The Celtics seem to have gotten past their effort issues, showing up with strong efforts in their last 3 games (resulting in 2 wins and an excellent showing against San Antonio). Tonight they head to New Orleans to face a bad team with one the best young talents in the league. Personally, I’d trade every Celtics pick and my mom for Anthony Davis, but he’s not surrounded by much help at the moment. The Pelicans present matchups that can be exploited, and here are a few simple steps to handing them another loss.
1: Go Small (and attack)
Defensively, the Pelicans trot out a big starting front line with Davis, Ryan Anderson, and Dante Cunningham. The obvious move is to draw Davis away from the rim and leave the lane unprotected. The Pels have the worst defensive rating in the league (108.6), so if you pull their only defensive threat away from the basket, then the rest of the guys are going to give up points.
While Anderson makes their offense better, he make their defense worse. Opponents have a 113 offensive rating when he’s on the floor… 6 points better than when he’s off the floor. Exploit that matchup at every opportunity.
Bonus: Kelly Olynyk vs. Omer Asik has the potential to be a real mismatch in Boston’s favor. Get that hair up into a bun, Kelly, and take Asik off the dribble. This could be a big game off the bench for Olynyk.
2: Bombs away!!
Opponents are shooting 39% from 3 against New Orleans… second-worst in the league. Move the ball and force the Pels to rotate. They’ll screw it up sooner rather than later, and the Celtics will get plenty of good looks from deep.
3: Climb into Anthony Davis’ shorts
Davis is a megastar talent. He’s going to get shots and score. But the Pelicans are bad about getting him the ball at key times if he’s not wide open. Tyreke Evans is having a good season… maybe his best season… but I’d rather take my chances with him than with Davis (duh). It won’t be easy if Avery Bradley is out tonight (game-time decision with an illness), but the Celtics will have to find a way. If it’s tight late, Evans is prone to hero-ball… so in a close game, he’ll try to do it all himself if The Brow isn’t obviously open.
4: Keep them under 100 points
The Pels are averaging 116 points a game in wins, and 97.7 in losses. So if we want to over-simplify this… just keep playing that Celtics D. It won’t be easy though. The Pelicans are averaging 110.1 ppg at home this season (15 points better than their road output… so New Orleans is a much more dangerous team at home. They’ve won 3 of 4 at home that includes wins over the Spurs and Cavs. They’re no joke at the Smoothie King Center (best arena name ever!).
I don’t care that they’re 5-15… New Orleans is no easy win. If the Celtics can accomplish these 4 things, they’ll come out of this with a win.
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