Boston Celtics second-year forward Jayson Tatum led the team with 23 points in the season-opening win vs. Philadelphia, but Boston’s depth means anybody could be the high scorer on any given night.
It’s one thing for Joel Embiid to guard Jayson Tatum 1-on-1 in drills over the summer. It’s a whole other thing to be matched up with Tatum from tip off, as Embiid was in the Boston Celtics thorough dismantling of the Philadelphia 76ers, 105-87, on NBA Opening Night Tuesday at the TD Garden.
The Celtics noticed the advantage early, as Tatum scored five of Boston’s first seven points, and had his number called often.
On the play above, Tatum comes up to screen for Kyrie Irving, but the screen is just a decoy to sucker Embiid into helping. Tatum quickly ‘slips’ out of the screen and spots up at the three-point arc while Embiid is busying himself with Irving. Irving delivers the pass on time, and Tatum has a wide-open three, which he turns down to drill a pull-up jumper over a late, backpedaling Embiid.
Tatum has an annoying habit of turning down open threes for these types of pull up shots, especially considering he shot 43 percent from deep last season. Putting that aside, the point is that the Celtics know Embiid cannot track Tatum on the perimeter, and so they put him in great situations to profit.
Philadelphia subbed out Embiid and tried former Celtic Amir Johnson on Tatum, but met with the same result when he basically hit the same exact shot on him a few minutes later. When that didn’t work, the 76ers tried Simmons on Tatum. It was a fairer fight with Simmons, but with Philadelphia switching screens almost automatically, Tatum could just call for a screen when he wanted to attack a specific match up.
With Baynes in the game, Embiid is able to guard him, but the Celtics continuously used Embiid’s man as the screener in screen-and-roll to force him to switch onto a ball-handler. Here, Tatum loses the handle for a moment and misses the shot, but he has a clear advantage against Embiid 1-on-1.
As hard as it is for Embiid to stay in front of Tatum in the half court, it’s nearly impossible for him to keep up in transition. Tatum ignited multiple fast break chances Tuesday night by grabbing a defensive rebound and pushing the ball up the floor, leaving Embiid in the dust and the rest of the Sixers scrambling to cover for him.
Boston’s willingness to play fast didn’t always result in an easy transition scoring chance, but it often led to other good outcomes, like Embiid stuck on a cross match.
You can’t see it in the highlight, but on this beautiful basketball play, Boston rushed up the court and Embiid got stuck checking Brown in the chaos. Immediately, Brown burst past Embiid baseline, drawing the help defense from Simmons and starting a run of unselfish passes that led to Irving’s only lay up of the game.
It was somewhat surprising that the 76ers started with Ben Simmons guarding Celtics center Al Horford, instead of Embiid, but no matter how the match ups played out, Boston was going to have an advantage somewhere. If it wasn’t Tatum, it’d be Jaylen Brown‘s speed advantage against Dario Saric, or Horford blowing past Embiid’s closeouts, as we saw with the game on the line in the playoffs last season.
Because of how the 76ers set their match ups, Celtics coach Brad Stevens fed Tatum, who filled up to the tune of a game-high 23 points on 17 shots. Tatum was strong and aggressive on the attack and knew he could score against his defenders. But if the match ups were different, Boston still would have found the weak spot of the defense.
In order to defend against the Celtics, a team has to have all five guys with the ability to defend out to the three-point line and perimeter defenders who also have the size to guard Tatum (6-foot-10), Brown (6-foot-7) and Hayward (6-foot-8). In last year’s playoffs, don’t forget, Jaylen Brown scored 24 points in the Game 5 closeout as Boston picked on JJ Redick and Marco Belinelli in the post.
With four or five guys on the floor at all times who can dribble-drive and shoot, opposing defenses cannot afford a weak link anywhere, or the Celtics will find a way to break through the defense. With more teams automatically switching screens, it’s easier than ever to pick on any one individual defender.
What makes Boston so dangerous and difficult to defend is they have five starters capable of creating their own offense against the right defender. The Celtics combined skill set gives Stevens an almost limitless menu of dishes to serve defenses.
Kyrie Irving scored just two field goals in the opening win, but is one of the best pick-and-roll scorers in the league. With Horford, Tatum, or Morris setting the screen, it’s very difficult NOT to switch because they are all such good three-point shooters and Irving needs just a sliver of space to get loose as well.
Coach Stevens will run a lot of pretty offensive sets this season but, especially in the playoffs, a lot games will come down to simple plays like this.
Find the right match up and make the defense pay. On this play, Saric is initially guarding Tatum, so Terry Rozier calls for a screen, knowing Saric will switch onto him and he’ll be able to roast the slow-footed big.
Rozier gets the switch, does a quick give-and-get with Tatum to get another live dribble, and embarrasses Saric with his quickness. In this play its Rozier, but it could be a number of Celtics.
In the first game of the season, Tatum often had the easiest match up, and he delivered when Boston ran plays to get him involved. But, as the season goes on, all of the starters will find themselves the beneficiary of the best match up.
Tatum came away with the points and the credit in the opener, but Boston sent opponents a clear message: defenders beware.
Bring your best individual effort on defense or it could be a long night. There’s nowhere left to hide.