Boston Celtics' offense shines with Marcus Smart in starting lineup: 'We did pretty well with our unit tonight'

https://www.masslive.com/celtics/index.ssf/2018/11/boston_celtics_offense_shines.html



Boston Celtics' offense shines with Marcus Smart in starting lineup: 'We did pretty well with our unit tonight'



Updated 2:30 AM; Posted 2:30 AM




Kyrie Irving on late-game performance: "It's closing time at that point"




By Tom Westerholm



NEW ORLEANS -- The Boston Celtics needed a night like Monday, where the offense clicked early and the defense made the offense easier. They needed a relatively painless victory, where the post-game pressers were short and everyone was in a relatively good mood. They needed to beat a mediocre team in a way reminiscent of a very good one.

The Celtics needed some normalcy, and Monday's 124-107 win over the New Orleans Pelicans provided some.

"I think that was a positive for us obviously to get off to the start we did, and even when they made runs we answered it," Brad Stevens said after the game. "Again, it's hard to maintain a lead in this league. I don't think it ever got lower than seven or six, but we always answered."

The Celtics hurt the Pelicans right away -- a focus for a team that Kyrie Irving has said on multiple occasions struggles in the opening minutes. Al Horford got off to a hot start with a series of pick-and-rolls and pick-and-pops, and when the dust cleared after the first six minutes, he already had 10 points -- boosting the Celtics to a 22-9 lead.

Two other aspects played a major role as the Celtics build their lead early: Marcus Smart joined the starting lineup, and the Pelicans turned the ball over seven times in the first six minutes.


Those two things feel related.

"I was just trying to come in and do what I do from the get-go, instead of coming off the bench and waiting," Smart said. "I was trying to get us off to a better start."

Irving noticed the difference.

"I think the unit that we had out there today, we really had that mindset going that we wanted to start out the game and have a defensive presence," Irving said. "Marcus on the ball took some of that pressure off of me of being off the ball as well, offensively and defensively. So when my time was on Jrue Holiday I was able to direct and do the right things, but Marcus was really taking that responsibility. And that's a role that he particularly plays for our team and we do really well.

"Also on the offensive end it takes pressure off me being able to play off the ball sometimes; my energy can get depleted coming up and down and directing the ball every single time. And having Marcus in there gave me that outlet to be able to get off the ball. So we did pretty well with our unit tonight. We started off the game well and we never looked back."

Smart's defense helped the team create offense. The Celtics shot 48.7 percent from three -- a number that would seem unsustainable for a multi-game stretch, if it weren't past high-time for the Celtics' offense to even itself back out. Boston, a team that has plenty of good shooters, has been incapable of making open shots to this point. Brad Stevens believes his squad is due.


"As elementary as this sounds, shot-making," Stevens said, when asked what helped Boston stave off runs. "Sometimes you need a big shot to go down."

"When you start seeing shots go down early, especially those easy ones, you start thinking, 'OK. The game is a little bit easier for me,'" Smart added. "And like I said, those tough shots, when you need them, the shots start falling for you."

The Celtics punished New Orleans schematically as well. The Pelicans attacked the ball-handler in the pick-and-roll hard, which left other options wide open. When teams double the ball, a couple of good passes will find an open shooter.

"They blitzed him last year, they put two on the ball, Dallas blitzed him the other night, so there was a lot of talk about that going into the game about how we need to handle that as well as we can, space appropriately," Stevens said. "There's a lot of skilled players out there. We should be able to handle those things well. We should be a hard team to blitz."

Of course, the Celtics haven't been a hard team to blitz so far, so you can give Alvin Gentry some benefit of the doubt for giving the Celtics a shot. The extra passes have been there all season, but the 19 triples haven't always been -- particularly the bombs from Semi Ojeleye and Gordon Hayward, which came in addition to the usual suspects of Irving (5-for-10) and Horford (3-for-4). Even Smart knocked down two of his five attempts (the first two).


"There's a reason why we signed (Smart) back," Irving said. "There's a reason why he's very instrumental for our team being successful. Because he's a veteran now -- not in terms of years but he's played high-level basketball for the Celtics for a few years now. So we expect him to be in the right spots and doing the right things. And when he's playing with me, we play pretty well together at the 1 and 2 spot. So defensively and offensively, I feel like he brings our numbers up. And I'm appreciative of that."

Can the Celtics keep rolling? That remains to be seen, as does the future of the starting lineup when injured players return. On Monday, the Celtics just appreciated the chance to play like themselves.

"We needed that," Smart said. "The team itself was able to see that passion. We had different guys diving on the floor and doing multiple things on the defensive end, and we weren't stagnant on the offensive end and letting our offense dictate how we play defense. It was actually the other way around. That's how we are supposed to play, and it felt good."


bob



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Some highlights of Marcus Smart’s defensive night via NBA tracking:

* Forced Jrue Holiday into 5 turnovers in 38 possessions defended. Caused seven turnovers overall.

* Defended Anthony Davis and Nikola Mirotic for 10 possessions and allowed only 2 points.






bob
MY NOTE:  Can't copy the whole graphic, the right side is cut off.  Original shows turnovers created and other stats.  You can see it all yourself here:

https://twitter.com/ChrisForsberg_/status/1067419535526035456/photo/1




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I think you got it all.  What's the "V" mean in TOV?

Here is a version for those who have older computers with lower resolution screens:

gyso wrote:I think you got it all.  What's the "V" mean in TOV?

Here is a version for those who have older computers with lower resolution screens:

gyso,

I must be one of those people with older computers with lower resolution screens. Thanks.


bob


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The right side of some images posted here gets cut off when I use my Kindle. That may be true of those that use other tablets and their phones to view this site. I have a new-ish 24" flat screen monitor that I can see really well without using my reading glasses.

I've been hosting images at 800 px lately, especially the bigger ones. I only use 1024 px when the image is tiny.

gyso