DALLAS -- The Celtics have long been criticized as nothing but a 3-point shooting team, which is understandable if you just look at the final results of plays. Boston leads the NBA in 3-pointers made and attempted in the regular season and playoffs. They get 41% of their total points off 3s, a significant chunk that makes winning difficult when they go away.
The Celtics aren’t seen as a driving team, probably because they are 28th in the NBA in drives per game in the regular season (39.1). But hiding underneath that stat has always been an effective strategy. They didn’t drive nearly as much as other teams (OKC led the league with 62.1), but they were very effective with them. They were third in field goal percentage off drives, they were 10th in passing percentage, third in assist percentage, and they had the second-fewest turnovers.
So when the opportunity presented itself in the NBA Finals to attack weak perimeter defenders while spacing Dallas’ bigs away from the rim, Boston turned their attack up a few notches.
Jaylen Brown averaged 10.1 drives per game in the regular season. He bumped that up to 12.5 over the first three rounds of the playoffs. He’s driving 18.5 times per game in the NBA Finals.
Jayson Tatum went from 9.1 in the regular season, to 11.4 in the non-Finals playoff rounds, to 23.5 against Dallas.
That's 42 drives per game from their two stars, three more than the entire team’s regular season drives. Boston is up to 54.2 drives per game in the Finals. The driving is leading to a lot of kicking out to the perimeter, starting a domino effect. Tatum is Boston’s regular season leader in potential assists with 8.9. Brown averages 6.8. In the Finals, Tatum is averaging 13.5 while Brown is up to 10.
“I got to the paint pretty much whenever I wanted,” Brown said after the Game 2 win. “Those two-on-one reads are there, where you get to the paint, the defender is, the big is coming, you either kick it to the corner or if he drives down to the corner you kick it to the wing. But don't got to be in a rush. Just protect the ball, make the great decisions and trust your teammates.”
Patience is the key to Boston’s demolition of the Dallas defense. In a mic’d up segment, Joe Mazzulla was heard telling his team “Don’t try to hit a home run on the first drive! Second drive, third drive, play of two feet, spacing!”
Here’s what that looks like
The Mavs are playing undisciplined defense, which is a testament to the pressure the Celtics are putting on them. Just look at the reaction to Tatum getting into the middle of the paint.
And later, Brown.
The Mavs have been so hyper-focused on protecting the rim at all costs for so long, that they go beyond the natural collapsing when someone is in the paint. They all have a tendency to react a touch stronger to the threat.
But when Boston’s 3-point shooting is as good as it is, the threat of that is equally jarring. Look at Derrick Jones, Jr flying by Jrue Holiday in the first clip. That lets Holiday attack again instead of just swinging the ball around the perimeter.
And in the second clip, two Mavericks have to close out to the corners from weird angles because Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving aren’t getting out to their responsibilities.
Doncic is the low man and should step up to contain the Payton Pritchard drive. Irving and Maxi Kleber are completely lost because they both overreact to Pritchard. His kick to Holiday creates another overreaction which could have been a swing to Tatum for a 3-pointer, but instead was a casual drive past every Mav for a layup.
The key for the Celtics is the discipline to read the situation. In that same mic’d up clip, Mazzulla told his team “Play fast when there's a two-on-one, three-on-two. Just wait three seconds so we can get to our spacing if it’s five-on-five. We’re trying to play fast when it’s five-on-five. We can’t do that. We gotta manipulate the spacing first.”
Driving with good spacing creates advantages because guys end up being in the places players tend to vacate. White is there on the baseline for Brown in the first clip. In the second clip, the threat of Tatum driving draws two defenders early while Kristaps Porzingis’ spacing up top creates a massive lane for Brown to cut backdoor. And in the third, trying to keep Tatum out of the paint draws two again, and Holiday’s roll down the middle puts Irving in no-win situation, and White gets the easy look at a 3 because of it.
Boston’s driving with ease and the Mavericks are not handling it well. All the talk going into Game 3 is how Doncic and Irving need to be better offensively, but as long as they're as bad as they’ve been on defense, the Celtics will have opportunities to score.
Tatum is averaging 20 assist points created over the two games. So even though he’s only averaging 17 points per game, he’s generating 37 points for the Celtics. Yes, the Mavs might shoot better in Game 3, but the Celtics might do the same. If they do, the 20 assist points for Tatum alone will jump, as will his own scoring. Brown is right there with him.
Boston will make quick work of this series if they can keep attacking and stay disciplined. They have all the tools to make it happen. They just need to keep sticking with the game plan.