The Nets put the Celtics in an uncomfortable situation late in the game Friday night by playing Joe Johnson at the 4 spot, forcing the Celtics to go small. A number of teams, including tonight’s opponent, the Washington Wizards, have had success going small against the Celtics, especially late in games, as Brad Stevens is forced into tough lineup decisions.
Jay King covered the Nets decision to go small in an article after last night’s game, and Stevens gave his reasons for moving Green to the 4:
“According to NBA.com, the Nets used Joe Johnson at power forward for approximately seven fourth-quarter minutes. To match up, the Celtics went small with Jeff Green at power forward and Jared Sullinger at center.
“We were big and they went on a 9-0 run to cut it to two,” head coach Brad Stevens said. “That was the reason; I mean, obviously. And from that point on we lost by four, but when they went small with Joe Johnson at the four, that’s a different predicament than even going small with (Mirza) Teletovic at the four.”
One obvious issue with the small lineup: Kelly Olynyk, probably Boston’s best offensive player, and Zeller, who has been so good lately, both sat on the bench for all of crunch-time. But when Brooklyn initially went small, Stevens tried to stay relatively big with Olynyk and Brandon Bass. The Nets rattled off a 7-0 run that took 1:10.”
The Celtics were bleeding points initially to the Nets small lineup, and Stevens felt he had to make the change. I covered why the Celtics struggle defensively with small lineups back when they played the Wizards on December 7.
Could Stevens have done anything differently? Let’s consider his options.
The move by Lionel Hollins forced Stevens into a tough decision. With Brandon Bass and Kelly Olynyk on the floor, the Celtics were not only unable to match up with four guards, but also couldn’t take advantage by posting up the smaller player on the other end, as neither Olynyk nor Bass excel with their backs to the basket.
The obvious choice is to move Jeff Green to the 4 spot to match up with Johnson, which is what Stevens went with and while the defense did improve, the offense fell out of sync.
Here is a possession when the Celtics first went small. As you can see, there’s a lot of standing around and confusion as to where guys should be. The confusion is largely due to the fact that Green does not typically play the 4. Green has played 83% of his minutes at the small forward spot this year according to Basketball Reference, the highest percentage of his career. The Cs end up with a high pick and roll with only 12 on the shot clock. Result: Turnover
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtX1aIQvgc4
On the Celtics next position, Stevens calls for a set the Celtics often run for Jeff Green. Green receives the ball off the initial screen and immediately passes back to the point guard. The play is then designed to have Jeff Green come off a flare screen, but Sullinger, who is not used to playing the 5, misses the screen and the play breaks down. In the clip you can see Green point as he expected the flare screen to be there from Sullinger. Result: contested 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdGNKwINOds
A little later on, the Celtics went with one of their go-to secondary break actions, but as you can see in the clip below, Green and Sullinger are not on the same page, not knowing who should play the low post vs the trailing post. After that, Smart doesn’t know he is supposed to cut until Sullinger tells him to. The entire play lacked understanding and pace. The Celtics are bailed out late in the shot clock by a nice two-man game between Bradley and Sully, but the basket is just fool’s gold for what was a poor offensive possession.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BU1tWDhh0KU
It’s unfortunate that the Celtics are forced out of their normal offensive rhythm by having guys play out of position a little bit, but the team needs to be more capable of making adjustments than they were last night. The Celtics looked flat out lost on offense for most of the last five minutes and will need to iron some things out with Green at the 4 to execute better.
Another option Stevens could have gone to was Sullinger and Zeller in the game. The offense would have run much smoother as each player would be in their normal spot, and Sullinger could have taken advantage of Joe Johnson on the block.
However, the trade-off is Sullinger has to guard one of Johnson, Sergey Karasev, or Alan Anderson, none of which are ideal matchups. The Celtics struggled defensively both against Washington and more recently in Miami when they had two posts trying to defend a four guard lineup.
It’s not an easy call for a coach. I’m sure Stevens would have liked to get Zeller back in the game, especially with the way he was playing, but that means either replacing Sullinger or sacrificing defense. I would say that Stevens should have gone small sooner, but the 7-0 run happened so quickly that he didn’t really have a chance.
Another strategy Stevens could employ is offensive/defensive substitutions. Late in the game, Stevens could go with a Sullinger/Zeller pairing out of a timeout. This forces the opposing coach to make a decision as to whether he is going to stay small or try to match up. At the very least, the Celtics know they can attack a mismatch during their offensive possession to get a high quality shot while only having to play one possession on the other end before they’re able stop the game again.
Small ball lineups will continue to cause headaches for the Celtics moving forward, and could certainly play a role in tonight’s game against Washington. The Celtics strength right now is with their frontcourt. Moving Green to the 4 means two of Zeller, Sullinger and Olynyk have to sit, undoubtedly making the team weaker.
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