Depending on what viewpoint you take, you’re either awfully zen about the Boston Celtics loss to the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday, or your hand is firmly on the panic button. Of course, if you’re like me, you’re sitting somewhere in the middle, slightly leaning toward the Phil Jackson of it all.
That doesn’t change the fact that Boston is now 12-9 since December 1. Nor does it alter the truth that for half of the season so far, the Celtics have been this exact version of themselves: Inconsistent.
In the same breath, that doesn’t mean the Celtics are ‘cooked’ or ‘washed’ as the cool kids would say. It means there are areas to work on. Things to improve. And habits to build. There’s a middle ground here, where we accept this isn’t the same team that we saw last season while understanding that evolution is inevitable in the NBA — especially if you’re trying to build something special.
Unfortunately, evolution, or any form of growth, doesn’t happen overnight, and neither does resolving multiple issues within a team or its system. Instead, you try to work on fixing one or two things at a time, compounding those improvements over weeks or months. Judging by Wednesday’s loss, I think I’ve found an area of growing concern, at least for me.
Guarding DHO’s
The Celtics have struggled to guard DHOs this season. According to Synergy, they rank 22nd in the NBA for defensive points per possession, allowing 0.97 points, which might as well be rounded to a clean 1 point per possession.
The Raptors played into this weakness, often using Jakob Poeltl as a DHO hub on the wing or at the elbow. From there, they ran guys off his DHO threat, either as a receiver or as a decoy, putting the Celtics de’ defense into rotation and exploiting any gaps that arose.
Here is the first example of Boston’s defense being put in a tough spot via an elbow DHO. The play starts off with a ball reversal before finding Poeltl just above the elbow. Scottie Barnes chases after his pass to his veteran big man, threatening to get downhill via a get action (throw the ball to a player and then go get it back.)
Instead, Poeltl opts to keep the rock, as Barnes sets a wide-pindown for Gradey dick, leading to an elbow zoom set. Here’s an annotated breakdown of where we’re at right now.
From here, the Raptors are on the front foot. Boston’s defense has reacted to the action occurring on the strong side, and Dick’s penetration after turning the corner has forced a response. That’s where things break down a little. Let’s take a look with another annotated video.
Once Dick turns the corner, both Kristaps Porzingis and Jaylen Brown ‘pinch in’ at the nail, limiting Dick’s ability to be a scoring threat on the drive. However, while this is happening, Tatum’s man has cut across the baseline, taking Tatum with him. That leaves an empty corner for RJ Barrett to fill, while his man — Brown — is picking up the threat of Dick in the form of a stunt to give Pritchard time to recover.
Before the Celtics knew it, Dick had sprayed the ball out to Barrett, who was wide open after sinking into space, and the play ended in an easy catch-and-shoot.
On the surface, the Celtics had a good defensive process. However, Brown overcommitted on the stunt, allowing Barrett to attack the space. There was likely minimal communication indicating the baseline cut. Pritchard needs to use his speed better to close the distance when chasing in rearguard pursuit.
The problem for Boston is that once an NBA team finds an action that works, they will lean into it until a defense figures out how to stop it…
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