Boston Celtics vs Brooklyn Nets Series Preview
A complete X's & O's guide to the Nets vs Celtics 1st round matchup.
When the Brooklyn Nets ended up with the 7 seed in the play-in tournament, that meant a first-round matchup with either the Heat, Celtics or Bucks - all teams I have on my title contender list - would face them and one of the contenders in the East eliminated in the first round. Not only will one of the Celtics or Nets exit the playoffs in the first round, but this matchup is extremely intriguing from an X’s & O’s perspective - something John Schumann mentioned to me:
Obviously Brooklyn with Harden last year was a nuclear bomb on the offensive end until injuries derailed them, and the Celtics were without Brown/Williams/Kemba for portions of the series and it was a disaster for the Celtics. We are going to dive into the X’s & O’s and schemes for this series, with the main focus on the switch-heavy schemes of both teams on defense and how they get their star players attacking vs those switches.
Throughout this breakdown, I will be referencing different terms, concepts, and techniques that I will not be going in-depth on. If you would like to learn more and explore the advanced strategies of basketball, check out the learn basketball course for a detailed breakdown of the basics to the most technical concepts that NBA Playoff teams will be using.
I also finished up the annual 2022 NCAA Tournament Playbook, with over 2000 plays and 15 hours of film that is now available for sale.
There was not a more miserable team to watch than the 2022 Boston Celtics for the first half of the season, and it was highly publicized with both Marcus Smart and Ime Udoka calling out the team publicly. On offense, they were stale, bland, and taking turns watching Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown ISO without creating scoring opportunities for anyone else. Defensively they were a team searching for an identity, with some flashes of greatness but weak spots that did not gel with a team that had a defensive lineup with the switching, versatility and length of Smart/Tatum/Brown/Horford/Williams can provide.
Then the infamous film session, the tweak of Robert Williams in their defensive scheme in the middle of January, and the 23-24 Boston Celtics became a juggernaut.
To be clear, they were still a top 5 defense before, but they became something else on that end spearheaded by Marcus Smart and his ability to put opposing players in a torture chamber of emotional and physical pain that destroys an offense. Trading for White & Theis gave them an upgrade over Schroeder and Richardson to plug and play into their defense, as well as connectors and high IQ offensive players.
Robert Williams became an off-ball nightmare that haunted opponents when Ime Udoka put him off of bigs and onto wings to allow him to have the freedom to protect the paint at every opportunity and switch onto guards if they tried to hunt him in the ballscreen. There have been 13 players in the NBA who have defended ISO possessions over 100 times, with the Celtis having 3 of those players on the list - Horford, Grant Williams, and Robert Williams. Horford ranks 2nd, G Williams ranks 4th and Rob Williams ranks 7th on that list (Shoutout Isaiah Stewart at 6th!) all holding their opponents under .89 PPP.
Celtics Switching Scheme
We don’t know when Rob Williams will come back and I don’t want to focus too much on his impact, but we can’t ignore him when breaking down film in case he returns. The Celtics’ defense is based on switching and taking away the opponent’s strengths while keeping two bigs on the floor.
Lineup data (CTG) shows that the most used lineup for the Celtics has been on the floor for 907 possessions, with a Net Rating of +7.4 with a defensive rating of 94.8! That 94.8 defensive rating is absolutely absurd with Marcus Smart, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Al Horford, & Rob Williams becoming the most elite defensive unit in the NBA.
Whether or not Rob Williams or Horford are playing Center on the court for the Celtics, they will put them on the opposing team’s worst wing to keep them out of ballscreen coverages and allow them to help at the rim, rebound, and switch back off the ball to keep matchups even.
A normal Celtics possession will start off with one of their bigs - usually Horford or Rob Williams defending a non-shooting wing (think PJ Tucker/Bruce Brown) off the ball with the other big Theis or Grant Williams defending the big. Occasionally the Celtics will use Tatum in this spot as well.
When either Theis or Horford is defending the bigs they will execute their normal ballscreen coverages - drop on non-shooting threats & at the level against more skilled players - then with Grant Williams or Tatum switch basically every other action.
To avoid mismatches the Celtics use a couple of different off-ball switching techniques that really force the offense to make individual plays through Isolation and Post Ups. First, the Celtics use the “Kickout” switch after they switch a ballscreen and a big rolls to the post against a smaller player. When they are rolling or the offense stagnates to try and enter the ball in the post Horford will kickout the guard defending the bigger player and they will switch off the ball with the guard taking Horford’s man usually spacing in the corner.
When teams are setting up for a ballscreen or trying to attack the weaker players in the Celtics lineups, they will “Pre-Switch” the ballscreen or have a wing near the player setting the ballscreen switch out on the run to take away the advantage of the offense.
When the Celtics play 4 guards + a big then they will execute the normal defensive scheme on ballcreens and switch 1-4 all other actions. Typically this means they are willing to give up pick and pop opportunities to force the opponent to play in a 2-man game to stay home on shooters as well.
Forcing Isolation and post-ups means that the other teams’ offense is creating their scoring opportunities against a set defense that is allowing the two least efficient plays in the NBA. The Celtics have forced a possession to end in isolation 11.5% of the time and only allowing .82 PPP - both categories rank number one in the league.
Brooklyn Nets Offense
What makes the Celtics defense and the Nets offense one of the most intriguing matchups of the playoffs is that even though the Celtics design their defense through switching and forcing the least efficient plays, the Nets offense takes the highest percentage of shots from Isolation.
With over 14% of their possessions ending in an Isolation opportunity, the Nets are scoring 0.99 PPP including passes (Synergy) ranking them 6th in the NBA. Kevin Durant finished 3rd in the NBA in Isolation scoring efficiency, while Kyrie Irving finished 19th - giving the Nets 2 of the top 20 Isolation scorers. If you recall from above, the Celtics have 3 players in the top 7 when it comes to defending Isolation so the battle becomes clear when looking at what could be the turning point of the series.
When defending the best Isolation players at any level, the main thing you attempt to do is to make it as uncomfortable as possible when attacking and even then that might not be enough. Kevin Durant prefers to ISO in the middle of the floor (50% of his Isolation scoring opportunities came from there), while Kyrie has an even balance between the middle of the floor and the right side of the floor (split between 40% of attempts from each location).
Isolations in the middle of the floor are the hardest to guard since if you want to send help, the offensive player has the entire floor available in front of him to find the open man.
When the Celtics face an elite talent in Isolation they will send help and show from the gaps to shrink the floor and make the offensive player give the ball up vs attacking.
Brooklyn Nets Sets
Side Action KD
One of the more common actions that the Nets will run for KD is getting right into a side dribble hand off/2-man game that allows KD freedom to go backdoor, come off the handoff or catch and shoot.
Spread Pick & Roll Kyrie
In the short amount of time that Kyrie has been back full time, Nash and his staff have not run a ton of sets directly for him, but the Nets mainly run spread pick and roll and let his creativity and skill take over.
Stack Horns Pin KD
The Nets run several sets out of their “Stack” series, including this one for Kevin Durant that has a guard setting a pindown for him. Typically Kyrie will come off the Stack action and then the guard who brought the ball up with set a wide pindown screen for Durant in the corner.
Stack KD
Running a normal stack action for KD, the Nets screen down for him in the middle of the floor to allow him to choose which side he wants to come off of and then either catch and shoot, attack quickly and then go into an elbow ISO.
Stack Miami Kyrie
A counter for Kyrie is to put him in the corner then have the player come off the Stack screen and then go into a hand off then a pick and roll.
Stack Nash KD
They also use Kyrie to come off the Stack, then go into a double ballscreen with the guard and the player who set the initial Stack screen.
Wide Pin (Point) KD
The Brooklyn Nets call this action “Point” which is a common name for a single-wide pindown, normally for Kevin Durant to come off going to his left.
Brooklyn Nets Defense
When it comes to the defensive side of the ball, the Brooklyn Nets will use similar concepts when it comes to switching but with much weaker defenders on the court. Over the last few weeks with Kyrie back in the lineup the Nets defense has jumped up to 11th in the NBA, compared to the awful start and ranking 21st. The lineups have been in flux with injuries and the weirdness of the Kyrie situation, Curry injury, KD injury, and now the absence of Ben Simmons, so it can be hard to accurately assess the numbers behind the strategy.
KD The Roamer
The biggest advantage the Nets have on defense is Kevin Durant as the Roamer or free safety of their defense. He will typically be lurking off ball to contest at the rim, use his length to take away passing lanes and wreak havoc on what the offense is trying to do.
Look at this ridiculous recovery here, he gets beat on the flex cut but still recovers because of his insane length and timing.
Drop Coverage (Drummond/Claxton)
Drop coverage has been talked about alot throughout the NBA the last few seasons, but the Nets primary coverage on non shooting threats like the Celtics is going to be to keep Drummond and Claxton in drop to prevent easy attacks on the rim.
Off Ball Stay Attached
When you think of the Nets’ defense it is switching and forcing the team into Isolation opportunities just like the popular defensive schemes like the Warriors and Rockets a few years ago. This season they tweaked it a bit and changed it to switching only ballscreens and keeping everyone else attached to off-ball actions.
Switching Ballscreens
Since they switch ballscreens, this makes it simple for the scheme and allows clarity for when to switch and when not to switch.
Stay Attached On Ghosts & Slips
One rule that every defensive system that switches has is when to switch and when not to switch certain actions. The infamous Plumlee screw-up on the baseline out of bounds caused a lot of stir on when to switch and who should switch and as a good college coaching friend of mine put it “No Screen, No Switch.” A common action that teams go to involves “Ghost” screens or no contact slip screens to cause confusion, which means that the defense should not switch - which can cause miscommunication by itself.
Boston Celtics Offense
There are basically 3 ways to attack switching - Individual plays (ISO/Post), keep it moving (Warriors/Heat ), or designed plays (ATOs & Specials). In general, the Celtics will opt to attack by hunting or finding the weakest defender on the other team and have Tatum or Brown attack them.
1-4 Short
When they get a chance to call a play, they will go to their 1-4 ballscreen set with Tatum setting the ballscreen around the elbow area and then rolling to the nail after they get the switch, normally Marcus Smart will be the ballhandler in these sets.
Stack Guard
When the Celtics know you are going to switch, they will put one of the lesser defenders in pick and roll going to the Stack action with typically Tatum and Brown coming off first. Then the player who set the screen will go into a ballscreen putting the worst defender in pick and roll defense.
Stay vs Switching
A common conept vs switching is to roll behind the switch quickly or what I refer to as “Stay” action, typically in guard to guard ballscreens.
21 vs Switching
A staple of the Celtics offense under Brad Stevens, they will go to 21 action to get a switch and either post the switch via pass or ISO if Tatum and Brown are handling.
Delay
Another common action the Celtics will run is 5-Out or what I call “Delay” where the ball is entered to a big in the middle of the floor with screening actions. These could be pindowns, backcreens, flare screens and depending on the defensive coverage, flow into ballscreens.
I hope this shed more insight into this fantastic series, I plan on covering 1 series in depth per round and this is definitely going to be the first-round matchup I am watching.
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Enjoy!
Coach Pyper
Love the piece and the site!
Keep up the amazing work!
My question is more general but based on when you said the Celtics force isolations and post ups
I’m curious because if the NBA is largely a matchup based league and teams look to hunt players on defence why would isolations and post ups be the least efficient plays?
thank you for this, it's amazing!