how Boston wants to defend him when he gets to his spots and how methodical he can afford to be in his backdowns and drives. James isn’t go to shred the Celtics the way he did the Raps, or even abuse them when he dials all the way in like he did against the Pacers. But make no mistake, he’ll be coming in Game 2 after a pretty porous Game 1.

• Boston is readily equipped with length, range, discipline and communication to closeout on Cleveland shooters. If Boston keeps shading and loading toward James like in Game 1, he’ll spy shooters. The Celtics will be able to at least get a contest on a lot of those shots anyway because of being drilled in closeout defense. Getting into help position early makes a defense less susceptible to having their momentum of one rotation against that of another. Dudes like LeBron and James Harden are the type of passing visionaries that swindle help defenders with zings against the grain and bullets versus the flat-footed. The Celtics don’t leave themselves vulnerable to that kind of foolery often.
• The Celtics have the defensive goods to thwart Cleveland — multiple matchups for James, multiple others who can at least hold their own, help defense principles and extraordinary synergy on that end — but the Cavs aren’t some stiff at Boston’s mercy. They have plenty of their own tactics to counter. Game 1 saw very few. The Cavs looked woefully unprepared.
• Tyronn Lue had to know, he had to know Boston was going to orchestrate gobs of switches coming into this series, especially against James. We didn’t get an inkling that thought broached the Cavs’ staff. Where were ghost screens for James? Where were early slips? Lue and the Cavs have never utilized either tactic much or shown a lot of creativity overall to counter how opponents attempt to defend James. That’s fine against most teams. Just set a screen for James to get a slightly weaker defender on him and watch the defense cave in on itself.

Boston’s defense, is not like that of most teams. That kind of mundane blahness isn’t going to get it done against a team that plays this hard and is connected this well on the defensive end. Lue may have to search the spice cabinet and sprinkle in some new flavors. Have a screener loiter up to James, engage in some half-assed screening and order James to bumrush the exchange point, catching Boston mid-switch as he forces their hand. James can’t summon that kind of verve even 30 percent of the time most likely with the load he’s carrying, and maybe Lue has it saved for down the stretch of a more competitive game, but if Game 2 starts to slip away, there’s no more waiting. It’s time.

• Cleveland may look to slip more of those screens for James in Game 2 as well to loosen the vice grip of Boston’s defense. The Cavs have to emphasize slipping in the game plan if they want it to happen. Small PNRs with James are the most conducive to slipping because of the attention and contact maintained with James. The problem is those slips are naturally pops for guards not rolls. But we saw Cleveland’s guards slip at times in the latter stages of the Indiana series when they really needed it.
• Another ploy are quick-hitting PNRs for James before Boston’s defense can load up. Those secondary transition attacks are gold, but they sap energy. The Cavs have to be judicious.

• The Cavs flat out need better spacing in Game 2. If everyone is going to be bystanders to James’ solo acts, at least maximize the strain on the defense. Two weak side shooters straying too close to one another or an off-ball big accidently sliding into the same passing lane as a marksman is the kind of shit the Cavs could go away with against Toronto and even Indiana. It won’t fly versus Boston.
• Any time, Tristan Thompson is in the game, Boston is going to look to provide reinforcements versus James at his expense. Thompson usually does a great job of being active, but he also needs to be a threat. If you’re deserted, go set a backscreen for a cutter or a flare screen for a shooter. Go chill in the dunker spot on the right side of the floor and dare Boston to double James on the left side. One quick pivot spin and James will find you. If Boston slinks a weak side defender in front of Thompson to take away that drop off, then he’s done his job, too. Those defenders are susceptible to getting pinned on the inside as a pass skips over the top to a corner shooter. That threat puts the onus on the weak side wing defender to zone up a wider area. That’s death versus a manipulative passer like James.
• It’s not there MO, but Cleveland’s weak side spot up shooters may need to add some pep to their usual lethargy. One of the reasons the Celts scrammed so well in Game 1 was because they knew Cleveland’s weak side players weren’t going anywhere. They can’t let Boston play them like that.

It’s not like they have to start setting gobs of hammer screens (although that’d be pretty cool), just slice into the lane when everyone’s pre-occupied with James, or skulk a baseline cut. Try exchanging spots or setting a pin-in. Watch how effective George Hill is here by just loitering in the short corner to draw Brown’s attention. If that pass is a half second later, Korver has drifted further to the corner, rendering Tatum’s closeout almost moot.

Cleveland ramped up their activity on the weak side a tad in the second half of Game 1, and it needs to continue in Game 2. It’s another area where Korver is so valuable — I thought he actually managed well on defense in Game 1, too.

• Watch out for those double stagger screens on the weak side of a James post up more in Game 2.
• When the Cavs do try to trigger a switch for James, he’s getting deeper position when he’s the screener. Boston is really getting up into his space quickly on switches when he’s the ball handler. If Cleveland tries to generate more switches with James screening in Game 2, expect Boston to move Rozier onto a less capable ball handler.
• Cleveland didn’t go to their patented corner split action too often. It’s well defended here by Boston, where the Celts actually go under-two with Horford ducking under both Hill and Smart to recover to Love.

That’s borderline perfect from Smart with this kind of coverage. He stays attached to Hill and hugs up on him to make it easier for Horford to stay close to Love even when he goes under. If Boston continues with this coverage, Hill will try to screen both players, but Smart is playing high enough Hill where he can jump out on Love for a switch in an emergency.

• Cleveland discovered some success out of their horns alignment with Love and James at the two elbow spots. It’s an interesting look and brings about a lot of optionality. It got one of them a switch of Rozier just about every time and produced one of the rare cases when Boston’s scram switch became boggled.

You can see in the last clip, Cleveland gets the switch they want of Rozier on James, but are walking on eggshells. James is almost paralyzed. He wants to take Rozier down to the block, but he knows if he moves in any direction, Boston is immediately going to rejigger the matchups.

• Aaron Baynes is going to be under heavy fire all series during his time on the floor. Cleveland went after him mercilessly in Game 1 with Love pick-and-pops and off-ball screens for Love.

Brad Stevens may slash his minutes or at least align them more closely with Thompson’s moving forward. By the way, can we get some more James-Love pick-and-pops and unique off-ball screening for Love. Boston will switch a lot of it, but the Celtics are going to switch a lot of whatever Cleveland does in this series; at least this greases the wheels of any half-court possession.

• On the other end, Cleveland defended Baynes’ pick-and-rolls aggressively with hard hedges that bordered on traps at times until the guard gave it up. They’re trying to funnel the ball to Baynes, but committing two defenders to one player is always risky business versus a team coached by Stevens. That’s his playground to cook up off-ball cuts and screening actions. It’s also Cleveland’s playground to jack up their defensive communication, which, ya know, has been kind of a problem this season.

• Speaking of slashing minutes, yeah, Jordan Clarkson may need the axe. The dude bases his entire impact off his scoring, and he doesn’t even do it efficiently. Worse his shot selection and tunnel vision doesn’t even give him a chance to do it efficiently.
• I’ll be interested to see if Lue dusts off Larry Nance at any point in this series. He’s active off ball and his vertical spacing could be a real asset versus a Boston defense so effective in shrinking the floor. He has more vertical pop than Thompson forcing Boston to peel off weak side shooters a little more and a little earlier.

Just a few tidbits focusing on the other end of the floor with Boston on offense and Cleveland on defense.

• Al Horford is quite the handyman. The dude is just snacking in the playoffs. All of the hoops nerdery screen flips, dribble handoffs and exquisite two-man game is being swapped out for some old-fashioned bad man spunk. He’s burrowing into guys in the low post with an attitude. (Zach Lowe talking about this on his most reunion pod with Bill Simmons was outstanding) Oh you know I’m going to my righty hook? Good for you. Now let’s see you stop it! He buried the Bucks on the block and befuddled the Sixers with his pops. Against Cleveland, he was a one-man wrecking crew. They tried everything to stall Horford’s pick-and-pops. First they tried stunting. He launched without hesitation. They fully rotated a third defender as Love dropped, and he made the extra pass for an open 3. Next time, he faked that pass and drove right by for a layup. They tried a trap and messed up the weak side rotations. Finally, the Cavs just said to hell with it and late-switched. If that’s the solution moving forward, get ready for bully Al.

This mean Al Horford combined with savvy Al Horford combined with the post up stonewalls of Joel Embiid, late-switches versus LeBron and all the other defensive goodies — woah boy, maybe the Celts do have their best player healthy after all.

• Boston caught James roving off of Marcus Morris a few times in Game 1. It’s going to be an arduous task for James to play free safety in this series. Not only does Boston not have a shaky shooter like Thad Young, Pascal Siakam or busted-shoulder Fred Van Vleet, but when teams do ignore dudes like Morris or Marcus Smart off ball, they don’t just stand around and let it happen.
• A bellwether for Cleveland’s defensive engagement is how many times they get dusted by ball handlers rejecting picks. It happened too much in Game 1. Even if James plays better in Game 2 as expected, the Cavs shoot better as expected and they enlist some adjustments as expected, their offense isn’t going to just roll over Boston’s defense in this series. This series is going to hinge on whether Cleveland’s defense makes things hard enough for Boston on the other end. If the Celtics get system layups and 3s purely because Cleveland is too apathetic to defend multiple actions and off-ball activity, they’re going to be sweating it out.