Five keys to the Celtics' improved defense

http://www.csnne.com/boston-celtics/five-keys-to-celtics-improved-defense




Five keys to the Celtics' improved defense



November 21, 2015, 5:30 pm






BOSTON -- As the Celtics settled into their locker room at halftime of last week’s game at Houston, Brad Stevens challenged his team.

They had played pretty good defense, but he wanted to see them hold the Rockets to 35 points...for the half.

The fact that they failed to do so isn’t important, especially considering how lopsided the game’s outcome was in Boston’s favor.

More to the point, the Celtics have a mentality about them that defensively, they can limit or shut down any team.

And the numbers back them up.

After their 120-95 drubbing of the Brooklyn Nets on Friday, Boston (7-5) now has a defensive rating of 95.0, which is tops in the NBA along with the San Antonio Spurs.

“When teams come and play us, they know we’re going to get into them defensively,” said Jae Crowder. “We’re starting to build that DNA.”

Throughout this season, several Celtics have talked about one of the goals this season being to establish themselves as a Top-10 defensive team.

So far, so good.

“We have a lot of guys playing together, playing for each other,” Amir Johnson told CSNNE.com. “We can definitely get better and I think we will with time. But so far, we’ve been pretty good defensively.”

Here are five keys to Boston’s improved play defensively which has been a factor in the Celtics getting off to their best start in three seasons under Stevens.


AMIR JOHNSON

When the Celtics signed Amir Johnson in the offseason, it wasn’t viewed as the game-changing move that so many in Celtics Nation were hoping for.

But as we’ve all seen, Johnson’s rim-protecting skills and ability to run the floor effectively have been a vital part to the team’s success defensively.

The 28-year-old veteran is having one of his best seasons ever in a number of critical categories to Boston’s defense.

He has a defensive rating of 97.8, the best he has had since the 2007-2008 NBA season. And his PACE of 100.32 is a career-best mark that’s topped only by the 103.04 he registered in three games as a rookie during the 2005-2006 season.

Johnson also has a defensive rebounding percentage of .192, the second-best in his career (.196, 2012-2013).


PROGRESS OF OLYNYK & SULLINGER

No discussion about the strides made by the Celtics defensively can be complete without mentioning the improvements made by Kelly Olynyk and Jared Sullinger.

We have seen both show promise as stretch bigs who can score facing the basket, behind the 3-point line and of course inside the paint.

But it wasn’t until this season did their defense begin to draw attention in a positive way.

Sullinger, whose conditioning even now still remains a hot topic of discussion, has been arguably the biggest surprise defensively for the Celtics this season.

He has a career-best defensive rating of 97.3. Always a good rebounder, Sullinger’s rebounding percentage of 20.4 is also a career high.

Olynyk’s numbers are also significantly better defensively.

In his third NBA season, his defensive rating of 86.1 is significantly better than his second-year and rookie seasons when his defensive rating was 100.0 and 105.1, respectively.


PERIMETER PIT BULLS

Avery Bradley has already been named as a member of the NBA’s all-Defensive team, and Marcus Smart isn’t too far behind.

Their ability to contest ball-handlers trying to initiate the opposing team’s offense, has been a significant contributor to Boston’s success defensively.

Opponents are shooting 41.9 percent against Bradley this season, which is 1.1 percent less than they shoot against the rest of the league.

Smart, who will miss the next two games with a left lower leg injury, has a defensive rating of 95.5.

Evan Turner, who is questionable for Sunday’s game in Brooklyn, has been another surprisingly strong defender this season. In fact, his defensive rating (91.0) is better than Smart and Bradley.


ROSTER BALANCE

Because Boston has a roster with such evenness, there’s no true pecking order in terms of guys who can defend at a high level and guys who can score in bunches. The Celtics are building a team that’s better-than-average at both ends of the floor. But as we have seen this season, their defense is indeed ahead of their offense.


STEVENS' COMFORT LEVEL

Stevens’ first season was all about getting a feel for being an NBA coach. The second season was one with constant upheaval within the roster and gave us all a glimpse of how Stevens can handle unexpected, last-minute changes.

He not only didn’t flinch, but showed he could actually excel in such situations as the Celtics closed out the regular season with a six-game winning streak that catapulted them into the playoffs.

Fast forward to this season, one in which Stevens has the most talented group to work with since he has been an NBA coach. Coming from Butler, Stevens is well-versed on the importance of having a sound defense. He has brought those same principles to this Celtics team. And unlike his first two seasons, he has enough talent to actually implement his plan and it have more than a fighter’s chance at working.

The season is still young, obviously. But the Celtics have laid the groundwork for what should result in a second trip to the postseason.

There will be a number of players given credit for the team’s success, but the strength of this team is their defensive system – Stevens’ system – which seems to be effective enough to where this team has a chance to win games regardless of how well or woeful they shoot the ball.



bob



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He never mentions Crowder. Way to big to miss A Sharrod.

dboss

Amir is a much better defender than I thought, he can protect the rim, is mobile in pnr. Sully can push out/lean on any low post scorer, AB, Smart and Crowder all top level defenders at 1-3, plus depth and pace to further wear on teams....and Stevens sure can coach, classic sum greater than individual parts.

No comments on Kelly's 86.1 defensive rating?  No comments on the team only giving up 86.1 points per game when he's on the court?

He missed Crowder, who leads the league in steals/game (how the Hell do you overlook a league leader in anything?) but it looks like all of you carefully avoided talking about a player he explicitly singles out in BIG BOLD LETTERS.  


bob


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Hi,
I'd rather read about 5 key steps to improve offense...

AK