#1 – Jaylen at the wheel
When you are on the road and the Thunder strikes, you need your driver at the wheel to get you through the storm. For the Boston Celtics, the man at the wheel has a name: Jaylen Brown. Despite the physical defense from the OKC Thunder, the 2024 Finals MVP was able to get to the rim repeatedly.
Lu Dort did his best to stay attached but, in the second half, Brown was really smart about the way he moved with and without the ball. On this baseline out-of-bounds play, he uses Neemias Queta’s screen to be a step
ahead when he catches the ball and drives straight away while Dort is losing his balance.
And then, the exclamation point. He catches the ball at the key, back to the rim. He feels Alex Caruso is a little too much on his left. So he spins, drives, and explodes at the rim to deliver a new poster for Jaylin Williams’ bedroom.
As the Celtics saw how effective Jaylen was at getting to the rim last night, they kept calling plays for him to give him space. On this ball-screen, the OKC Thunder doesn’t want to switch and that creates a small gap. That slight difference allows JB to get going and here he is, at the rim again.
Yet, one of the hidden reasons the rim was so accessible last night might be related to the recent return of… Jayson Tatum.
#2 – Jayson Tatum’s gravity
Since coming back, the Celtics’ offense breathes a lot better. More space to execute because the defense can’t ignore him off the ball, leading to better driving lanes for Jaylen—but not only. When he is involved in an action, the defense often overreacts once he has the ball and that creates collapses. On this play (that led to yet another poster dunk), look how the defensive shell cracks as soon as he touches the ball.
There were other plays that stood out in this game and highlighted JT’s gravity, like here in the first half. Jayson Tatum has the ball on the wing, which draws a lot of attention. And do you know who is on the other wing? Another All-Star who is going to take advantage of that gravity.
Like Nik tweeted last night, questioning the power of attraction that Jayson Tatum has on a defense—and therefore his impact on the Celtics’ offense—doesn’t make any sense.
Yes, he is not as explosive as last season. Yes, the finishing at the rim is still a bit weak and the pull-up threes are sometimes a bit too much. Nevertheless, the Celtics are better with Jayson Tatum on the court as a spacer, but also as a creator. Especially when they go to a certain play-call: the Spain pick-and-roll.
#3 – Spain all over the place
Throughout the season, I have written about this play after many games, but last night was different. First, because it was against the best defense in the league, so it was a great opportunity to test it. Second, because for once I was lucky enough to ask Joe Mazzulla about it.
As often, Joe Mazzulla didn’t go into the details of why the action is so important. But he called it “stabilizing,” confirming the trend that it felt like they were going to that play a lot. Usually, the play works really well against drop coverage because it blocks the center from stepping back to protect the rim. Against the OKC Thunder, the Celtics had to deal with more hedge coverage, putting a lot of pressure on the ball.
But Jayson Tatum doesn’t care. Look at the speed and accuracy of the pass to Luka Garza, who rolls to the rim.
Repetition of a play that can beat different coverages is great for the Boston Celtics and also for Jayson Tatum. The beauty of that play is that different players can fill different roles. JB and JT can both be screeners or ball-handlers, and the same goes for Payton Pritchard and Derrick White. A deep team.
#4 – Protect the paint at all cost
Pretty quickly in the game, you could understand that the Celtics would live with shooting variance as long as the ball didn’t get into the paint. And looking at the stats, it made a lot of sense. The Thunder made 100% of their shots at the rim, but they generated only 11 of them.
In the meantime, the Celtics allowed the Thunder to take 40% of their shots from beyond the arc, but they made only 12 out of 37 attempts. The first three came early in the game, and you could have wondered if the Celtics would stick to that approach.
But they didn’t panic. They weathered the storm in the first half, slowly getting back into the game because the defense did a great job of limiting rim attempts in half-court situations. Bodies were all around SGA when he drove, because the Celtics know it takes more than one to stop an MVP.
The Celtics remained stubborn in their approach and it paid off in the long run. The second great thing they did defensively was turning misses into stops.
#5 – The rebounding dilemma
Going into the game, both Joe Mazzulla and Mark Daigneault knew their teams’ strengths and weaknesses. In the press conference, the OKC Thunder coach was transparent and called rebounding his team’s biggest weakness.
And the Celtics built their strategy on that. First of all, on defense, they knew there wouldn’t be many crashes on the glass, but they needed to make sure that hustlers like Caruso or Dort wouldn’t generate too many second chances. Overall, they limited the Thunder to four offensive rebounds, which is one of the best defensive rebounding nights for the Celtics.
But then, what do you do on offense? The Thunder is a fierce transition team, but at the same time they have that obvious rebounding weakness. To keep applying pressure, the Celtics did crash the glass—but less with Garza and Queta than usual, and more with the wings.
This was a smart approach to be aggressive without giving up too much on the glass and getting exposed in transition.
#6 – Mismatch hunting
This game felt like a good old Celtics game for that reason too. It has been a while since we have seen both Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown hunt mismatches like they did yesterday with Ajay Mitchell.
They did their best to force the Belgian into switches so they could attack that mismatch and eat that waffle. Look how strong Tatum’s screen is here—there are no other options.
This other play is an even stronger example. They know Mitchell will switch unless it’s onto Brown. But the Celtics really want that matchup. On the first screen, Mitchell doesn’t switch, but he switches on the second (from Pritchard to White), then a third screen comes—and that’s Brown again. This time, he can’t escape.
Both Jays showed patience and great determination in getting these switches and making the Thunder pay for having a great offensive threat with defensive limitations.
#7 – No center, no problem
The Celtics also went back to that small-ball lineup we saw earlier, with Jayson Tatum as the tallest man on the court. This time, the defense was much more solid. They understood that for this approach to work, they had to be extremely aggressive and stay connected in their rotations.
This defensive play is a great example of how committed they were, and we saw our first block of the season from Jayson on that help at the rim.
And if the defense holds well enough with that small-ball lineup, then it becomes a great opportunity to get the offense going. With only shooters and drivers on the court, it is tough for the defense to keep up because they cannot double, but one-on-one defense becomes a trap against such elite isolation players. On top of that, look at that spacing.
This approach forced the Thunder to match it, showing that the Celtics were the ones dictating the rules last night.
#8 – Pritchard making a difference
Of course, Pritchard was attacked whenever he was on the court and sometimes weakened the defensive structure. However, the spacing he brings is so valuable against a team that is willing to stunt hard but can also recover quickly. That’s why his ability to shoot from so deep, again and again, is huge for the Celtics in these matchups.
The big bonus of his profile is his drive. If the closeout is too aggressive, he has the ability to get into the paint—and he has his spots there too. Here, against Chet Holmgren in the paint, he doesn’t panic, uses his footwork and soft touch to shoot over the seven-footer.
In a close game like yesterday, that scoring boost is vital. But he wasn’t the only one off the bench.
#9 – Baylor Scheierman two-way impact
Before getting into the details, watch this sequence from Baylor.
The positioning on offense is perfect. He does a great job of taking his time to get the best shot possible after Jaylen Brown’s smart pass to the corner. Then, back on defense against the MVP, he doesn’t panic.
He stays connected, denies him, and forces the offense to play at a slower tempo than expected. Once SGA has the ball, he does a great job of using his hands without fouling until they force a turnover from the MVP. Great work.
As usual, he crashed the boards, scored a putback, and kept providing playmaking on both ends of the floor. Impressive shooting night too, as he provided much-needed spacing. Funny enough, he beat SGA twice with the same move from the corner.
#10 – Give me seven of these
The previous matchups over the last two years have been such great games that we deserve seven of these in June. As SGA said, there is a playoff feel in these games. Now let’s make it an NBA Finals feel.
