When the Celtics suspended Ime Udoka for the season and promoted Joe Mazzulla to develop into a first-time head coach, they did greater than merely make a training change. They modified their identification.
The C’s have been two wins away from a championship beneath Udoka behind the power of their protection, however they got here up brief as a result of they didn’t have sufficient offense. With Mazzulla in cost, the fashion shifted to an offensive-first strategy.
Ultimately, the Celtics fell in need of expectations due to that misplaced defensive identification. It’s what dug them in an 0-3 sequence deficit to the Heat that was an excessive amount of to beat even after they rediscovered their protection to reel off three consecutive wins and power an unthinkable Game 7.
“It was the issue,” Malcolm Brogdon stated of their misplaced defensive identification. “I think this was a team in the last year that prided themselves on defense. I think defense was our calling card. This year offense was our calling card. I don’t think you win championships with a…better offense than you have a defense.”
Mazzulla’s offense was unstoppable to begin the season because the unit carried out at historic ranges in October and November. The coach prioritized spacing and capturing 3-pointers, and it labored in the beginning. But when it reverted again to the imply, when nights got here that their 3-point photographs weren’t falling, the C’s couldn’t depend on anything to win video games.
Including the playoffs, the Celtics had a 52-9 file once they shot 35 % or higher from 3-point vary this season. When they shot under that mark, they have been 16-25.
Asked if his group was too reliant on 3-point capturing, Mazzulla was defiant.
“No,” the coach stated, flatly.
But on poor capturing nights, the Celtics’ protection usually wasn’t there prefer it was a yr in the past. Robert Williams’ absence for the primary 29 video games of the season loomed massive, and whereas the Celtics nonetheless had a top-five protection within the common season, it was in the end too inconsistent.
Their 3-point capturing doomed them in an important video games of the season. The Celtics shot 20 % from deep – their worst mark of the season – in Game 6 towards the Heat and barely survived because of Derrick White’s miraculous buzzer-beating tip-in. They adopted that up with a 21.4 % effort – their second-worst mark of the yr – in Game 7 as they missed their first 12 makes an attempt from three, and it haunted them. It put an excessive amount of strain on their protection as they dug a gap they couldn’t climb out of to finish their season.
“Defensively, I thought we had the versatility, I thought we have the talent defensively,” Brogdon stated. “But on any given night we would let go of the rope and have a lot of breakdowns on that end.”
Now, as they head to the offseason filled with questions, how they repair these inconsistencies and flaws will probably be among the many largest.
“That’s definitely a Joe question,” Brogdon stated. “But for us I believe we might be higher. I believe we will – I believe defensively is the place the distinction is for us greater than something, whether or not or not you make photographs.
“(Game 7) was a game, whether or not we made shots, if we got stops, we could stay in that game. That’s not a team that’s going to score 120 points. It’s not a team that’s going to get out in transition and beat you that way. They’re going to slow the game down and play in the half court. So, if we can get stops, that’s a game we can stay in, even if we’re not making shots. But the fact of the matter is we didn’t get stops. That ultimately was the death of us.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com