Small Soldiers

Why the Celtics 2nd quarter switch to playing small paid dividends

The Celtics won their second game of the season over the Orlando Magic, taking the season series to 2-1. And, while there’s going to be a lot of focus on how the Celtics kept the Magic at bay during their fourth-quarter comeback, I wanted to focus on the second quarter, and how implementing a small-ball rotation 4 minutes in set the foundation for the rest of the game.

When Neemias Queta sprained his ankle in the first quarter, you would have thought Luka Garza was in line for some extended minutes.

The one thing we’re learning about this year’s Boston Celtics team is that playing time is not guaranteed unless your name is Jaylen Brown, Derrick White or Payton Pritchard.

So, when Queta left the game, in stepped Chris Boucher, who we hadn’t seen on the floor for the past three games, and who had played a total of 12 minutes and 47 seconds over the last eight outings.

Unfortunately for the former Toronto Raptors forward, the Celtics looked better in the minutes he wasn’t on the floor. And, that’s not because Boucher was stinking up the place, nor did another rotational player have a breakout game.

It’s because when the Celtics went to their small-ball lineups, they looked nearly unguardable.

There was a stretch in the final four minutes of the second quarter where Boston’s small-ball rotation upped the on-ball pressure, generating three steals in roughly three minutes. Each steal directly led to a bucket.

Mazzulla used two small-ball rotations during those final minutes of the second.

The first lineup consisted of

Pritchard, White, Brown, Hugo Gonzalez and Josh Minott

The second lineup consisted of

Pritchard, White, Brown, Jordan Walsh and Minott

Mazzulla began testing out a small-ball rotation early in the second quarter. A group consisting of Anfernee Simons, Baylor Scheierman, Minott, Gonzlaez and White had roughly a 30-second run before Scheierman made way for Brown, and the Celtics stumbled onto a winning formula.

Boucher didn’t check back into the game for the rest of the quarter, and the small-ball Celtics won their minutes by 17 points (they won the quarter by 18 points in total).

Part of that success came from placing Minott in the dunker spot. His athleticism made him a threat to finish vertically despite contests around the rim, while his ability to change direction and relocate ensured he could provide baseline spacing when needed.

Check out this play…

Minott starts the possession in the dunker spot. As Brown drives, the fourth-year forward cuts across the baseline to space things out in the corner. Brown’s drive pulls two defenders — with one of them being Minott’s — which in turn encourages the kick-out.

Rather than jacking up a corner three (Minott has taken 41 of those in non-garbage-time minutes during his NBA career so far, sinking 15), he drove the baseline, splitting the defense with a pass fake toward Gonzalez and using his burst and athleticism to get an easy finish at the rim.

Take note of who’s on the floor around him. The Celtics have five weapons available, all of whom are triple-threats with the rock in their hands, to varying degrees, of course. The rotation on the floor put the Magic in a tough spot, as if they send help, they get beat off the catch or via a secondary or tertiary drive.

Minott had three buckets out of the dunker spot in the second quarter, with the clip above being his first. He also dropped two three’s, one off the catch and one off the bounce.

The Celtics haven’t had a reliable inverted dunker-spot threat since sending Jrue Holiday to the Portland Trail Blazers in the offseason. Minott filled that role well in the second and quickly reminded Celtics fans what the team is capable of when they’ve got an athletic threat sitting in the weakside dunker.

While Minott’s production was key during the second quarter, his uptick in production was a symptom, not the cause. By giving the Celtics multiple decision-makers, Mazzulla unleashed Boston’s up-tempo offense, with the team flipping between 5-out and 4-out-1-in looks at will.

Don’t get me wrong, Boucher could offer everything needed, but by going younger, the Celtics had a better top speed while still being under control.

“I think we were just playing with a faster pace, getting the ball down the court quickly, just getting to our actions quickly,” Anfernee Simons said during his postgame news conference. “So I think, obviously, we knew they were on the second night of a back-to-back, and so we just wanted to play faster and use that to our advantage.”

With a high-pressure defense, capable of switching at every position, a high-tempo offense with quick decision-making and a focus on penetration, and scorers surrounding the perimeter, the Celtics ran the Magic — who were on the second night of a back-to-back and missing multiple guys — into the ground.

This season, Mazzulla’s team has adopted a “fly around” and help-heavy defensive system. When everyone can switch and there’s athleticism at multiple positions, it becomes easier to implement weakside rim-protection, traps, digs and to get back and guard in transition.

Look how Gonzalez, White and Minott all sink in to contest the layup in the above clip. There’s no major over-commitment, and suddenly, there are three viable shot blockers pressuring the drive, with the ability to rotate or peel-switch if the rock gets swung back outside.

And, with each miss, the Celtics looked to get the ball up the court at pace. There’s a reason why both Brown and Pritchard found success on their drives, both in the second and throughout the game.

The small-ball lineup was so effective that the Celtics stuck with it until midway through the third quarter. Boston then went back to playing small throughout the fourth. However, the effectiveness of playing small was nowhere near as pronounced in the third and fourth quarters, as the Magic adjusted their coverages and the way they looked to exploit the defense.

Still, Mazzulla found a rotation that gave the Celtics the boost it needed in the second. From there, Boston found ways to control the lead and hold off a late resurgence from Orlando.

When the roster is fully healthy, I doubt we'll see this much small-ball. However, at least now, Mazzulla has some encouraging data on the value of going small and leaning on his young trio of forwards. Optionality is always important, especially when it comes to lineups and substitution patterns.

And for me, that second quarter provided us with an encouraging takeaway from a solid win. Hopefully, Neemy is ok and will be back in the rotation sooner rather than later. Until then, maybe we see some of Garza, or maybe, just maybe, Mazzulla sees how far he can push things with this smaller, more dynamic rotation.