How two early possessions changed the game for Celtics against the Raptors

The zone defense is becoming more and more prevalent in today's NBA. No team can play it for 48 minutes effectively at the pro level due to the defensive three-second rule and the amount of space to be covered. However, it's a change of pace teams like to turn to in order to hide a weak defender or take a team out of its offensive rhythm.

The Nets were very effective in doing that on Monday night in their win over the Celtics, particularly in the third quarter. Boston's offense sputtered against the 2-3 zone as Brooklyn doubled up the C's 44-21 in the frame, giving them a lead big enough to hold off a late Celtics charge.

Raptors coach Nick Nurse surely watched that contest, saw Boston's offensive zone struggles and, despite not playing a ton of zone as a team usually, he decided to give it a shot against the Celtics on Monday night. He did so under pretty unique circumstances, as the Raptors played with two traditional bigs (Serge Ibaka and Greg Monroe) on their front line against a Celtics team that had Gordon Hayward playing power forward late in the first quarter. Needless to say, having a 6-foot-10 Ibaka chase Hayward on the perimeter was not an ideal proposition defensively, but if Ibaka and Monroe could stay on the floor together, the Raptors would have a huge advantage in the post and on the glass. Nurse rolled the dice that the zone could cover up that weakness and give Toronto a chance to take advantage on the other end.

It was evident however that the Celtics did some work on their own zone offense during their off day since they no longer looked like a team flummoxed by what to do when they saw it. Case in point is the decision making of Terry Rozier on the very first possession the zone is unveiled.

Rozier brings the ball up and dishes it to Hayward at the top of the key. He has Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown spreading the floor on the wings with Baynes taking up space at the free throw line. Both guards move towards Hayward after the pass, giving Rozier the opening he needs. He takes a quick pass back from Hayward, pump fakes a recovering Delon Wright and immediately drives to the rim. Serge Ibaka is more worried about leaving Brown open in the corner than stopping the drive, which allows Baynes to seal the lane and let Rozier in for an easy layup.



A quick decision and good aggressiveness by Rozier produced an easy bucket. Those were two things we saw little of on Monday night.

The Celtics allowed a basket the next time down, but that does not stop them from pushing the ball, which catches a Raptors zone that has to be put on its heels right away. Monroe had been playing the wing in the 2-3 zone on the prior possession (something the C's tried with him last year) but he was forced to take the middle of the zone after the C's push as Ibaka recovers to a corner to stop Boston in transition.

The ball gets moved quickly from Smart to Rozier and then Hayward in the corner, who decides to drive right away. Two defenders collapse on the drive, so he resets and waits patiently for another key component of a zone offense to emerge: a cutter. Smart makes himself available in the middle of the paint, gets three defenders to collapse on him and immediately dishes a beautiful bounce pass to Baynes for an easy dunk.



Two plays, five easy points and that was all Nurse needed to see. He pulled Ibaka from the game on the next possession and went away from the zone for the remainder of the evening. Breaking the zone so quickly may not seem like a huge deal, but it helped Boston to keep Monroe (four offensive rebounds) and Ibaka (five offensive rebounds) from playing together for the rest of the night. Their rebounding was plenty of trouble with just one of those guys on the floor, but playing with both could have presented even bigger problems in paint on the offensive end.

Essentially, the Celtics forced the Raptors to play small ball with their bench unit the rest of the way to match up and conform to guarding the C's with a smaller four rather than a true big or a zone. It was a small chess match within the scope of the game, but ultimately proved to be an important one. Teams are going to continue to find unique ways to slow down the firepower of a Celtics offense, but this was one method that went by the wayside quickly. The Celtics went on to score 117 points against a top-10 defense and gain a little bit more confidence that they are capable of picking apart a gimmick defense.