Game 5 belonged to Brandon Bass. He, of the 18-point, season saving third quarter, put one of the world’s most accurate jump shots on display, playing with a confidence that allowed him to frolic through passing lanes on defense and snatch rebounds from his own teammates. Bass was the unlikely hero; the much needed savior. It is he who stepped up, and he who deserves to wear the crown until Game 6 tips off on Wednesday night.

But Bass will be the first to tell you he didn’t do it alone. The Sixers are a very good defensive basketball team that’s more than capable of using their athletic advantage on most opponents, stripping away something they’re comfortable with and like to rely on. When they do, windows open, and big games hinge on whether or not unsung fillers of void are able to step up and climb through. Even though he hasn’t napalmed a crowd in quite some time, Ray Allen’s shot remains a legitimate strength for this Celtics team, and the Sixers have not forgotten. 

It’s been stressed time and time again that when he’s on the court, Allen holds the defense’s attention in the palm of his hand, like a swimsuit model scampering through a frat house. All eyes are on him at all times, and forgetting he’s there could, and probably will, lead to extensive regret. Here are two examples that show just how important Allen can be, even on a 2-7 shooting night.

The first play is a simple one. With Allen in the corner, and Pierce playing dumb on the wing, the Celtics take two of Philadelphia’s defenders right out of the play. The success of the Sixers’ defense is rooted in smart rotations and fabulous help from the weak side. Here, Doc Rivers has placed Ray in a position to neutralize that without exerting any pressure on his brittle ankles. Elton Brand and Jrue Holiday aren’t the same as a five-man swarming unit, and there’s simply no way they can stop Rajon Rondo by themselves. This happened several times throughout the game, but what strikes me about this particular play is how insanely tight Jodie Meeks is playing Allen. As the Celtics run their two man game to perfection, Meeks and Allen stand idly in the corner, looking like two guys patiently waiting in the popcorn line at a movie theatre. This is the respect and fear Ray Allen’s jumper has even when it’s been off for weeks.

The next is a play Kenny Smith highlighted on Inside the NBA. As Rondo attracts the strong side attention, Ray drags Lou Williams from the corner to the wing, giving his teammates more than enough space to operate. The result is Brandon Bass’ 56th dunk of the night.

Monday night, Allen played 20 more minutes than Greg Stiemsma, but scored half as many points. According to the box score, he wasn’t even the most productive “Allen” on the court (LaVoy Allen, Boston’s great unexpected headache, scored 12 points on six perfect shots). It’s been strange to watch Ray struggle in areas where he’s normally a model of perfection. It’s almost like we take them for granted. For crying out loud, he’s shooting 60 percent from the free-throw line! This is RAY ALLEN, we’re talking about. One of the greatest free-throw shooters in the history of basketball. He could shoot free-throws in a gym for five straight hours and miss five or six. Somehow, in these playoffs, he’s missed eight in nine games. It’s made me believe in the existence of Alien life.

Then again, he is human (I think). Even when we’re discussing the greatest to ever do it, a shooter’s touch comes and goes. But here’s where Ray Allen separates himself from most other one-dimensional spot up shooters: He’s one of the game’s purest professionals. If incapable of raining down three-pointers, he finds other ways to contribute, and last night he did just that. The Celtics aren’t running Ray around the baseline through double screens, and a big reason they lost Game 4, I felt, was their insistence on force feeding him in situations where his ankles simply didn’t allow an opening. But on Monday night he made the adjustment; he was spectacular in the tiniest of ways that have most likely already been forgotten.

First I’d like to discuss his defense on Evan Turner. For much of the time these two were on the court, Allen shadowed him, forcing him into uncomfortable shots and making him work for everything he had, on every single possession. Turner attempted 13 shots, tying Brand for the most on his team, but with Allen guarding him he only made one of them, according to Synergy.

Then there was “The Rebound”. A play I’d like to embellish for no defined reason other than I thought it was a great example of someone going outside their normal comfort zone to help a basketball team win a game. Ray plucked one offensive board out of the air in his 33 minutes of play, and the one proved to be quite important.

When it happened, the Celtics trailed by five against a relentless Sixers barrage of shots that never seemed to miss. Boston was doing the doggy paddle as Philadelphia looked to be executing a beautiful butterfly stroke; in order to prevent them from swimming away, at the time, every offensive possession was crucial. Allen read the ball off the rim, darted to enemy territory, and kept the possession alive. (Pierce would eventually end the play with two made free-throws.)

I won’t venture towards hyperbolizing who Ray Allen is and how magnificent his current abilities are at this stage in his Hall of Fame worthy career. He scored five points last night, and missed four three-pointers, a majority of which were wide open and with plenty of time to line up his body. But Monday night was quiet brilliance from a well-mannered man doing his best to help in any way he can. To say the Celtics won Game 5 without his contribution would be to ignore just how valuable this guy continues to be.

Twitter: @ShakyAnkles

When Rajon Rondo shows feisty aggressiveness in a game’s first 12 minutes, it’s the rarest of treats. Watching it live, knowing you’re in for 48 minutes of “I could be witnessing history” basketball, is like heading to a golf course at 3 pm on a Sunday and not getting paired up with two people who married each other before the Vietnam War. It’s walking into a crowded Starbucks and snagging the last empty, comfy chair located right above an outlet. It’s winning a bet with your girlfriend and getting to see Chernobyl Diaries instead of What To Expect When You’re Expecting. Moments like these are few and far between; little bits of time that deserve to be remembered—cherished, even—with proper acknowledgment.

Sometimes Rondo’s impressive stat stuffing performances look like subtle invasions. In some of them you sit there sopping it up, yet as the score rocks back and forth, and his shot attempts spread themselves further and further apart, the pervasive way Rondo debilitates an opponent can sometimes get overlooked. He has the athleticism, speed, and skill to take over any basketball game with his ability to score the ball, but his temperamental behavior tends to combat a self-created aura of dominance, leaving his teammates, coaches, owners, and fans to wonder why he doesn’t attack the basket more often—why he can’t recognize that sometimes the team needs him to use those gifts of his to score instead of distribute.

Wednesday night Rondo gave us his finest first quarter of the season—in arguably his team’s most important game of the year—scoring 13 points on eight shots; registering just one assist, showing that his mind was committed to one thing: scoring. When Greg Stiemsma subbed in for Garnett after the team’s current MVP picked up two quick fouls, Rondo scored Boston’s next nine points before setting up Pierce for an inspiring dunk. He understood he was the only Celtic carrying a flashlight. Rondo was there to lead the way. This article is my way of showing some appreciation. 

After Philadelphia makes a basket it takes Rondo exactly five seconds to run down the court, spin through an unprepared defense, and answer with a finger roll off the glass.

Just watch this play one more time. NOBODY expects Rondo to do what he did. Not Jrue Holiday, who’s left desperately trying to poke at the ball as Rondo’s already blown by. Not Kevin Garnett, who’s setting an away screen for Pierce to pop out at the three-point line. Not Avery Bradley, who arrives at the basket off one of his famous baseline cuts after Rondo has already put the ball in the hoop. And not Brandon Bass, who barely appears on the screen before turning around and heading back the other way to play defense. This is Rondo at his “Best Point Guard in the World” level, leaving everyone else in awe.

Here, Rondo uses Pierce’s ball screen to catapult himself towards the basket. When this happens, Lavoy Allen and Andre Iguodala try to contain him, but Rondo punches first with one hell of a floater high off the glass. In Game 2, this was the situation where you’d see Rondo moving a bit slower, allowing himself to survey the defense, analyze the double team, and find a wide open shooter. Here he’s almost moving too fast, and Bass doesn’t even have enough time to set himself up for a weak side jumper.

Here’s a perfect example of Rondo oozing with enthusiasm to score. First he cuts to the free-throw line to make himself available for a pass from Garnett. Once there, he’s presented with two pretty great options: a wide open Avery Bradley in the corner, and a wide open Paul Pierce hovering near the left elbow. I’m sure Philadelphia’s defense expected him to make one of those possibilities a reality, but instead he tosses up a perfect floater that softly plops through the net.

After all that aggressiveness, and all those shots at the rim that made Philly shake its head and trot down to set up their offense, Rondo takes advantage of a team expecting him to shoot, and finds a wide open Mickael Pietrus in the corner.  (Apparently, it had a frustrating effect on one of the building’s security guards.)

When Rondo chooses to score early in a game, the floor opens up even wider later on. When this happens, he’s the one offensive question this Celtics team can pose that every defense in the league is unable to answer. In Monday night’s loss, Rondo didn’t look for his own shot. He got to the rim and still looked to get others involved. It was strange to see. Rondo’s a smart guy, but sometimes he’s too smart for his own good. Sometimes he tends to forget that the objective of each possession is to put the ball in the basket. But not on Wednesday. Wednesday he forced us to notice.

Twitter: @ShakyAnkles

The reasons why Boston leveled Philadelphia last night are innumerable. There was focus from Rajon Rondo, intensity from Paul Pierce, and overall dominance shown by Kevin Garnett. But getting into specifics, one of the biggest weapons they used to make a statement was via their bread and butter: defensive execution. In particular, how they guarded the pick and roll.

From the start, Boston’s strategy was a clear adjustment from what they did in Game 2. Here they wanted to trap the pick and roll, bullying the ball out of the hands of Philadelphia’s play-makers and towards guys who aren’t used to standing 15 feet from the basket with the shot clock winding down and a defender rotating towards their face.

Here are two examples of terrible pick and roll plays defended by the Celtics in Game 2.

In the clip above, Brandon Bass is non-committal with what he wants to do. Is he showing? Is he trapping? Is he an old man trying to send back soup in a deli? No, no, possibly yes.

Here you see Mickael Pietrus fail to hedge (if that’s what he was trying to do—similar to Bass, it isn’t quite clear) and allow Jrue Holiday to turn the corner and get into the lane.

The adjustments that need to be made in order to correct the problems seen above appear to be simple, but they’re far from it. In order to execute a successful trap, complicated rotations must come from the backline, and if the two players up top don’t do their job, either terrible mismatches will show themselves all over the court (think multiple mustard stains on a wedding dress), or a wide open player who Boston doesn’t want to have the ball can be gifted with a driving lane.

Last night the Sixers executed 18 pick and rolls to create a shot—both from the handler and roll man—according to Synergy. They connected on just five of these attempts. Here’s a sequence of well defended pick and roll plays that took place late in the second quarter. They effectively ended the basketball game.

The play begins with Andre Iguodala taking a screen from Spencer Hawes at the top of the three-point line. Instead of showing hard then rotating back to his man, as Garnett tends to do, he stays in front of Iguodala, helping Pierce trap him on the wing. From Iguodala’s point of view, the smartest option here is throwing the ball back to a wide open Hawes, who catches it about a foot in front of the three-point line.

This is where Garnett shows why he’s such an incredible basketball player. By sliding across the lane to contest what would be a wide open jumper, Garnett forces Philly’s center to put the ball on the floor from 20-feet away. When discussing all things disgusting, Spencer Hawes driving to the basket ranks at the top of my list. Bass then rotates from his man to contest the shot, as Ray Allen and Pierce crash the lane, positioning themselves for a possible rebound. The result? Bass makes Hawes wish he never picked up a basketball, and Keyon Dooling goes the other way for a quick layup.

This second play is similar, except Lou Williams is handling the ball instead of Iguodala. Williams receives a screen from Hawes and dribbles right into a trap by Rondo and Garnett. Lost and possibly dazed, Williams throws the ball back to Hawes, who’s standing behind the three-point line and wants no part of the action. He quickly swings it to Holiday—also standing behind the three-point line and well covered by Avery Bradley—and the Sixers try a pick and pop on the opposite side of the floor with two different players.

This was Philadelphia’s adjustment, but unfortunately for them, things don’t go so well. As Holiday comes off the screen, he’s greeted by a sagging Pierce, who can’t afford to be over aggressive on the play because his man is the much more dangerous Thaddeus Young. (Pierce also doesn’t have to trap because Bradley easily gets past Young’s screen, making it look as if nothing was ever set.)

Instead of forcing the issue and attacking, Holiday throws it back to a popping Young. The shot clock is now at six, and Young is forced to go one on one with Pierce, driving his body into the teeth of Boston’s treacherous defense with predictable results.

The previous two clips show awesome focus and commitment to what it was Doc Rivers wanted his team to do, but this one here is my personal favorite. Holiday takes a screen from Hawes and before Garnett can even come up to trap, the ball is out of his hands, back to Hawes. This is Philly playing right into what the Celtics want. They’re up by 10 in the first half, and already their concentration is cracking.

Holiday quickly comes back to get the ball to receive another screen from Hawes, going in the opposite direction, but the Celtics don’t seem to care. Garnett and Rondo chase down Holiday until he reluctantly throws the ball back to the always-ignored Hawes. Another jumper is missed, and another transition opportunity for the Celtics is created.

Here’s where the mental toll for Philadelphia has reached its breaking point. Lou Williams holds the ball with a little under three seconds separating the shot and game clock. Instead of milking it down to prevent Boston from getting the half’s final shot, Elton Brand comes up to set a screen with nine seconds on the shot clock, and 11.5 seconds left in the half. With a head start, Williams tries to blow by Ryan Hollins in an attempt to get to the basket.

Once again, tragedy strikes for the Sixers. Williams misses the layup, Bradley grabs the rebound, and Rondo finds himself with nearly seven seconds to race the length of the court and get a final shot off. We’ve seen Rondo cover this type of ground in half that time throughout his career, so to nobody’s surprise he gets there with more than enough time to spare, and finishes with a nifty reverse layup to give the Celtics an 11 point halftime lead. Beautiful.

Boston lost Game 2 in part because they couldn’t impose their will on Philly’s ball-handlers. They looked like a confused team, allowing opposing guards to do as they pleased. Last night we saw a different Celtics team; a more focused group that executed their plan to near perfection. This is the team we’re more familiar with seeing, and this is the team that needs to show up night in and night out if Boston has any chance at raising their 18th banner.

Twitter: @ShakyAnkles

Get ready for the vintage Larry Bird-Julius Erving highlight reels starting tonight.

More importantly — who wins the series? We’ve got the (alleged) answers right here.

Ryan DeGama: The Celtics will win this series, but with Paul Pierce unlikely to approach 100% against the hyperathletic Andre Igoudala and Ray Allen a question mark for game one, it’s going to prove tougher than many are expecting. If the Celtics can control tempo (no turnovers!) and force Philly to grind it out, the Sixers are going to struggle to score against this Boston halfcourt defense. The Rajon Rondo-Jrue Holiday matchup is not as clear a win for the Celtics as you might think, especially if Rondo takes quarters off or plays them badly, the way he did last series. Nobody expected the Celtics to have homecourt in round two but it might prove the difference. Boston in 7.

Michael Pina:  The Celtics will move on for myriad reasons (skill, experience, etc.), but what I’m most looking forward to in this series is Avery Bradley’s true coming out party. Due to a sudden shoulder injury and an unfavorable matchup against the 6’8″ Joe Johnson, Doc Rivers wasn’t able to utilize his feisty, small backcourt in the first round. Against Philadelphia, a team that likes to run on the backs of Lou Williams, Jrue Holiday, and Evan Turner, Boston’s emerging weapon will finally make his presence felt.

The Sixers have youth, overwhelming athleticism, and confidence now that they’ve made their first bit of playoff progress in about a decade. If you believe professional sports is a bottom line business, then the bottom line with Philadelphia is that they beat Chicago in six games. But if you want to break down that series as a way to learn what might happen in this one, what really happened is they squeaked past a Bulls team that was missing its two best players. It wasn’t an eighth seed defeating one of basketball’s premier contenders. This was a borderline playoff team that had its hands full with a lottery bound roster of role players. This isn’t a case of my overlooking Philadelphia in anticipation of a showdown with Miami. It’s my belief that the Sixers simply aren’t all that good. Boston in 5.

Brian Robb: Philadelphia is a tough little team to figure out. The key to this series as Doc Rivers already articulated will be the turnover game. The Sixers are the best in the league this postseason at not coughing up the ball, and like Atlanta, they have the athleticism to force turnovers at an impressive clip as well (top-10 in regular season). The issue for them is no one can score the ball with any regularity. If you thought Boston’s offense was ugly, take into account only Spencer Hawes and Lavoy Allen averaged above 42 percent shooting from the field against Chicago in six games of action. The Sixers also hit 24.7 percent of their 3-pointers in that series, and Boston is one of the best at defending beyond the arc.

Philadelphia survived against Chicago because they were able to get to the line at an impressive clip against an undermanned Bulls team. In the regular season however, they were the worst team in the league at getting to the charity stripe (free throws per field goal attempt), so given the small sample size, I don’t expect this getting to the line trend to continue against a superb Boston defense. Putting it all together, I don’t think Philly can score enough to win four games in this series. Boston’s injuries will play a factor and make the series longer than it should be, but if Pierce, Allen and Bradley can stay on the floor and contribute, Boston gets it done. Boston in 7.

Brendan Jackson:  This series is going to be really hard to predict.  The Sixers don’t have the individual talent the Hawks had, which leaves the Celtics without anyone around which to specifically design their defensive game plan.  What sounds like a good thing actually has a tendency to cause the Celtics to become complacent on the defensive end when they think a lesser player has the ball.  The biggest problem with this approach is that while the Sixers are a collection of less-than-stars, they’re all still pretty good, not to mention young, athletic, and defensive minded.

Against the Bulls, a few players stood out as real x-factors.  Both Jrue Holiday and Spencer Hawes showed flashes of brilliance against the Bulls and provided an offensive spark when no flint seemed available.  I’m looking forward to see if Hawes has the same success against Kevin Garnett as he did against Carlos Boozer and a hobbled Joakim Noah.  Or is Holiday can do as well with Avery Bradley checking him.

Despite being embarrassed more than once by the Sixers in the regular season, the Celtics should win this series pretty handily.  Both the Sixers and Celtics struggle to score in the half-court and are both elite defensive teams.  Luckily for the C’s, if it comes down to the Celtics or the Sixers needing to score, the easy money is on the C’s to convert.  This series could be prove to be the Sixers welcoming party into the league of really good teams or it could be evidence of how a lesser team made it past a injury-depleted Bulls team.  I’m leaning towards the latter.  Celtics in 6.

Hayes Davenport:  Game is starting so I need to be quick: I think the Sixers are uniquely equipped to challenge the Celtics based on two assets: youth and depth. Both contribute to Philly’s speed, longevity, and injury tolerance. The Celtics are clearly the better team, but as we’ve seen all season and into the playoffs, they’ll go entire games playing far under their potential, so they could play an extended series against pretty much any team. I don’t think Philly’s going to make it through, but I do think it’s going to drag on. Celtics in 7.

For as long as The Big Three have been in Boston, this Celtics roster has repeatedly had one major flaw that you could count on over the past five seasons. Turnovers.There’s really no rhyme or rhythm to it. Doc Rivers hasn’t been able to explain it with any luck, it’s just been a consistent aspect of this team for better or (mostly worse), as the C’s have finished in the bottom-fifth of the league in turnover percentage over each of the past five seasons.

As the Celtics headed into this series with Atlanta, the turnover battle unsurprisingly was a bit of a concern against the Hawks. Boston had, as expected, averaged 14.8 turnovers per game in the regular season, and turned the ball over on a whopping 14.7 percent of their possessions, good for just 25th overall in the league.

The Hawks meanwhile entered the series as a team that had excelled at forcing turnovers in the regular season, using their athleticism and gritty defense to force teams to cough it up on 14.4 percent of their possessions, making them a top-6 NBA team in that department.

Putting these two factors into play coming into this series, you had a recipe for disaster potentially for the C’s, as they we were one of the worst teams handling the ball, going up against one of the best teams at exploiting that issue.

As a whole, Atlanta has played tremendous defense for the majority of the first three games in this best-of-seven affair, holding Boston under 83 points in regulation through three games before the C’s offense erupted in Game 4.

Despite the offensive woes, there’s been one hidden positive throughout these first four games for the C’s: Turnovers have not been a major issue all series for Boston. In fact, against all odds, the Celts’ are winning the turnover battle with Atlanta.

Compared to their regular season number (where Boston averaged 15 turnovers per game), during four games against Atlanta so far, the C’s have averaged just 12.5 miscues a contest. Now, that number can be somewhat misleading given the slower pace teams play at in the postseason, but here’s a number which is not. Boston has turned the ball over on just 12.7 of their possessions so far, a substantial drop from their regular season mark of 14.7. That 12.7 number would have placed them among the league’s elite (2nd place) over a full 66-game season in protecting the ball.

It is a small sample size, but for a team that has languished in the basement of the league in turnover percentage for nearly five years now, that’s nothing to sneeze at, especially in the postseason against a team in Atlanta with a good track record of forcing the issue defensively. So how have the Celtics’ fared so well in this department? Well, it starts with one guy generally…..the point guard. I asked Rajon about it after Game 4:

“It starts with me. I have the ball in my hands a lot and Paul (Pierce) and I communicate a lot throughout the came saying that we need to take care of the ball. So that’s what we have been focused on in this playoff series, taking care of the ball and all five guys crashing the glass,” Rondo said.

We’ll talk about that crashing the glass stuff later today (another pleasant surprise) but it is refreshing to see that emphasis from the team’s floor general on handling the ball with care, something he has struggled with a lot this year. Despite the Game 3 hiccup (6 turnovers) for Rondo, the point guard has been tremendous with the ball in his hands this series. The great news though? Rondo isn’t alone. For some perspective, let’s look at individual turnover percentages for this team in the regular season first:

Rondo 22.8
Steimsma 19.2
Dooling 16.1
Daniels 15.5
Bradley 14.7
Pierce 14.2
Allen 11.2
Garnett 11.1
Pietrus 10.4
Bass 8.5

That’s a lot of big numbers. It’s easy to see Rondo has been the biggest culprit, but there were still plenty of equal opportunity offenders heading into the postseason. Now let’s look at the top offenders this postseason:

Daniels 22.5
Steimsma 20
Pierce 15.2
Rondo 12.7
Garnett 8.6
Pietrus 7.6
Bradley 7.3
Bass 5.6
Allen 4.3
Dooling 0

Notice a bit of a difference there? Look at all those single digits! Outside of a slight uptick from Pierce (understandable, given how much he has handled the ball) and an outlier (Daniels) everyone has shaved multiple percentage points of their averages. Avery Bradley cut his number in half! Keyon Dooling doesn’t even have a turnover! The Celtics should be very excited about this and you should be too!

Why exactly is this especially encouraging? Well, the C’s as a team have a history of doing this during successful postseason runs. And by this, I mean cutting down their turnover numbers quite impressively. Let’s start with the 2008 title team.

In the regular season that roster, turned the ball over 14.7 percent of the team. In the postseason? Just 12.9 percent of the time.

Fast forward to the 2009-2010 season and you see a similar pattern. Once again, Boston coughed up the ball 14.5 percent of the time in the regular season. In the postseason? They cut that number down to 13.8 percent.

All of this speaks to this team’s ability to tighten the screws when the stakes are raised. Rondo spoke to that a little bit in his earlier quote, but Kevin Garnett put it candidly after Game 4:

“Sometimes man, individually we kind of get a little dysfunctional at times, but tonight everyone was very communicative in what we were talking about. Guys were giving tips. I don’t like bringing up some of the past, but it was similar to some of the things we’ve done in the past. Obviously this is a new group, new guys, deeper. There was a lot of dialogue today…..guys were focused in, you could feel it.”

The turnover issue isn’t a one-way street however. Just as Boston has been protecting the ball well, they are making Atlanta, an above-average team at handling the ball in the regular season (12th) cough it up quite a bit. The Hawks are averaging 15 miscues a game over the first four game in this series, up a turnover per game from their pre-postseason mark. Larry Drew spoke on his team not being ready for that kind of increased pressure from Boston after Game 4:

“It’s a playoff game. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t be jacked up to play. The fact that we did not respond to their aggressiveness, it just totally took us out of our game. We didn’t respond to it all. We didn’t have the zap, we didn’t have the speed. We were doing everything at about 60 percent. This is the playoffs. How can you not have it?”

It’s a fair question Larry. Unfortunately, your boys are running out of time to find “it.” Meanwhile, while Boston has not played particularly well for the majority of the series, they are stepping it up where they have to, kicking it up an extra gear. And with a wide-open road to the Eastern Conference Finals looming, their timing couldn’t be better.