How Neemias Queta Punished Atlanta’s Aggressive Defense

Queta's role was an important piece of the puzzle

We all saw it, right?

Every time the Boston Celtics went into a pick-and-roll action, the Atlanta Hawks committed two to the ball. They trapped. They hedged. They showed and recovered.

The gameplan was clearly to limit the impact of Boston’s play creation in the pick-and-roll and force them to work out of isolation.

Unfortunately for the Atlanta Hawks, when you overcommit against the Joe Mazzulla Celtics, you’re going to be punished. Sometimes, it might take a few possessions for the Celtics to figure things out, but when they do, you either adapt or live with the results.

Quin Snyder and his team chose to live with the results, and they were…well…ugly.

Yet, in the flurry of buckets and the litany of three-point haymakers, it was Neemias Queta’s involvement in busting open the Hawks’ defense that stood out to me — and that’s what we’re going to look at today.

Here’s Exhibit A.

Boston goes to a standard zoom action, aiming to get Baylor Scheierman onto the rock at the top of the perimeter. CJ McCollum is operating in a chaser role, navigating Boston's screening actions to keep pressure on Scheierman from behind. Onyeka Okongwu is playing up-to-touch on Queta.

However, after Queta initiates the Dribble Hand-Off (DHO) with Scheierman, he slips his defender and rolls into the paint. Okongwu is focused on being in position to close out on Scheierman, should he decide to shoot.

As such, Vit Krejci is forced to help off the weakside corner — where Sam Hauser is chilling — to pick up Queta’s roll, tag him, and remove the lob threat.

The result?

Sam Hauser is wide open in the corner.

Not good, Bob.

Easy money.

It’s common in the NBA that once you find something that works, you keep going back to it until the opposing team figures out how to stop it.

Honestly, it’s like the Hawks knew what they needed to change, but opted against it.

Exhibit B

Even when Atlanta began anticipating the entry pass and denying over-the-top kicks, it still left openings for the Celtics to flow into their Gator Passes (I previously broke down this pass and Boston’s Gator Actions here).

With the Hawks sending two to Sam Hauser after he comes off Queta’s screen, and Atlanta’s hands staying high to deny an entry pass to Queta, Hauser kicks to White, thus creating the angle for an entry pass.

The added bonus is that upon receiving the pass from Hauser, the Hawks’ tagger is forced to rotate and close out to White, leaving Queta’s roll unimpeded.

As soon as the pass finds Queta, it’s an easy turnaround hook shot to end the possession.

However, even if the Hawks had sent help off the weak side, they were already in a bad position. Their options were to help off of Anfernee Simons, Scheierman or Hauser. Neemy is big enough to pass out to any of those shooters if he spots help being sent.

Exhibit C.

Here’s another example.

Queta sets a high PnR for Derrick White. Once again, Okongwu starts the action at the level of the screen. After Queta makes contact, White drags the dribble toward the wing. Okongwu follows, aiming to deny the drive while Nickel Alexander-Walker operates as a chase.

By now, Queta knows that Atlanta will send two toward the rock. He quickly dives down the middle of the court, while both of Atlanta’s weakside defenders are tied up with the threat of Brown and Hauser. By the time they turn their heads, they’re already multiple steps behind the action.

Queta winds up getting a nice dunk out of the play, following a solid pass from White.

By the third quarter, Atlanta still hadn’t shifted its PnR coverage.

No drop.

No switching.

No Zone.

Just the same aggressive approach, with the same breakdowns as a result.

I’ll share one final example.

Exhibit D.

Oftentimes, the Celtics used Queta’s movement as a manipulation tool — as we saw in Exhibit A — and that was no different in this play.

The setup is simple. Queta screens for White in the PnR. Atlanta traps White.

Queta rolls, drawing McCollum off Hauser, so that he can tag the roll and partially remove the lob threat.

White spots that McCollum has been sucked into Queta’s orbit and fires a skip-pass to Hauser in the corner.

Hauser is shooting 38.6% on catch-and-shoot three-point attempts this season. He’s one of the last people you want left wide open, in the corner, waiting to fire up a shot off the catch.

What’s more head-scratching is that McCollum made this mistake on multiple occasions throughout the night.

…

Boston used Queta as a battering ram to expose the flaw in Atlanta’s blueprint. Once Boston identified where the help was coming from, Queta became the pressure point — slipping, rolling, and forcing defenders into increasingly difficult decisions.

Help on the roll, and shooters feast. Stay home, and Boston will find a way to serve Queta, allowing him to finish his meals at the rim.

Pick your poison.

Atlanta never adjusted. Boston didn’t stop making them pay.

The Hawks’ plan was destined to fail from the jump. The lack of adjustment was perplexing. However, when the Celtics are moving with purpose, manipulating coverage, and turning defensive aggression into open threes and dunks, it doesn’t really matter what the original gameplan was.

At that point, you’re just trying to survive the onslaught and hoping shooting variance eventually starts working in your favor.