I think I get what the Celtics are feeling.
I didn't expect the Magic defense to be this good, this disciplined, for this long. I thought for sure they would crumble at some point and give into the weight of the Celtics offense.
But they haven't, and that's a testament to Jamahl Mosley and the character of the team he's built. The Magic have been executing their game plan extraordinarily well, holding Boston well below their regular-season offensive output. Of course, the playoffs are about facing nothing but good teams over and over again, each with a chance to game plan just for each other and not travel from city to city. The level of competition is inherently better, so the numbers inherently dip.
The Celtics were the eighth-highest scoring team in the NBA with 116.3 points per game and second in scoring efficiency with a 119.5 offensive rating in the regular season. They have dropped to 103 points and a 114.4 offensive rating. They are down to 230 passes per game against Orlando after averaging nearly 275. They made 213 passes in Game 4.
Orlando has slowed the game down and taken away a lot of what Boston likes to do. They've effectively taken three assists away from Jayson Tatum and turned them into missed field goal attempts. His regular season averages were 9.2 makes on 20.3 attempts with six assists. His playoff averages are 9.3 for 23.0 and 3.7 assists.
Here's a great example of them doing exactly that.
This play from the third quarter of Game 4 has everything we are asking for from the Celtics.
The Celtics aren't exactly running up the floor, but it's not a slow walk, either. They get into their offense right away with Derrick White and Al Horford running a pick-and-roll on the left side. At the same time, Tatum and Kristaps Porzingis are running an off-ball action.
The play is designed to get an alley oop for Porzingis for a brief second, it looks to be there.
The timing of the play was a little off, but the Magic did a great job of sniffing things out, with Paolo Banchero getting back to Porzingis in time to prevent that pass. What should have been a lob turned into Tatum having the ball with four teammates covered. So he took the next best shot he could get.
The Magic have been very happy to let Tatum, or any individual, do his thing. Look at how tight they are on passing outlets no matter who has the ball.
The Magic are also very disciplined with their switching. They don't switch everything, but they have size in Banchero and Franz Wagner that when a screen comes up for Tatum, even with the biggest guy on the floor, they will gladly switch and force Tatum to try something else.
The Magic are perfectly configured here so Tatum can't just throw it up towards the rim on the switch and he can't hit Brown in the corner to burn the help.
The only pass is a swing to Al Horford and that doesn't hurt anyone. But after Horford passes to Brown, every Celtic is covered closely. The Magic were cool with Tatum trying something and then, after he gave it up, they were cool with Brown trying something.
“I think they're staying at home a lot, so just forcing me and JT to make plays over their guys," Jaylen Brown said. "They're just forcing us to make plays one on one, trying to bait us into that. But if we got a great matchup, we just got to be able to make them pay. And JT made them pay tonight in his spots, he was able to get to the free throw line, etc. But I think we can be, I can be even better. So I'm looking forward to Game 5.”
The Celtics have been able to find openings in the defense. I admit that I felt much better about Game 4 after rewatching it. The third quarter that I thought was a mess for Boston was much more make/miss than I realized in real time. There are lessons throughout Game 4 to show how Boston can make Game 5 a bit easier.
One element is preventing Orlando's switches by attacking mismatched defenders.
Running the pick-and-roll with Derrick White put Wendell Carter Jr. and Corey Joseph in the action. Orlando has often conceded those switches as well, but the Celtics will take that. Even though Porzingis has been awful this series in those moments, getting it to him on a post-up of Joseph should still work out if Porzingis can just calm down and shoot his normal shot.
But then this stuff is possible as well. All it takes is for one guy to make one wrong decision and the Celtics can be off to the races. I think Boston should be putting the ball in White's hands more often and force the Magic to contend with a traditional point guard-led offense that gets Tatum and Brown the ball off the move or it opens the floor for plays like this.
The ball will still be in Tatum's hands a lot, and I saw one wrinkle that can be deployed against switching that worked out great for Boston and can work again.
Watch Horford after he sets the screen.
Horford seals his new man, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and keeps him on his hip. Now there's an opening for a pocket pass from Tatum, which leads Horford into the lane, forcing Banchero to step up and help, which opens up the lob to Porzingis.
The Celtics want to create 2-on-1 situations where two defenders are covering one Celtic. They haven't been able to do much of that this series.
This seal on the screen is a very effective way to open up room to move. It's essentially a post-up with a runway to do something with the ball of the catch. I'd like to see a little more of that incorporated against Tatum-led pick-and-rolls.
One other thing I'd like to see is more picks in a possession.
Kornet sets a couple of screens here in rapid succession. This is off a made Orlando basket, so this is typically where the Magic would get set and make things tough on Boston.
But not only to the Celtics push the tempo a little bit, Kornet's screens force the Magic to cover for one another, even just a little bit, which bends them and creates a sliver of an opening.
Watch Banchero drop way into the paint to tag Tatum and give Wagner a chance to catch up. That leaves Kornet all alone setting the pick for White, which puts Orlando in a tough spot defensively.
Look at all that prime shooting area White has. I think he could have pulled up from here and gotten fouled for three free throws, but he kept going because Banchero's momentum was going the other way. And with Kornet rolling hard and the Magic's game plan of sticking to all the passing options, White ended up getting all the way to the rim for a layup.
Pushing the pace helped here, but it didn't require a dead sprint to get a transition bucket. It's just about moving the ball up the floor with a little tempo to make the decisions a little quicker for Orlando.
The key with these plays isn't to completely break down the defense for 48 minutes. These concepts are ways for Boston to get the 10 possessions or so that lead to cleaner looks and made baskets. Instead of nursing a 10-12 point lead, working more of this stuff in can make it an 18-20 point game. All that takes is four or five more made baskets using Orlando's defense against them.
Orlando has earned my respect in a big way. They are playing with incredible defensive poise, executing the game plan incredibly and making life difficult for Boston. The Celtics have been pushed into more isolation play than they'd normally like, but there are ways to break through that even if they aren't getting a ton more possessions.