NBA Notebook: Three ways for the Celtics offense to get on track against Raptors

Let’s start here with an obvious statement that became highlighted in Game 4 of Celtics-Raptors: The Celtics offense misses Gordon Hayward a great deal. Six straight wins and some hot shooting nights covered up his absence for much of the last two weeks, but Boston isn’t playing Philly anymore and they aren’t getting insane shooting nights from Marcus Smart either (3-of-15 in last two games from 3-point range). Instead, they are faced with arguably the best defense remaining in the Orlando bubble with an innovative coach running the show. Hayward’s midrange shooting and passing would be an ideal zone buster against this team, but that’s not something the Celtics are going to be able to count on anytime soon. Hayward is expected to arrive back in the bubble on Sunday night and will have a four-day quarantine upon his arrival and he is still not healthy enough to play in this series.

Without him, the Celtics offense has been dragged down into the mud after their Game 1 rout against Toronto. Boston has scored just 104.3 points per 100 possessions in the last three games, a mark that would have placed the Celtics dead last out of 30 NBA teams during the regular season.

The Raptors offense has struggled all series long against Boston as well  (101 points per 100 possessions), but that’s not a surprise for a team that counts offense as a weakness all year. They finished 13th in offensive rating during the regular season and ranked 18th on offense out of 22 teams during seeding games in the bubble. Without Kawhi Leonard in the fold this season, the Raptors are reliant on 3-point offense and transition scoring to fuel their points and that’s something they have managed to claw enough of in parts of the last two games (17 made 3s in Game 4 did the job).

The Celtics decline has been a bit more drastic, falling from a top-4 offense to worst in the NBA during the past three games.

Even without Hayward, the Celtics have more offensive firepower than the Raptors on most nights. So where are the areas the Celtics need to clean up going into Game 5? A few areas to watch beyond the obvious (start making some 3s)

GETTING BACK TO THE PASS

The Celtics posted a series-low 18 assists in Game 4 thanks in part to a heap of missed 3-point attempts. While a number of those looks were wide open misfires, the Celtics started to get away from a formula that produced better looks, especially as we got into the second half.

Instead, of trying to beat the Raptors with the pass as they did for Game 1, isolation play took over for large stretches and it cost the C’s some crucial possessions. Notice how ambitious the likes of Smart and Brown got in these sequences as they tried to attack in transition.





That’s not a good formula to beat one of the best defensive teams in the league. In fact, it’s exactly the type of play that sunk the Celtics in last year’s Conference Semifinals against the Bucks, as they put their head down in the lane and ignored their surroundings, which led to numerous blocks and runouts by Milwaukee in a 4-1 series win. The main offender for that debacle is now gone, but Brown/Smart/Tatum all had their ugly moments there as well. We saw some of those creeping back into their play in this series.

The Celtics have been trending towards this type of individual play more in the last two games. They nearly got away with it in Game 3 before OG Anunoby’s 3 but it sunk them for virtually all of the second half in Game 4. Finding good shots with the pass must be a priority for the C’s offense and that didn’t happen nearly often enough in Game 4. Turning down good shots for great shots and avoiding tunnel vision is a clear way the C’s can improve the offense beyond just getting some of those 3s to fall.

AVOIDING THE LOWRY TRAP

The Celtics committed five offensive fouls in Game 4, which made up more than a third of their 14 turnovers on the night. Three of those plays came thanks to some heads-up play by Kyle Lowry, who has been the best player in this series over the past two games and is helping the Raptors with his head on defense just as much as he is with his scoring.

Lowry has been making a routine of letting his own man drift away as he anticipates a drive from the ballhandler. He’s been camping out regularly in the paint on these drives, putting himself in a great position to take charges. The Celtics have not been accounting for this extra help in recent games, which has opened the door wide open for turnovers on plays like this:



No one is better in the league than this at Lowry and the Celtics need to understand that more often than not, he’s going to be waiting for them in the lane anytime he’s in the vicinity. A preemptive pass punishes Toronto for this type of overhelping but that mindset has disappeared a bit too much from some members of the C’s starting five. Patience produces better results in a spot like this and that’s what it is going to be required to help Boston get their turnover numbers down.

HITTING THE GLASS AGAIN

The Celtics find themselves playing one of their worst defensive rebounding teams remaining in the postseason (21st). Yet, Boston’s own work on the offensive glass has disappeared largely in this series. Boston has only grabbed 20 percent of all of their offensive rebounds in the last three games, which is the worst number of any team remaining in the postseason. The focus on getting back for transition defense is likely a factor in this decline, but when the Celtics aren’t hitting 3s (30 percent over last three games), second-chance opportunities become critical against a team like Toronto. Boston is not picking their spots well to crash and that’s failed to provide easy offense during times when Robert Williams (just 15 minutes in Game 4) isn’t out on the floor.

Ultimately, Stevens is going to have to make a decision between sacrificing some flexibility on the defensive end for some better offensive upside. Williams is a great weapon to use on the glass against a defense that is scrambling to contest shots thanks to his size and athleticism. If the C’s don’t have their offense going in a game, he’s a guy that needs to provide a spark. Otherwise, it’s going to be on the likes of Daniel Theis and other wings to crash the glass with more authority in order to find creative avenues of scoring against a gritty Raptors defense. It’s not going to be pretty, but with the necessary adjustments, Boston has enough ways to pull themselves out of this offensive lull.