The Boston Celtics are slingin’ that thing. Guys are cutting and setting picks, the ball is moving, and perhaps to some people’s surprise, the passes are finding their targets.
The Celtics, who lost in the NBA Finals primarily because they kept handing the ball to the other team, have begun the season as one of the best at protecting the ball.
“Our point guards are stellar,” said Celtics interim head coach, and guy who played his entire career as a point guard, Joe Mazzulla. “I forgot what their ratio was the three games before this one, but (Marcus) Smart has been great in his assist-to-turnover ratio. Derrick (White) and Malcolm (Brogdon) have been great, so I think it starts with them and then I think it starts with decision-making. So when you have great spacing and you make the right play and you read the coverage the right way, the passing is a little bit easier.”
The passing was incredibly easy in this game. Boston dished 30 assists with just 7 turnovers, an almost unheard-of number. The Celtics are now fourth in the NBA in fewest turnovers per game (13.3) and turnover percentage (13.2%), as well as third in assist/turnover ratio (1.92)
“It has a lot to do with how we're organized on offense,” Al Horford said. “We're getting to our spaces, we're giving Jayson (Tatum), Jaylen (Brown) room to operate and do things. I feel like that's been one of the big differences but also Jayson, Jaylen, Marcus are doing a good job of reading the defense and understanding when they have to kick out, not trying to take that extra dribble, things like that.”
One of the biggest issues in the Finals and throughout the playoff run was guys getting too deep without outlets. When Horford talks about that extra dribble, it’s the dribble that turns a drive into trying to do too much. It’s the dribble that takes away a drive-and-kick because defenses have that extra beat to collapse.
And while that will still happen from time to time, the Celtics have done a good job of getting off the ball quickly enough, and making enough passes during a possession, to put incredible pressure on defenses to help and recover.
And on top of having great point guards who know when and where to move the ball, there is also the increased threat of Boston’s shooting and top-ranked offense that allows those passes to matter.
“Just trusting our teammates, making precise cuts, making precise decisions,” Smart told BostonSportsJournal.com. “For us, making the right play a lot of times is making that extra pass and just finding guys. Being able to do that and understanding when we are doing that, how good we can be. I think that's what goes into it. We understand that when we pass the ball, it’s hard to beat us.”
Boston, in a sense, is defending with their offense. They're only allowing 10.8 fastbreak points per game. Compare that to, say, the Lakers, who give up 17. That's more than six points they're saving, and they have three wins by six or fewer points. Protecting the ball the way they do could conceivably be the difference between 9-3 and 6-6. While their defense is figuring itself out, their offense is carrying the load and the precision of their execution is what’s making it all work.
But the reason for Boston’s ball protection seems sort of counterintuitive. When the ball moves as much as it does and the Celtics make as many passes as they do, it would make sense that there is a chance the ball can fly off into the stands or someone can jump a passing lane to create a fair amount of turnovers.
Instead, Boston passing the ball more is leading to turning the ball over less.
“I never thought of it that way,” Mazzulla said when brooched with that premise. “When turnovers do happen, it's because someone didn't shoot the ball. Nothing good happens after the first (good) shot's passed up.”
That's music to any basketball player’s ears, but making sure the shots are good is the rub.
“If you come in and try to play one-on-one, and you haven't moved it around, and the ball is stagnant, nobody knows what’s going on, it’s harder to make passes that way,” Smart told me. “When you move the ball and everybody’s cutting, it’s easier to make passes, which is contrary to what people think. So I think that's helped."
