Joe Mazzulla was not afraid to experiment with his rotations this season, and in doing so, he stumbled upon a lot of great things that helped the Celtics have a magical year. The team found promising role players out of nowhere in guys like Jordan Walsh, Baylor Scheierman, Luka Garza, and others, who spurred a lot of their regular-season success.
Once Jayson Tatum returned to the lineup, the experimentation and lineups only got more interesting, and started to offer potential ideas for the playoffs. One unit the Celtics leaned on proved to be a sort of cheat code, an unstoppable force on both ends, and that was playing the two guards, Derrick White and Payton Pritchard, with the two Jays, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.
In the regular season, when those four shared the court, the Celtics had an outrageous +40.4 net rating in 63 minutes, according to DataBallr. That group recorded a 137.2 offensive rating with a 96.8 defensive rating, both absurdly good numbers.
White, PP, and the Jays make Celtics a two-way juggernaut
The logic here is simple; those are Boston’s four most skilled, well-rounded players, and despite the positional overlap, they all have enough versatility to make it work. All four guys can dribble, pass, and shoot at a high level. Any one of them can run the offense or trigger an action, while being just as much of a threat off the ball.
The combination leaves defense with impossible decisions, and once the ball is in rotation, there’s really nothing they can do but pray the Celtics make a bad decision or miss an open shot. Whichever of the four is running a pick-and-roll with a big man, the other three are as dangerous weapons: spotting up, waiting to bury an open three, attacking a closeout, or initiating a second-side action as you could possibly want.
If you’ve watched these guys play a lot, it’s pretty clear how this grouping would be a cheat code on offense. But what’s perhaps more surprising is how dominant they can be on the defensive end. These are four guys who can switch onto just about anyone and all have a good combination of strength and speed to keep up with most perimeter players.
This lineup should create advantages vs. 76ers
It’s an especially good matchup for this series as the 76ers rely on two quick, athletic guards in Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe. White and Pritchard can body those guys up and stay with them off the dribble effectively, and it’s something that Boston should lean on more with those two guards carving them up in Game 2.
Sure enough, this quartet has continued their excellence in the playoffs, as they have a +23.7 net rating through the first two games of this series, including a preposterous 84.2 defensive rating. The problem is that they’ve been out there together for just 19 of a possible 96 minutes.
I know Joe is stubborn and sticks with his guns, but this is the playoffs. Variance be damned. It’s a short series against an opponent that deserves respect, and the Celtics need to act accordingly. That means playing your best lineups for heavy minutes, and leaning on these four offers the best chance at results.
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