It's official, the Boston Celtics are through to the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. The Orlando Magic gave them some problems, specifically in how they impacted Boston's work on the perimeter. Yet, as the series wore on, Joe Mazzulla and his coaching staff found some adjustments that began negating Orlando's key skill.
With the New York Knicks losing to the Detroit Pistons last night, Boston will get some additional rest. The Knicks are back in action on Thursday, but if they drop game six, then great, more rest for the Celtics. And if we're being honest, the Celtics need all the rest they can get right now.
Another bonus of there being a slight gap between this series and the next is that it gives us the breathing room to dissect a few things and start looking ahead. It allows everyone to learn some lessons on what can be improved and what can be replicated.
I wanted to get in on that. So, today, we're looking at three lessons we've learned from Boston's opening playoff series.
#1 There's an ad(justment) for that
I'm probably showing my age here, but back when the first iPhone was released, specifically the iPhone 3G, there was a TV advert that sold the phone by asking a question, and the reply was, "There's an app for that."
As we worked through five full games of this series, I found myself chuckling at the thought of Joe Mazzulla, sitting in a coaches meeting, watching a possession break down on the perimeter and confidently declaring "there's an adjustment for that."
No matter what the Magic threw at the Celtics in terms of perimeter defense, Boston came right back with fresh new ideas. Most of the time, those ideas worked, too.
“You could just tell their experience showed,” Banchero said on Sunday. “They weren’t rattled at all."
Yesterday, we looked at how Mazzulla added a second screener into a staple action from Boston's playbook. And last week, we saw how the Celtics changed their positioning to remove perimeter defenders. Both of those deeper dives are into the type of adjustments we're talking about.
As a quick side note, I know that I like to use names of plays when doing those deep dives, please never think the names are important. I use them as a way for me to quickly recognize the actions on the floor. The only important aspect is why those plays did or didn't work.
Anyway...There were plenty more of those adjustments, too!
Mazzulla has proven himself adept at evolving throughout a series, especially when it comes to limiting a team's biggest strength while also attacking their weaknesses. We will need to see more of those tweaks moving forward, especially as the Knicks (assuming they eventually win their series) will post a totally different type of threat.
