From the GreenLab: CLOSE THE BLAST DOORS!

There is a famous scene in “Star Wars: A New Hope” where Han Solo and Chewbacca are fleeing from an angry and clumsy group of Stormtroopers trying to make their way to the Milennium Falcon.  As they are running down the corridor, you can hear one of the troopers yell ‘CLOSE THE BLAST DOORS!’  As the doors are slowly closing, Han and Chewie hop through cleanly, leaving all the troops behind them.  What does any of this have to do with the Celtics?

This is admittedly a stretch, but this one play that Doc ran to free up Paul Pierce for a three during the Philly game sort of reminded me of that.  Check out the video below to see it in motion.  Here is the breakdown:

• AB brings the ball up and passes it to Courtney Lee to allow Pierce, Chris Wilcox and Brandon Bass to get set
• It appears at first, to be a basic high screen and roll with Wilcox as the screener, but Lee quickly passes it back to AB
• As Pierce cuts into the lane, bringing his man Evan Turner with him, Wilcox drops down and forms a set of “blast doors” with Bass
• Pierce cuts back in between the “blast doors” that are Wilcox and Bass as the two of them merge together to ‘close the doors’ on Pierce’s man (Turner)
• Spencer Hawes and Thaddeus Young are thrown off slightly, thinking the pass is going back to Lee
• Instead as Pierce makes his way through the ‘blast doors,’ AB skips it to Pierce who drills the three

The closing of the ‘blast doors’ that are Wilcox and Bass slow down Turner just enough to allow Pierce an extra parsec of a second to get off the shot.  You can almost hear Doug Collins screaming “OPEN THE BLAST DOORS!!! OPEN THE BLAST DOORS!!!”  Ok not really, but work with me here.  Just a beautiful play by Doc, one of many in his stolen Death Star blueprint plans.