Screens, luck, and 50-50 balls: Why the Celtics lost to the Pistons

DETROIT — A lot of eyes are going to be on the last shot of the game. Jaylen Brown drove right, pulled up, and took a fadeaway over Tobias Harris. The ball hit the rim, bounced up, and didn’t fall. Detroit Pistons win, Boston Celtics lose.

Some will focus on the Celtics’ poor shooting. Derrick White’s 1-of-11 night. Anfernee Simons shooting 1-of-6 from three. Brown going 11-of-28. Certainly less than ideal.

But hidden amongst the chaos of Monday night’s game is Joe Mazzulla’s diagnosis: “Honestly, I thought the game came down to like six, just 50-50 balls that we didn't come up with in the first half.”

He later clarified that there were “five or six” possessions where Boston fumbled, gift-wrapping the Pistons with a perfect chance to score.

Those are the types of big-swing plays that start to pile up throughout the course of a basketball game. And in a contest against one of the best teams in the NBA, one that was ultimately decided by a single point, they matter more than almost anything.

“The margins are very, very thin when two great teams are playing with that type of physicality and that type of environment,” Mazzulla said post-game.

So, what were those plays?

50-50 balls Boston lost

Mazzulla offered up one example on his own dime. 

“I would say the only one that we should have gotten, I think, was the Duncan Robinson one where he kind of heaved it up there, and Cade Cunningham got it, and they went there,” Mazzulla said. “That might be my one that's like one that we have to have. The others, I thought they were near turnovers or great plays, we go to make it, and we just don't come up with it, and they get it. 

“I think that was the only one where I'm like, we got to get that one. Especially to end the half. That's kind of a play that can make or break a play at halftime.”

Ausar Thompson threw an errant outlet pass toward Robinson, who chased it all the way to the opposite baseline under Boston’s basket.

He threw it behind his head toward the rafters, and somehow, Cunningham came down with it. Then, to make matters worse, Boston was so scrambled in transition that Robinson was able to relocate to the opposite corner and nail a wide-open three.

What could have been a Celtics turnover quickly became a triple that put Detroit up by eight points with two minutes left in the half.

But that’s just one play. What about the others?

Here’s one.

The Celtics do exactly what they want on defense. Simons holds his ground, waits for help, and Sam Hauser pounces at the ball in the perfect moment.

Jordan Walsh is about to corral it, but as Caris LeVert is falling to the ground, he manages to poke it away. From there, Jaden Ivey drives to the hoop, hooks the ball around Neemias Queta, and finds Isaiah Stewart for a slam.

“I mean, sometimes the ball don't bounce your way,” said Payton Pritchard. “So, we got to try to have as much, make as [many] effort plays as possible. Some of them, especially in the first half, we could have cleaned up. Just lost them through our hands and stuff like that. But, I mean, that's kind of stuff you can't really control.”

If Walsh got a tighter grip on the ball, the Celtics would have had a three-on-two fast break. Instead, they gave up two points to a Pistons team that was struggling mightily to create offense in the half-court.

Here’s one more.

It’s a turnover, sure, but it’s also a tough play. Luka Garza barely hangs onto an offensive rebound, is falling out of bounds, and desperately tries to find a teammate.

Brown wasn’t sure if he was in bounds, so he couldn’t touch it. Hauser likely didn’t realize Brown couldn’t touch the ball. So, Robinson slipped by Hauser, and Cunningham got two free throws out of it.

The first instinct in most situations is to blame. Could Garza be to blame? Yes. He could have done something different. But everyone could have.

Brown could have gotten back in bounds quicker. Hauser could have stayed where he was to give the pass a better chance of connecting. That’s not the point.

The point is, the play was made with effort and good intentions. Garza is supposed to go for that rebound. He’s supposed to find a way to save the ball. Hauser is supposed to start running in transition. Brown was supposed to play help defense in the paint and be in that spot.

It was mostly just tough luck. Tough luck that handed the Pistons free points.

“It's just the nature of the game. The nature of the game,” Mazzulla said. “We coach on the things that we can do, and I thought we did a great job of the stuff there. Just like I said, no. We'll show a couple of them, but it's really just out of our ability to force turnovers. Like, they only had six tonight. We come up with two or three of those, that's 10. Maybe we get a— It's just little stuff like that, you know?”

Those weren’t the only reasons the Celtics lost on Monday night, but in what ended up being a one-point game, those tough breaks pile up fast.

“You got to give credit to them. They're extremely physical, and you feel it on every possession during the whole game,” Brown said. “So, I felt like we matched the level of intensity, we matched the level of physicality, but we just came up short.”

Screening success (and then failure)

The offense was another issue.

Boston let the ball slip through its fingers a few too many times, especially in the first half. The Pistons scored 14 points off nine Celtics turnovers in the first half.

That, combined with seven second-chance points, added up to 41.2% of the Pistons’ total first-half points. But that’s also part of what Detroit does.

“I don't know how many of the 14 [turnovers] were live-ball. They do a great job, because of their speed and, obviously, athleticism, to be able to score off live-ball turnovers,” Mazzulla said. “That's one of the best things they do is they make it- they punish you on those. So, I'd have to go back and see which ones were live-ball ones, and how many they scored off those ones.”

Boston should have controlled those mistakes, as it would have cut down the Pistons’ transition opportunities, but in a basketball game where they only allowed 104 points, it’s hard to look anywhere but their own offensive production.

The funny part is that the Celtics did find something that worked: The pick-and-roll.

From the jump, whenever Queta set a screen, Boston got great separation. Detroit was really struggling to fight around his picks, which gave the Celtics an instant advantage in most half-court situations.

“I thought we got pretty good looks for the most part of the night,” Brown said. “I think that our offense was pretty good. We just got to convert. I thought we got some good shots.”

The very first Celtics bucket of the game came out of the pick-and-roll.

Queta sets a screen for Pritchard, and Duren comes up to the level of the screen, putting two on the ball for Detroit. Thompson helps into the paint, so Pritchard swings the ball to Brown, who pump-fakes and passes to Hauser, who nails a three after also pump-faking Thompson, who re-closed out.

This is the type of defense the Atlanta Hawks tried to utilize on Saturday, but they didn’t have the second-rotation quickness that the Pistons employed.

Boston’s screens worked all night.

Queta slips it here, Pritchard throws the lob.

Thompson goes to tag Queta on the roll, Hauser relocates to the top of the key for a triple.

Queta screens, Simons finds space in the mid-range to pull up.

Even when Queta set a screen off the ball, good things happened.

So, why did the Celtics’ offense wilt down the stretch? Did Detroit change what they were doing to slow down what was working for Boston?

“I don't know. I mean, they definitely made some adjustments,” said Hauser. “I think they tried to just kind of pressure up a little bit and eliminate the chance to make a quick pass and create an advantage a little bit harder for us. But kind of have to go back to the film and watch it. I don't really know.”

Detroit definitely adjusted. Instead of bringing their big up ot the level or living with one-on-one matchups, Stewart was alert in drop defense. He didn’t sink over into the paint unless he had to, but he was ready to be there if needed.

And when Duren did come back into the game, and Detroit started pressuring Boston’s ball-handlers again, they did a much better job of rotating as a team.

Duren recovers quicker here, Thompson is ready to stop the roll, Robinson gets to the corner, and by the time Pritchard can make the swing pass, LeVert is already in White’s face.

The other problem is that Queta was out of the game for a while. He checked out with 5:30 to go in the third and didn’t get back onto the floor until the 5:33 mark in the fourth.

Garza played solid minutes, especially with his offensive rebounding success and three-point shooting, but he wasn’t giving the Celtics the same pick-and-roll separation as Queta was.

Despite Detroit’s defensive changes, Queta creating space in the pick-and-roll was still the Celtics’ best source of offense. Yet as the game went on, they seemed to stray away from it more and more.

Could they have just run it over and over again?

“We could have. We run different things,” Pritchard said. “You never want to just run the same play over and over. You kind of mix it up, maybe go back to it at the end. But I thought we got good looks for most of the game.”

Multiple things can be true.

Boston’s failure to corral 50-50 balls in the first half put them in a tough spot. At the same time, their offense found something in the pick-and-roll, particularly with Queta setting screens.

But the Pistons are the top seed in the East for a reason. They found different ways to halt Boston’s groove, and it gave them just enough leeway to squeak out a victory.