Boston's defense, Smart-Rozier pairing, lead Celtics to eighth straight win in Orlando

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Boston's defense, Smart-Rozier pairing, lead Celtics to eighth straight win in Orlando






By: Jared Weiss | 11 hours ago








The Boston Celtics’ tremendous defensive start has been quantified in a multitude of ways. Their number one defensive rating as a team, their starters filling the top of the leaderboard for individual defensive rating, the NBA record for best streak after starting 0-2.


But their true testament is that they are the youngest team in the NBA with the league’s highest point differential. Their easy schedule early on facilitated that to a degree, but they are now coming off of wins against a looming juggernaut in OKC and the team nipping at their heels at the top of the East in Orlando.


This is a confident and communicative team, who is harping on their room for improvement rather than basking in the glory of a surprisingly good start. Their confidence is elevated and that reinforces consistent and impactful defense.


“It’s high. Tremendously high, for a very good reason,” Marcus Smart said to reporters in Orlando regarding the team’s confidence. “Not only cause we won eight straight and played very good basketball doing it. We’re playing as a group.”


It has gone from a notable streak to a testament to character, responding to a cataclysmic event that would create a defeatist mentality in the wrong locker room.


“I know when Gordon went down, a lot of people had doubts, were real skeptical about us,” said Smart. “So for us to be on the run we’re having and do it together, means a lot for us.”


The runs have come in the third quarter. Boston keeps going into the locker room, hearing the gospel from the basketball gods, and putting on defensive ransackings of biblical proportions. After an Aaron Gordon jumper, Boston went on a 13-2 run over the next 7:23. Stevens went with his triple guard lineup in this stretch, giving Shane Larkin run out there with Marcus Smart and Terry Rozier.


This was crucial to achieving the main objective in their game plan Sunday: Limiting open looks for the NBA’s number on three-point shooting team. Well, they aren’t number one anymore.


The Celtics held Orlando to 21.4% from three, ranking just the fourth percentile of all games in the NBa this season per Cleaning the Glass. Orlando took just 23% of their field goals at the rim (8th percentile) and took 46% of their shots from midrange (88th percentile) per CTG. Boston’s distribution was not much better, a reflection of their offensive concerns that were the main topic of discussion in front of the cameras post-game, but they executed their defensive game plan to perfection.


“We’re really getting out there contesting. Our guards are making sure they didn’t give them any easy looks,” Al Horford said. “They did a good job on the ball trailing those screens. Fournier and Gordon, they all have it really going on, so we were aware of that and they were really playing well. We were happy that we were able to do such a good job on defense.”


They certainly contested well. Terrence Ross went 2-for-12. Evan Fournier went 2-for-14. Jonathan Simmons went 5-for-11, but most of those were isos on Irving where he had a huge mismatch.


But they ran out on weak-side shooter effectively and managed their switches carefully. No play better epitomized the simple yet effective hustle than when Mario Hezonja missed a three with a less than a minute left in the third. Orlando faked a side pick-and-roll from the corner to get Smart to ice the screen and open the lane for ballhandler Shelvin Mack. With the lane open, he rejected the screen and drove baseline, where Aron Baynes walled off the rim and Terry Rozier crashed the weak-side lane to tag Baynes’ man Biyombo. Mack, a former Stevens point guard at butler, made the right play and nailed the pass to Hezonja waiting in the weak corner and most defenders would consider the play over. But Terry Rozier is not most defenders.


Rozier turned as soon as the pass was thrown and in two steps was able to leap and contest the shot, forcing a miss. Even though Baynes had the box out on Biyombo, Bismack managed the tip the ball out to Mack on the perimeter. Semi Ojeleye jumper out to cover Mack and they immediately put him into a pick-and-roll with Biyombo, which boston iced as usual. Mack was able to creep in toward the paint, forcing Jaylen Brown to sag deep past the nail and leave Jonathan Isaac open at the top of the key.


When Mack upfaked a shot, Brown read that he could go back to Isaac and recovered into position, in time to make Isaac pump fake off the catch and get stuck in the triple threat. Brown played him loose, knowing he is an inconsistent deep shooter at this point and went straight up with both hands when Isaac decided to shoot and forced the miss.


These are the unspectacular but important defensive performances that allow the Celtics’ middling offense to go on runs that open up the game like they did Sunday.


“We got a lot of guys that can take defense individually and once you put it together collectively, it’s a special thing,” Smart said.

THE HYDRA OF THE FOURTH: SMART AND ROZIER DOMINATING IN THREE-GUARD LINEUP

Teams are really struggling to figure out how to attack the three-guard lineup Boston goes to in the early fourth quarter. On Sunday, it was Shane Larkin with Smart and Rozier who went on the run. Boston used to struggle in these phases of the game without Isaiah Thomas on the floor. Now it’s becoming a strength.


“Me and Terry, we play really well off each other,” said Smart who was a +32 regarding Rozier, who was a +22. “When Terry has the ball, he can create for himself and others and when I have the ball, vice versa. We do a really good job on the defensive end of really protecting each other. When I switch screens with terry and pair up, we feel like we can play together on our own and it helps our bigs not needing to help us, so me and Terry, we just complement each other very well.”


This was their third highest scoring lineup on the evening, dropping 12 points in five minutes of play in that early fourth quarter run with Marcus Morris and Aron Baynes as the bigs. They got some great stops in transition and opened the lead from 4 to 14 by the time the starters came back in at the 6:23 mark.


The lineup had eight rebounds in just five minutes, holding Orlando to 3-for-10 shooting and grabbing all seven defensive rebounds. Stevens credited Rozier and Smart for the way they control the glass from their position.


“I think the thing that I don’t get asked about right now is their impact, and their impact is huge,” Stevens said. “When you think about what they’re asked to do, come in and change the tempo of the game. Guard bigger guys, at least one of them is. And they rebound for their position exceptionally.”


Smart and Rozier are a blossoming pair, whose strengths complement each other’s weaknesses and are starting to work together as the singular amalgamation of the perfect sixth man.


“I thought a big part of our playoff success last year was Smart and Terry coming off the bench together and that’s been validated the first couple of weeks in the season. In a lot of ways, they can make us go with the way the bench is.”


They made Boston go Sunday, taking what could be the end of their streak on a sloppy Sunday after a night out in Disney World in to a reinforcement of their defensive prowess.



bob



.

I like both of these guys but Rozier is getting caught cheating by sagging in the middle and he did that 3 times the other night and the magic hit the three pointers.

He is a solid on the ball defender but needs to do a better job defending the perimeter. He needs to stay with his assignment.

The Celtics have been an elite defensive team so far.

dboss