10 takeaways from the Celtics’ checkmate by the Kings

#1 – Kings beat the Celtics at their very own recreation

Final night time, the Kings beat the Celtics at their very own chess recreation. We’ll dig into how the Sacramento Kings positioned their paws to verify the Celtics’ important items couldn’t transfer as they wished.

The Kings got here into TD Backyard, shot, and made extra threes than the Celtics—beating the champs at their very own recreation. They aren’t the primary workforce to do this, however they’re one of many first to achieve success at it.

#2 – A sequence to sum up the Celtics’ recreation

The fourth quarter was nonetheless younger, and the Celtics have been solely dropping by 5… but, it felt like they have been giving up already. On a play the place the Kings weren’t even enjoying quick, the Celtics acquired caught off guard and despatched three gamers to Sabonis and Lyles, leaving Malik Monk open from three.

The guard missed his shot, however the Celtics left the ball bouncing on the ground, and it ended up in Sabonis’ palms. He was open from three too and now had an opportunity to attempt once more from past the arc, because the Celtics didn’t appear to wish to play protection on this motion.

#3 – Kings collective protection

The Sacramento Kings have been an excellent defensive workforce since Doug Christie took over as head coach. Since Christmas, the Kings have been the Sixth-best protection, because of their capability to create turnovers (Sixth) and defend defensive rebounds (1st). What the Kings have been doing is fairly easy—since they don’t wish to be focused one-on-one, they shut the hole as a lot as attainable.

To take action, they both step into the driving lanes subsequent to the ball handlers or change to a zone protection. As they’ve many gamers who may be focused one-on-one by the Celtics’ mismatched offense, they crowd the paint as a lot as attainable and shut out as arduous as they’ll. They hoped the Celtics would miss their threes—and so they did.

It seems like, increasingly more usually, the Celtics’ opponents are keen to wager on them lacking threes whereas defending the paint and driving lanes.

#4 – The Celtics out rebounded by one man

The Kings have been the very best rebounding workforce within the NBA these days—and so they destroyed the Celtics on the boards final night time. Sabonis alone grabbed as many offensive rebounds because the Celtics did.

On half-court possessions, the Kings grabbed offensive rebounds on 39% of their misses and have been extremely environment friendly on these performs. From their offensive rebounds, Sacramento scored 1.3 factors per possession, making the Celtics pay for his or her lack of seriousness and power.

#5 – Celtics pick-and-roll protection wrestle

The Celtics additionally struggled to comprise the Kings on pick-and-roll actions. The Kings are an excellent workforce with ball screens, pick-and-rolls, and handoffs. They used these actions to assault mismatches or to get forward of the Celtics’ protection.

On these actions, the Celtics additionally lacked seriousness and communication. Within the play above, Jaylen Brown forgot to change and left Sabonis open on the reduce to the rim. Within the subsequent play (beneath), he didn’t field him out after the mid-range shot, and Sabonis discovered himself free on the rim once more.

Because the Celtics needed to keep away from leaving Porzingis switched onto the ball handlers, they’d ship assist in the paint to crowd the realm. That left Murray free past the three-point line—one other approach to punish the Celtics’ pick-and-roll protection.

The final instance exhibits how a lot the Celtics lack communication on these performs. The Kings performed an expansion pick-and-roll. Al Horford switches, whereas White tries to go over the display screen as an alternative of switching.

Behind the play, no person comes to assist from the weak facet, and Jayson Tatum is guarding DeMar DeRozan from the three-point line… bizarre.

#6 – Jayson Tatum off night time towards the blitz

Jayson Tatum has improved so much these days towards double groups and strain from the opposing workforce. But final night time, he struggled so much.

What the Kings did was fairly good and easy. On each pick-and-roll, they despatched two gamers at Jayson Tatum to verify the drive was inconceivable and that he needed to do away with the ball.

The complete defensive scheme was to decelerate Tatum and drive the remainder of the Celtics workforce to beat them 4-on-3—and so they weren’t in a position to. Additionally, Jayson Tatum’s 8 turnovers present that the Celtics’ franchise participant couldn’t discover his teammates both.

#7 – Jaylen within the center

The Celtics ahead began early by attacking Keon Ellis—who has been the most effective defensive gamers this season—and Jaylen Brown simply went at him as if he have been an everyday mismatch.

Jaylen Brown used his broad shoulders to seek out some room within the Kings’ crowded paint. Due to that, he was in a position to make 8 out of his 12 makes an attempt within the paint. His post-up and drives are nonetheless bettering—he’s changing into actually good and environment friendly, even when the shot doesn’t fall.

But, his jump-shot quantity may very well be smaller in a recreation like this, the place he appears unstoppable, however nothing goes in from lengthy vary.

#8 – Porzingis post-up wrestle

Since Porzingis got here again from damage, he doesn’t appear as comfy within the post-up as he was final season. The opposing groups additionally appear okay leaving just one man on him, stopping the double-teams that used to gradual him down. This creates much less area for his teammates and forces him to take powerful photographs.

Final season, Porzingis was producing 1.31 factors per post-up, however now it’s right down to 1.17. It’s nonetheless superb within the league, but it surely exhibits that groups have tailored to the Celtics’ post-up offense across the large man.

#9 – Unhealthy execution on offense within the 4th

The offensive execution within the fourth quarter was the low level of the night time. The Celtics couldn’t discover any open photographs or good positions for Jayson Tatum, who ended up with 0 field-goal makes an attempt within the final quarter.

He wasn’t the one one struggling late within the recreation. Jaylen Brown drove right here however as an alternative took a tough shot on the rim whereas Derrick White was standing alone, free within the nook.

After a pick-and-pop state of affairs, Kristaps Porzingis was in a position to pretend Malik Monk from three and determined to drive. He drove right into a crowded paint however took the tough shot anyway and virtually missed the rim.

Everybody appeared to be struggling final night time, and the connection between the gamers appeared off—each on offense and protection.

#10 – DeRozan within the 4th

Opposite to the Celtics, DeMar DeRozan awakened within the fourth quarter, scoring 12 factors over 12 minutes and delivering 4 assists. He owned the court docket in final night time’s fourth quarter, seeing all the things and scoring above everybody. On one play, he anticipated Jaylen Brown’s gamble and punished it with a go to the open man:

His post-up and driving recreation have been inconceivable to cease one-on-one for the Celtics gamers, and DeRozan scored simply as simply on Payton Pritchard as he did on Jayson Tatum.

Whereas the Celtics have been collapsing in an important second of the sport, DeRozan rose above all of it and gave the Kings their sixth win in a row.