The Boston Celtics have some real threats to square off against in the postseason this year. Even in their own conference, there are a bunch of teams who have a better chance to beat them than they did last year. The Cleveland Cavaliers and New York Knicks have both vastly improved, and the Indiana Pacers have always played the Celtics tough.
During a recent chat with DJ Siddiqi of Basketball Insiders, Cavs All-Star Evan Mobley was asked what he believes the key to beating the Celtics is. His answer was simple: Defense. ”Definitely defense,” Mobley said. “They’re a great offensive team as well. If you get stops on them, it makes it tough on their offense. I feel like defense is the biggest thing for us. And defending the 3-point line, because they like to get a lot of 3-point shots up.”
But Mobley might be wrong.
The Pacers may have cracked the code to playing the Celtics the hardest
The Celtics have been bothered by defense this year. Most notably, the Oklahoma City Thunder did this. They played a whirlwind style of defense with quick rotations that got under the skin of Boston’s offensive attack.
But the reason they were able to thrive in that environment is because they don’t have many defensive weakpoints. The same guys who carry their offense are also plus defenders. Guys like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, and even Chet Holmgren when he’s healthy.
That’s the issue with the Cavs and even a team like the Knicks. To use Joe Mazzulla’s killer whale offense analogy, those teams have seals.
Killer whales hunt in packs, and they target seals. In the case of Cleveland and New York, these are defensive weak points: Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell, Jalen Brunson, and Karl-Anthony Towns.
Boston constantly attacks those players on defense, giving them a high-powered offensive attack that’s very hard to disrupt.
In fact, the team in the East that has given the Celtics the most trouble for the past two years has been the Indiana Pacers. Joe Mazzulla even said they were the Celtics’ toughest postseason matchup. "That Indiana series was by far the toughest series, and we swept them, but it should have went [to] game seven," Mazzulla said on the Locked On Celtics podcast.
Indiana is not a good defensive team. They have a ton of seals. But they know that. And instead of focusing their efforts there, they try to get out in transition and run up the score.
This play style has lifted them to a 2-1 series victory over the Celtics this regular season, and all three matchups were high-scoring. The first was a 135-132 Pacers win, the second was a 142-105 Celtics win, and the third was a 123-114 Pacers win.
So, while Mobley might believe the best way to beat the Celtics is defense, that only works if there are no seals on the roster. If there are, the Pacers may have the best ideology.