What Exactly Makes The Celtics Offense Almost Impossible to Stop? | LeBron James & JJ Redick

What do you think

makes

them great? What is the best thing they do? I think they do it with the past that a lot of people don't really give them credit for. I think their dribbling penetration and once they see the defense start to improve. They rotate, they do it with the pass, to be honest, over the course of the 48-minute game, they really only have two ISO guys, you know, and that's Jason Tatum and that's Jaylen Brown, obviously, pton Pritcher has the ability to play a ball with low and low ISO. Also, but they only have two Iceo guys, the rest of those guys move off the pass, move off the defense, um, you've loaded up with those two big guards or you know big wings and Jason and Jaylen. and now is when his staff really steps in, is when Derek White is playing close, is when Drew Holiday is playing close, you know, that's when pton Pritchard is playing close, Al Horford plays close. you know, and I think it's that they don't get enough credit for ball movement, um, when they drive the baseline or they drive to the 45 of the slot, and they make the defense turn, you know, and that's their , that's his, um, you.

I know their superpowers are once the ball explodes and they have five guys around that perimeter, um, that can shoot the three, they all shoot in the 30s, some of them in the 40s, obviously, um, but I don't think get enough credit. with the way they play with the pass and the body movement that they have, yeah, I think I would describe

what

you're saying as a boss, the Boston Celtics are at their best when they do that, yeah, they're at their best. The best thing is when they put you in rotation and create that in various ways, you bring out the iso stuff and when they're five out you know they're spaced out, they

almost

always have five shooters on the floor now against the Pacers bugle. was out there some because porzingis wasn't playing tilman was out there some brusett was out there so they played some lineups where they had four Shooters yeah you know just four just four just four Shooters but for the most part in their eight man rotation , when they're healthy, they have five shooters, so you mention the 45 and I think that's a great example of how they get you into the rotation, so let's say it's Jaylen Brown that gets his right hand, right, J Brown, to his right and this short guy has to come to the right, so now you've created a two on one here when this guy comes over, let's say he kicks to the corner and now you're in At that point, Boston won The Possession, yeah, Boston won The Possession because you're in rotation now, right?

X The guy goes, someone is flying to the boy in the slot and is simply hitting you with the pass and everyone is able to play with cl outs as you mentioned, so I think that space is for me

what

starts everything for them offensively and the way they can get to the ball, the game I love and this is what I want to talk about. You are there today, uh, you call it horns 2 or you call it horns 2, yes, V2 calls horns, we talked about horns 2, chest, uh, before, but in one of the other episodes I also want to talk about its horns and how they run . and we'll just put Al Horford there and Drew here and we'll just say Porzingis isn't in the lineup for this so they run it different ways and to me this is the best they do.

Jason Tatum here right, let's say he's in that kind of right elbow area using Jason Tatum as a blocker because Derek White's defender is often one of the weaker guys, this could also be Drew here so they use the guy weaker along with JB and JT and Jason Tatum as a blocker they create so much so let's say they blow their horns for flares Derek White

makes

the pass Jason Tatum sets the flare yeah there's so many things they get from this so obviously Derek White for three. if they don't change Derek White curling JB hits it now suddenly you have Shooters you have Derek White doing a layup um the other reason I really like this is because they do it I think it's a better job than like a better job than anyone else on these cut screens when there's a JT switch setting this cut screen on Derek White if you know you're changing the angle you set this and you slide yeah you get it so much and again so everything is built from spacing and but the way they are able to manipulate matchups, do you think it's Dallas or Minnesota?

Do you think it's number one? Do you think they have the right staff? Number two specifically with these horns 2 Flair, we'll talk about the other actions coming out of the horns 2 in a second, but with these horns 2 Flair is changing the right call against the Celtics or is there a better way to do it. I think showing any great team a constant death by the same, um, same thing over the course of 48 minutes is going to be a death for you. You have to change it. You have to change pitches. Know. You can't just show that you know great players and great teams. they'll get uh they'll get too comfortable they'll understand it they'll start to see it and then they'll put it out there, you know, so you know, I think there are times when you can start, you can change that action, um, but there are times when you have to be extremely physical and with your body up and trying to know how to force the catch, you can't let the opponent, whether it's Jaylen Brown, Al Horford or Drew Holiday, catch the ball right at the elbow. you have to push them off the elbow maybe just a little bit you know and you know and a lot of times you know a lot of the conversations need to be had before you even go out on the court you know you need to do that.

I'll be talking, okay, listen, this is the time to crutch, these are the sets they're going to go to because they know they're going to get a good opportunity, so we have to be ready for it, you know, but you know like you said. Joe does a great job of putting those guys in position and understanding who's on the other team when they're guarding him, so he looks, you know, with this matchup with Dallas, obviously, you've got Kyrie, you've got Luca. you have PJ Washington um Derek Jones and uh Gafford or Lively um starting with that at five in that position I guess Kyrie would be in Derek White um um you know you'll have Derek Jones and PJ, they will decide who will be in Jaylen Brown and Tatum, you'll have Luca on Drew's vacation, they're trying to take away his posts, um, because that's where Drew is really good.

We've seen how many times he's gotten over OB's shoulder, you know, lately. games you know so you're trying and you know he's a big shoulder for those guys so you want to try to keep a bigger body on Drew and then you'll have Lively or um Gafford on Al Horford or Pingas if he's available. so they'll probably have whoever Kyrie is guarding start that

offense

that we just designed and see if they can get the switch, see if they don't switch, can Tatum get a nice clean screen where Derek White or Drew Holiday gets a layup off that, of that, FL gets a three from the cut to the basket, gets a layup, this is the worst thing that can happen two guys go with one where Tatum sets the opening screen Kyrie is afraid to take Derek White's body and he snuggles up in his pajamas or Drik Jones goes with them and now Jason Tatum

stop

s to make a three by himself, that's the worst thing that can happen, so you have to go in with a defined game plan, this is what we're going to do.

Let's start with, let's see if it works, if it doesn't work, we'll be ready to make adjustments. There are a couple things I want to take out of this, but for the most part, let's just have two offensive players here. And and let's say this is Jaylen and let's say you do a good job of switching uh and this ends up being Jason Tatum and whoever this guy starts the

offense

could be drawn, it could be Derek now he's gotten through the basket correctly uh it's interesting because a lot of teams, when you get to this point and you have this 45 like you said ISO or slot ISO, a lot of teams after this guy is eliminated will send him on the weak side to the dump point, Boston a lot of times they don't.

I don't always do it, but a lot of times this is a lot of times Derek could be Al Horford a lot of times it's Drew too, they actually sit in the dunker spot on the strong side and if Jason Tatum is able to get to his strong point On the other side, this guy never helps, it's actually weird and Tatum could just create scoring and the other thing he creates is you essentially have these two weakside defenders and then you make a decision on how much I want to help you, right? Actually, you're kind of taking this guy off the court, yeah, if you put him, if you put him on the weak side, you know this, uh, if you put, let's say, it's Derrick White's weak side, this guy Now he's the short man, this guy is him.

The , so you like it. Am I going to help? Helped? Know? It's the same kind of trigger Denver gives you when Joker drives well and you have Aaron Gordon right there. It's like, do I help or do I get left behind? Do I play cat and mouse? The game I do help pitch Aaron Gordon, you know, is very challenging. We have seen how we have just seen every conference final. We've seen plenty of times where Jaylen Brown or Tatum would man that slot and X2 or three. Who is down there defending. Drew or um um Derek White would help those guys get an easy layup or if they don't you'll get a walk-on layup for either of those guys so that's a pretty smart thought about Joe and his staff hi guys. thanks for listening, thanks for watching the mind the game podcast, if you like it hit the subscribe button, thanks