To start the season, the Celtics defense has been disappointing. The team ranks in the bottom five in defensive rating, a statistic that adjusts for pace of play by measuring points per 100 possessions. It seems that the team’s goal of finishing as a top 10 defensive team is a pipe dream at this point, proving right the skeptics who doubted the team coming into the season.
So what have been the issues they have faced so far this season? Like every team in the NBA, the key to being a successful defense is being able to defend the pick and roll.
Ask any NBA coach the one thing that compromises their defense the most, and just about every single one will tell you the pick and roll, more specifically, the middle pick and roll. This Celtics team has struggled mightily with defending the middle pick and roll, allowing guards to get deep into the paint, big men to roll to the basket for easy layups, or leaving shooters for uncontested looks from the 3 point line. The Celtics struggles are due partly to their personnel, but the problems also run much deeper than this.
What Makes the Pick and Roll So Hard to Defend?
The pick and roll is a challenge for every team to defend because, for a brief moment, it creates a 5 on 4 advantage for the offense. See here, in what I will refer to as Figure 1, that Pacer’s guard George Hill is behind everyone trailing the play. While he is trailing, Roy Hibbert is responsible for both containing the guard as well as being able to recover to his man rolling to the basket. The Raptors are essentially attacking 5 on 4, a clear advantage.
It is easier to get this advantage when running the pick and roll in the middle of the floor, and that is why middle pick and rolls are much more popular in today’s game. Against the side pick and roll, teams will often use a defensive strategy called ICE, in which they attempt to force the ball to the baseline and prevent the ball handler from using the screen, limiting the offense to one side of the court. While ICE is very effective on side pick and rolls (just about every team runs ICE, including the Celtics), it is not as effective in the middle, as the ball handler has more of the court available to him.
How Teams Defend the Middle Pick and Roll
There are a number of ways teams attempt to defend the middle pick and roll, but the defense the Pacers are playing above is by far the most common. This type of scheme is typically referred to as ‘zoning up,’ where the guard fights over the top of the screen and the post player sags off in the paint, like he is playing a zone.
Responsibilities
- In the picture above, if the ball handler were to continue to drive, it would be up to Hibbert to stop this penetration until George Hill is able to recover.
- George Hill’s goal is to fight over the top of the screen, preventing an easy jump shot, and recover to a good defensive position in front of the ball handler.
- David West would have the responsibility of playing the ‘low help’ spot, where his job is to cover the Raptors big man rolling to the basket. West should meet the roll man outside of the restricted area to either take a charge or force a more difficult lay up from the big man rolling to the hoop. The low help man should almost always come from the side of the floor with two help defenders, so that they are able to cover for one another. This point will be important moving forward.
- Paul George would then be in a position to cover 2 men, in this case Patrick Patterson (West’s man) in the corner and Terrance Ross on the wing. If a pass were to be skipped to either of these players, it would be George’s responsibility to close out to them, with West recovering to the other.
- Finally, the Pacers want Lance Stephenson to stay at home and not help too much giving up an easy drive and kick for a 3 point shot.
‘Zoning up’ is what the Celtics have been using on their middle pick and roll defense, like many other NBA teams. Some of their struggles are due to personnel and out of their control at the moment. But the Celtics are also making very basic mistakes that they can control.
Celtics Personnel
Obviously the Pacers are one of the more successful teams guarding the middle pick and roll, as Roy Hibbert is one of the top rim protectors in the NBA. The Celtics first issue is that they lack this type of rim protector. Guards and big men are able to finish at the rim, off of the pick and roll and otherwise, with little resistance. This issue will not be correctable until the Celtics obtain a true rim protecting big.
This being said, defending the pick and roll takes all five players, and the Celtics have the ability to be a respectable defense, even with their personnel shortcomings, if they are able to work well together as a unit. Wednesday night vs Oklahoma City, the Celtics team worked very poorly together in defending the pick and roll. While the rim protection is an issue at certain points, the more prominent issues to me came with the Celtics effort and communication, two characteristics that are very much under their control as a team.
Effort, Communication, and Basketball IQ: What Makes a Successful Defensive Unit
Every good defense is built on the foundation of effort and communication first and foremost. Lacking rim protection, the Celtics effort and communication need to be great for them to succeed on the defensive end. Follow these two characteristics up with a high team basketball IQ, and the Celtics could have a reasonably successful defensive unit, maybe even close to the top 10. Luckily for them, these are three things that they can control, and will need to improve upon moving forward, especially when defending the pick and roll. Let’s look a few examples:
In this play in the 3rd quarter, the Celtics do a poor job defending all the way around. Zeller allows Jackson to get deep into the paint and is caught in no man’s land, neither defending the ball nor his man, Steven Adams. The ‘low help,’ who should be picking up Adams on the roll, should be coming from Brandon Bass, with Jeff Green helping down on Serge Ibaka. Understanding the Thunder’s personnel, the Celtics should have fully committed to stopping Jackson, Adams, and Ibaka, even if that means Jeff Green leaving Lance Thomas wide open in the corner. Thomas has a grand total of ZERO 3 pointers made in his entire career. Instead, the Celtics allow Jackson to get deep into the paint, and do not help out on Adams at all, and the result is an easy dunk. Poor effort, poor communication, and a poor IQ decision leads the easiest of baskets.
This second example is even worse. Here, Jared Sullinger does a terrible job stopping Jackson’s penetration. Kelly Olynyk is then late to help, and Avery Bradley leaves the best shooter in the gym to cover Nick Collison who has an improved 3 point shot, but is still only a 21% career 3 point shooter, compared to Morrow’s 43%. Poor initial effort by Sullinger, and a poor personnel decision by Avery Bradley leads to a wide open 3.
In our 3rd example, Jared Sullinger does a nice job stopping Jackson’s initial penetration. Kelly Olynyk is also in a good ‘low help’ position preventing the roll man from getting an easy basket. It is then up to Rajon Rondo to close out to the skip pass, which went to Nick Collison. As you can see, Rondo is in a poor defensive stance (standing straight up) and is thus late to react to the pass, leaving Collison open for the corner 3. Four out of Five guys doing their job is not enough.
In the final example, Sullinger again shows that he is capable of stopping an athletic ball handler’s penetration, and Kelly Olynyk is again in a good low help position, forcing Perkins to pass. Where the play goes horribly wrong is with Sullinger’s lackluster effort recovering to his man, once again forcing Rajon Rondo to guard two men, this time for an extended period of time. Sullinger and Olynyk also fail to communicate once Sullinger has recovered. Morrow could have made the extra pass to Collison in the corner, but why bother when you are 8/8 in the quarter?
The Celtics lack of effort, poor communication, and low basketball IQ in defending the middle pick and roll was frustrating to watch. They gave up 67 second half points in a half where it seemed like the Thunder walked the ball up the floor and ran a pick and roll every single time. This is the type of game film that the coaches watch, and then proceed to make the team run for the entire practice session the next day. The silver lining here is that these mistakes are all correctable. While Boston may not have the presence of a Roy Hibbert, they can still be a good defensive team by excelling in the areas they can control, namely their effort and communication. I’d expect a much more energized effort against the Cavaliers tonight, and hopefully moving forward for the rest of the year.
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