Getting It Done: C’s 103, Raps 96

ESPN Recap • Raptors Republic

Pace: 89 possessions (slow)

Offensive Efficiency: 115.7 points/100 possessions (league best)

Defensive Efficiency: 107.8 points allowed/100 possessions (slightly below average)

Thumbnail: The Raptors are awful at defense, and the C’s veteran shooters—led by a vintage Ray Allen performance (23 points on 13 shots)—scored enough to win.

Here are two true thing about this game: 1) In a game billed as an opportunity for the C’s young players, Boston’s veterans stepped up with a statistically great offensive performance in which the team (and the coaching staff) showed a nifty versatility in scoring the ball. 2) The Raptors are just terrible at defense. I feel bad for the guys at Raptors Republic who have to watch this nonsense every night. 

I could spend this time focusing on the C’s 51 percent shooting, their 31 free throw attempts, their 48-30 advantage in points in the paint and the coaching staff’s ability to dig deep into their playbook and pick out some gems in a game in which the C’s were missing their three best players. And I will do that, because the C’s ran some stuff tonight you won’t see much for the rest of the year (knock on parquet), and it’s a tribute to the veterans that the unorthodox plays worked so well. 

But they worked well against the Raptors, a team wandering into uncharted pathetic territory by allowing about 114 points per 100 possessions—three points worse than any other team in the entire freaking league. Did the Celtics “find a way” to score tonight in the face of some injury adversity? Sure. Would any of the junk they threw out have worked against an even mildly competent defensive team? Hopefully we don’t have to find out. 

Either way, the Celtics did just enough to win tonight, and that work well enough after a three-game losing skid. The offense caught fire halfway through the 2nd quarter, with Eddie House and Glen Davis scoring 15 points in the quarter—including 13 in the last six minutes. The spurt—fueled in part by awful Raptor defense on some plays the C’s ran for House—allowed Boston to open a 10-point halftime lead despite very shaky defense from Boston early. 

The defense made it stand up in the 3rd—just in time, because the C’s offense went cold. The C’s held the Raptors to five points from the 10:18 mark to the 4:09 mark of the 3rd. It was the only stretch of the game in which they defended Chris Bosh well on screen/rolls, and it was enough to help the C’s maintain a multi-possession lead they held the rest of the way.

The C’s threw a defensive look at Bosh on screen/rolls you don’t see too often from Boston.

During that key stretch in the third, the C’s squashed several screen/rolls involving Bosh as the screener and Jarrett Jack and others as the ball-handler. Tony Allen was usually guarding Jack, and he did something interesting when he saw Bosh getting in position for a screen: He ran out ahead of the screen and stood in the spot Jack would have dribbled toward had the C’s defended the play in the usual manner and had TA chase Jack over the pick. The point, it seemed, was to keep Jack away from the middle of the floor, since Bosh usually set the picks on the wing for Jack to dribble around toward the top of the key.

This strategy puts a lot of pressure on the other four C’s defenders, especially their big guys. It basically says to Jack: “We know you want to dribble around this screen, but we’re not going to let you do that. Feel free to dribble away from TA and go the opposite way, though.”

And he did. And Bosh’s man (Perkins) had to try and contain Jack’s penetration as Bosh (with little TA guarding him now) rolled to the hoop. Someone else (usually Sheed) would have to rotate quickly into the paint to defend Bosh, and that would set off a series of rotations all over the floor.

For about 10 minutes, the C’s worked this perfectly. Sheed blocked one Bosh shot close the rim. Ray Allen deflected an uncertain Jack crosscourt pass. The Raps committed five of their 16 turnovers over the first five minutes of the 3rd quarter, and Bosh scored just two points—and attempted just one field goal—in the entire quarter. 

That’s all it took defensively to win this game. 

On the other side, the Raptors just cannot defend off-the-ball screen action. And the C’s had to use a lot of such action with their two best one-on-one players (and their best creator) on the bench. 

Here’s on example: The C’s twice ran (first at about the 4:30 mark of the 2nd, then again at the 10:17 mark of the 4th) a very unusual (but uncomplicated) play designed to free House for a three-pointer, and it worked both times. Each time, House darted down from the top of the key toward the right corner and set a screen on Brian Scalabrine’s man (Hedo Turkoglu). Scalabrine curled around the screen as if were going to receive the ball near the elbow for a jumper. Except that wasn’t the play. As Scal reached the point in his cut at which he was about parallel to House, he stopped and set a screen for Eddie, who had suddenly changed direction and sprinted out toward the three-point line. 

The only way the Raptors could have defended this play any worse is if Hedo Turkoglu had just sat down and pooped on the court. Both times, Hedo saw the House screen coming well in advance and, justifiably unconcerned about the possibility of Scal hitting a jumper off a curl, just sort of hung out in the general area one might refer to as “under” the House screen. The only problem: On both plays, House’s guy (first Sonny Weems, then Marco Belinelli) stuck with House. The result: The two defenders sort of bumped into each other, allowing Scal to more or less screen both of them while Eddie hit two uncontested threes. 

It’s one thing to fall for this once. But for Turkoglu to defend it even worse the second time is awful. Watch the tape: Hedo realizes something is amiss when Scal starts his curl and points in the general direction of three-point line, except no one is really in position to see him pointing. He doesn’t appear to be yelling anything. The logical thing to do would be to switch, since Turkoglu is already moving toward the three-point line with Scal and could jump out easily into House. 

But he just stood there guarding no one. Both times. It’s not all his fault—House’s defenders deserve some of the blame, too. But it’s just terrible defense, and it’s how you let an undermanned team put up a higher points per possession number than the average number of the best offensive team in the league. 

Some bullets, to further illustrated this point:

• Take a look at Ray Allen’s three-pointer with about 2:50 to go that gave the C’s a 95-83 lead and basically iced the game. It’s a simple play: Rasheed Wallace dishes the ball to TA at the top of the key and dives down to set a screen for Ray Allen just below the foul line on the right side of the paint. The screen catches Allen’s man (Belinelli, again) flush, giving Allen a clear path out to three-point line.

Sheed’s man (Bosh) does nothing! He just stands there next to Sheed! Ray gets the pass from TA with no defender within 10 feet of him. This is Ray Allen! A competent defensive team caught in this situation has Bosh jump out on Ray while Belinelli temporary switches onto Sheed and a series of rotations kick in. Or maybe Hedo Turkoglu (guarding TA) sees this coming and sprints over onto Ray, though that would be a very atypical rotation. 

But you have to do something. God, the Raptors are bad at defense.

• Tony Allen moved wonderfully without the ball in this game. It was TA who scored three key points over two possessions when the Raptors crept within 83-77 mid-way through the 4th, and he got those points by doing one thing TA does well: Cutting to the hoop when left open. On both possessions, the Raps left TA alone on the left wing to deal with mismatches on the right side (such as a guard defending Big Baby in the post). Rather than stand there passively, TA cut to the foul line, curled to the rim and received the ball. The results: A drawn foul and a monster dunk (and obligatory awkward landing). Good stuff, and we’re seeing more and more good stuff from Tony on offense. 

• A team-high nine free throw attempts shows again that he can contribute in an offensive category in which the team is otherwise weak.

• With apologies to Brendan, J.R. Giddens continues to strike me as an unskilled offensive player. Maybe he was just timid tonight. But he doesn’t appear to have confidence in his jump shot, and he can’t beat anyone off the dribble (or hasn’t, anyway). Two points and zero foul shots in 20 minutes for J.R. tonight. Hopefully next time goes better.

• Another senseless T for Sheed, as he pulled a Perk and flailed his arms with needless aggression upon getting tangled up with Turkoglu (whom Sheed dubbed a flopper and Turkododo earlier this season). I have no idea why Sheed was so upset, but I know the T was stupid. That’s 11.

• Why would the Raptors not foul down 101-96 with 35 seconds left? Are you telling me it’s better to be down five with 14 seconds left (which is what happened after Toronto earned the stop it wanted) than to be down seven points (in a worst-case scenario) with, say, 33 seconds left? To me, that’s just poor coaching. 

• The book on Andrea Bargnani is that he’s improved as an on-ball post defender. And then you see Sheed spin around him for a dunk as if it were 1999 or something. 

• Eddie House blocked a shot tonight. He now has five this season. He had seven last season. His career high is 12. This is not relevant, I realize.

• Another cool play we may not see again: With about 2:17 left in the 2nd quarter, Ray Allen ran his typical curl pattern on the left side of the floor with Tony Allen dribbling on the right wing. Except when Ray reached the apex of his curl, he darted across the floor and set a surprise screen to the right of TA’s man (Turkoglu). The screen caught Turk, allowing TA to turn the corner and get the rim, where he drew a shooting foul. Ray’s man (Antoine Wright) could easily have switched onto TA, but he stuck with Ray instead, either because the Raptors D is awful or because Jay Triano had told Wright not to leave Ray under any circumstances.

That’s it for tonight. A nice win, and the C’s now have three days off before heading to Miami for a three-game East Coast trip that includes an ESPN game Friday night at Atlanta. Hopefully at least one of Rondo/Pierce/KG will play in that one.

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