Mavericks vs Celtics Game 1 Thoughts — Defense, PNRs ineffective, Lots of Hunting

The Boston Celtics didn’t waste any time on the biggest stage in the NBA. They came out in the way that you’d expect the best team in the league to do so. They came out strong on both ends of the floor and quickly took control of the game.

And here’s a fun stat! Teams are 51–21 when they have a lead after the first quarter in the playoffs this year — 15–3 when having a double digit lead.

The Celtics managed to game plan for the Mavericks perfectly on both ends of the floor. They pressed all the right buttons — taking away the Mavericks' strengths and what they wanted to do, but also exploiting all of their weaknesses on both ends.

Now, the series is far from over. The Mavericks did leave a lot on the table on the offensive end. There’s the simple strategy of playing better when it comes to Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, both who missed many good looks. There are answers on that end(we’ll be going through some of those). But the questions and concerns on the defensive end are more critical, and that will be the difference maker.

With that said, let’s go over everything that stood out to me in the game!

Mavericks’ Offense, Celtics’ Defense

This was the story of “this” particular game, as they held the Mavericks to 89 points where they had a 94.7 defensive rating.

The simplest explanation is that the Celtics didn’t allow themselves to get into rotations. That’s it. The “how” is more nuanced than that, but everything just went back to the fact that they didn’t need to help or rotate to give the Mavericks(Doncic) any option to pass.

They made them beat you off the dribble and in isolation. That’s why you had this from the Mavericks

If you want to know more specifically about all of the different ways that the Celtics defended them, here’s an article I wrote yesterday on just that! To summarise, though:

• Switching everything that doesn’t involve Kristaps Porzingis
• Have Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Jrue Holiday, and Al Horford matched up with the bigs
• Don’t send strong help on Doncic or Irving, but instead, prioritise sticking with shooters
• Show enough help off the wings on the drives, but also be able to recover back to the shooters once Doncic picks up his dribble
• Pre-switch a lot to keep Porzingis out of actions
• Pressuring Doncic with Holiday
• Elite-level point-of-attack effort from Brown and Holiday
• Having Porzingis on wings to limit the effectiveness of the pick-and-rolls
• Make sure to keep Porzingis is able to stay in the paint to deter and contest shots(he had a great game defensively)
• Provide great weakside help from the wings

There was a lot that the Celtics did defensively, but it all started and revolved around taking away the PNR game from Doncic by switching, then not having to overhelp and having Porzingis be ready to help in the paint.

I don’t expect any of that to change. The Celtics have found what works for them on the defensive end and it’s now on the Mavericks to figure out how to counter it.

As mentioned, the Mavericks offense is a lot of PNRs. They cooked the Minnesota Timberwolves with it, whether it was Doncic cooking vs that drop or finding his bigs on lobs. That disappears against switches.

Their first solution on offense(whenever Porzingis isn’t on the floor) is to be better in isolation and punish the Celtics for not sending help and giving up those switches. Doncic and Irving simply need to be better at attacking Horford, Porzingis, Hauser, and Pritchard. Nothing will change unless they do that because that is the Celtics’ foundation for their defense.

The other solution is once Porzingis is on the floor and pretty much everything will revolve around that because he takes away so many things in different ways. It’s first figuring out how to get him involved in the first place and away from the paint.

When Porzingis is away from the action, any of the PNRs will just be switches, and now you also have the 7ft 3 guy around the paint. That just won’t work. The Mavericks need to figure out an effective way to get him out somewhere else.

But another issue arises that if you do want involve him in the actions, he’s on the wings(Derrick Jones Jr, PJ Washington, Josh Green) where the PNR won’t be as effective because of the screener and with his ability to blow it up.

This is the thing the Mavericks offense will have to figure out the most. How can they involve Porzingis in a different way:

One way is to run more off-ball screens before the Porzingis screen. Make the guy guarding Doncic to navigate through more screens. Or do the same thing for Porzingis’ screener. The whole point would be to force Porzingis to step up higher or even better, force a switch. They got to make him work more. That first clip with Doncic hunting Horford on the first screen and then going at Porzingis is perfect.

Those are the biggest questions for the Mavericks on offense.

Some are simple. Doncic will have to play better and punish those switches instead of settling for shots or being careless with the ball. Other questions will need more thought and more strategy to open up the paint or unlock more of the PNR offense by targeting Porzingis.

When it comes to the Celtics’ defense, they have the answers until proven otherwise.

Here’s a thread focusing more on the individual plays for the Celtics’ defense!

Celtics’ Offense, Mavericks’ Defense

After the first quarter where the Celtics did have a 148.0 offensive rating, they did slow down when it comes to the ratings but they caused a lot of issues for the Mavericks.

This is more worrying and “this” is the story for the series that will determine who wins it. The Celtics were getting whatever they wanted and I don’t know how exactly the Mavericks can adjust.

The Celtics had so many different options in various ways to attack them. Whether it was in isolation, inside-out, in transition, in pick-and-roll, attacking the rim, hunting mismatches, or drawing bigs out. They pushed all the right buttons at literally everything.

The Mavericks, similar to the Celtics wanted to switch a lot but they don’t really have the personnel for that, especially when they have both Doncic and Irving on the floor. That’s why a lot of the possessions you had were these:

Just drive after drive after drive that forced the Mavericks into rotations. They were going at Doncic so many times and he needs to be better. The entire point-of-attack defense from the Mavericks needs to be better because anyone was getting whatever they wanted.

They didn’t just attack Doncic either. They had a lot more options than just that. You had Tatum being used as a screener to hunt Irving:

This has been a thing for the Celtics all playoffs long with them constantly using Tatum as a screener to attack smaller guards. Against the Cleveland Cavaliers, you had them targeting Darius Garland, but there they were showing with him instead. Against the Mavericks, they’re giving up that switch and then they’re picking it apart.

I also want to highlight the first clip above. Tatum wasn’t involved in that action when it came to getting the ball, but look at what it does with Gafford. It forces him to help and takes him away from his man on the weakside and that allows the Celtics to run a weakside action to get Brown an open 3pt.

That’s complicating things for the Mavericks. Do you show help or not? Do you trust Irving 1v1? Do you send help after he gets the ball? Or do you live with trying to recover after helping early?

Targeting smalls wasn’t just the thing they wanted to do. The Mavericks also opted to have Lively switch on the perimeter:

That didn’t go as planned at all and you can see the defensive adjustment too.

Early on, Tatum had those drives open whenever he had the big switched onto him. That allowed him to get a deep paint touch and make reads out of that. I went through all of the reads that Tatum was making(he had 14 potential assists) individually here! But when they adjusted later in the game by having the defense show help early or pre-rotate, Tatum, again, made the right read over and over again.

Also, a good wrinkle from the Celtics is having a small inside. Watch the clip at 13s mark where it’s Tatum isolating Lively and he has the drive but you have Holiday in the dunker spot, which means Irving is the weakside help.

If it’s not Tatum or Brown going at it, you also have the 7ft 3 monster that’s a walking mismatch:

Not sure how viable this option is to simply give up this switch on Porzingis and let him cook. It’s unlikely that he’ll be making those shots consistently again, but are you willing to bet on that? Are you willing to bet he’s not going to get better looks either if the defense is just single coverage?

This is where I don’t see the answers from the Mavericks. They want to switch but we're just getting cooked. Their bigs aren’t as effective with them being stretched out. And if you run Maxi Kleber instead, the Mavericks allowed over 80% at the rim with both Lively or Gafford off in the playoffs(59% when 1 of them is on).

The Mavericks did try not to switch every PNR against Tatum but look what happened then:

Whenever Tatum was coming off the screens, look at how much defensive attention he was getting. The Mavericks were showing and sending so much help where it lead to them putting 2 on the ball. That just opened up easier shots elsewhere.

Then finally, you get the extras on offense.

Brown has been as important and as impactful on offense as anyone on the Celtics. His immense rim pressure has been key — he’s also shooting 59% on drives in the playoffs. He was getting easy looks at the rim whenever he wanted BUT if he’s also able to make the kinds of reads that he was making above, then it’s a wrap.

Look at the first clip with him drawing 2 at the rim(Hello, Gafford needing to help at the rim again that opened up a kick) then it results in an open 3. Or the clip at the 30s mark where he’s able to find Holiday in the dunker? Or the last clip at the 53s mark where he’s able to make the perfect skip pass to Horford?

If that’s how he’s playing, what else can you do? The Mavericks' defense will simply be too stretched out. They can’t defend everything.

Finally, you have Holiday has an impact too:

Him being able to make these pushes in transition, bring up the ball, and get a quick, early paint touch to generate open 3s is huge. He was constantly looking to get those drives in. And even in certain moments of the games where the offense bogged down, he was able to attack either Washington or Jones Jr off the dribble in isolation.

The Celtics offense was humming. There was a stretch in the third where they did fall down the hole of settling for shots and playing like the Celtics that blow leads because of their stagnant offense, but they as easily picked it up again.

When it comes to the Mavericks' defense, I don’t know if they have the answers for that. Do you avoid the switches? Will that even make sense? But that could give up the Porzingis 3pt or an open drive because the point-of-attack defense was nonexistent. What happens when they do get to the rim? Is Gafford inside or is he staying with a shooter? What if it isn’t Gafford in the first place, but it’s Irving being the weakside help or Doncic? There are way too many questions for the Mavericks.

Now, it is still just game one. Things can as easily change, but they’re not looking good right now.

I do have more faith in the Mavericks offense going forward. There are ways that are easy to improve on and more options for them to go to. It will be tough shutting down an offense led by Doncic. That shouldn’t be an issue that kills any of their chances in the series.

I can’t say the same thing about their defense though. Their point of attack was horrendous and the Celtics offense and smart strategies made any other help or rim protection harder to happen. With a combination of how poorly they played on defense and how elite the Celtics can be, this can be the thing that kills their chances.

All of the things that the Mavericks were doing good on defense have been taken away or limited in a way that would be hard to fix. This is a terrible match-up with what we’ve seen so far from the Mavericks on that end.

We’ll just have to see if they can pick it up on offense and the adjustments that will be made on both ends because right now, it’s on the Mavericks to make a move.