Boston Celtics analysis: Atlanta Hawks go small, send hard traps at Isaiah Thomas

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Boston Celtics analysis: Atlanta Hawks go small, send hard traps at Isaiah Thomas





Atlanta Hawks' Al Horford, right, and Paul Millsap defend against Isaiah Thomas during the first half in Game 5 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series at Philips Arena on Tuesday, April 26, 2016, in Atlanta. The Hawks won 110-83 and lead the series 3-2. (Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal Constitution via AP)


Jay King | mjking@masslive.com By Jay King | mjking@masslive.com



on April 27, 2016 at 4:10 AM, updated April 27, 2016 at 4:13 AM




ATLANTA -- Maybe Isaiah Thomas wanted to boost everyone's confidence. Perhaps he wanted to hide anger and disappointment after his lowest-scoring night this season. It's possible he felt relieved after realizing a sprained left ankle was not severe. Whatever his reasoning, the Boston Celtics guard opened his press conference Tuesday night with a smile.

With that, Thomas vowed to be ready for Game 6 of a first-round series against the Atlanta Hawks. He will need to be, since the Celtics must now win two straight games -- including a possible Game 7 in Atlanta -- to keep their season alive.

Tuesday was not a night for many smiles. The Celtics were smacked, 110-83, in a critical Game 5.

"I just walked in the locker room," head coach Brad Stevens said after the debacle, "and I said, 'Listen, we have to do a couple of things that are obvious to the naked eye that we can control. And we'll look at film to figure out what else we can do better, and we'll move forward.

"I don't think there's any need to light into anybody or give a Knute Rockne speech in Game 5 or Game 6 of the Eastern Conference playoffs. I just think you get ready for the next one, you prepare really well, and you hope to come out the way we came out, which was focused and ready. We just didn't sustain it."

During the second and third quarters, the Hawks "opened up the whole game," as Thomas put it. A couple of things Stevens will examine on film:


1. Atlanta's small lineups

Over the first four games of the series, Mike Scott and Paul Millsap played 34 minutes together for Atlanta -- and were mighty effective, with a 14.5 net rating that tied for the best among all Hawks two-man combos with at least 20 minutes played. Their impact was less subtle in Game 5. Those two guys played power forward and center, respectively, in small lineups that crushed the Celtics.

"I don't think they missed for an hour," Evan Turner said. "What could you possibly do?"

Stevens tried just about everything against Atlanta's small lineups. He went to a 2-3 zone. He downsized as much as he felt comfortable doing with Jonas Jerebko at center. He went bigger with Kelly Olynyk and Jared Sullinger. Never mind, because the Hawks rolled. At one point in the second quarter, they nailed 10 consecutive shots (plus another one with a bigger lineup to make it 11 straight). During the third quarter, they went on another big run, which gave the Scott-Millsap pairing a ridiculous line for the night. Outscoring Boston 44-21 over 10 minutes of action, according to NBA.com, lineups with that tandem shot 17 for 19 from the field (85.5 percent), including 9 for 9 from behind the arc (you don't need me to tell you that's 100 percent). Scott scored inside and out, Kyle Korver and Kent Bazemore drained jumper after jumper and the rout was on.

"We came in at halftime and they had 20 transition points," said Marcus Smart. "That's kind of what set them apart and then those transitions, we couldn't get back and they just started hitting shots."

The Hawks won't shoot like that again, but the Celtics need to find a counter to the Millsap-Scott groups. It may be shoving Jerebko into the center position and hoping small-on-small will be a more even match. The proper response might even be to refuse to overreact, limit transition opportunities for Atlanta, and trust that Scott won't be nearly as effective in Game 6. Regardless, the chess match continues. It's Stevens' turn now.


2. Extra attention for Thomas

"(The Hawks) trapped a lot of Isaiah's pick-and-rolls, obviously," Stevens said. "They were very extended on that, which forces other guys to handle and make plays and make shots. At times we did, and at times we didn't do as well."

Early on, the Celtics got a load of open looks from Atlanta's strategy. For example:





The Celtics run Thomas off a staggered screen to give him a running start against a scrambling defense, and he comes off the action hard. With a step back, he clears room to find Jae Crowder on the right wing. Crowder has a wide open 3-pointer if he wants it, but sees Marcus Smart setting a (completely illegal) screen and decides to dunk the ball instead.

Another example:





Thomas comes off a high ball screen this time. When he sees Bazemore shading the wing, he knows Amir Johnson should be open on the roll. The pass is a relatively easy one, and Johnson draws a foul.

"I thought Isaiah did a really good job of just getting rid of the ball," Stevens said. "That's what you have to do when you're being trapped, and making the right basketball play. In that first 18 minutes, I thought we were playing really well."

They were. Considering the way they defended, they could have built a big early lead if they had capitalized on open looks -- which Thomas (seven points, 3-for-12 shooting) gave his teammates. Instead, the Celtics hit just 4 of 18 from behind the arc prior to halftime. They led by 10 -- it could have been a lot more -- when the Hawks started their big first-half run.

Complicating matters for Boston: injuries. If Kelly Olynyk were healthy, he would be a great pick-and-pop option against such a hard trap. If Avery Bradley were healthy, he would benefit with spot-up jumpers on the weak side. If Crowder were healthy, his reasonable shooting and secondary playmaking could punish the Hawks strategy. But Crowder went 2 for 6 from deep and didn't always look like he wanted to shoot; Olynyk still seems hesitant, to stay the least, on his sore shoulder; and Bradley was in Boston, rehabbing his strained hamstring.

Essentially, Atlanta's betting nobody else on the Celtics can consistently beat them, even with open jumpers.

"That was their game plan. They put two or three guys on me every time I touched the ball," Thomas said. "Their game plan was to let the other guys beat us. It should be a sign of disrespect to my teammates for them to put two on the ball every time I have it. Other guys have to step up and make plays, that's what it comes down to. If they try to do it again in Game 6, it comes down to other guys making plays. I'm gonna just try to get the ball out as quickly as possible, out of the trap, out of the two or three guys they have on me. But other guys have to make shots, other guys have to make plays for us to win."

"It's tough for me because I feel like I can score on anything," he added. "As a point guard, I gotta make the right play. And I gotta trust my teammates. And I know once my teammates are knocking down the shots or make the right play out of the double-team, it's going to open up for me throughout the game. Today it didn't happen, but we knew they would make adjustments, now we have to make adjustments and other guys have to step up."

Does Thomas' assessment -- putting so much pressure onto his teammates -- sound harsh? Yeah, sure. But it's the truth. Maybe more important than his calls for help against traps is the need to convert in transition. The Celtics are going to struggle in the halfcourt against the Hawks no matter what tactics are used. Boston will have a tough time winning with only eight fast-break points, as well as just nine points off turnovers.

Hardwood Paroxysm ‎@HPbasketball
Three Hawks wins: Celtics had 8.3 points off turnovers per game.

Two Hawks losses: Celtics had 22.5 points off turnovers per game.
9:19 PM - 26 Apr 2016
 13 13 Retweets   20 20 likes


That might be the most important stat in the series.

Early in the fourth quarter, Thomas suffered a mild ankle sprain while scoring a layup to put the Celtics down 29 points. Stevens said he had seen his team do "just enough crazy stuff" to hope for a comeback. While you might think the coach is nuts, he could at least point to that game against Miami a couple of weeks ago, when Boston essentially wiped out a 24-point deficit in a single quarter, or even Game 4, when the Celtics erased a 16-point disadvantage in about nine minutes.

With the alternative being concede a pivotal game, Stevens gave Thomas one last shot to produce magic. Fault the coach for the sprained ankle if you want, but Thomas went through 82 games without suffering an injury harsh enough to force him out of the lineup. The tough landing was just bad luck. In a cruel twist, the coach actually had a sub ready at the scorer's table when the injury occurred.

It was one of those nights for the Celtics. They left Atlanta one loss away from elimination, but at least Thomas felt healthy enough to smile. He and his teammates will have another chance to produce magic, but it could be their last one.



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