The Celtics have had good defenses in recent years, but this season, with changes in personnel and scheme, they are truly set up to dominate. We’ve discussed the enhanced defensive playmaking, but what we saw in the preseason took things to another level. The players all guard their yard; they can switch almost across the board, they get in passing lanes, get their hands on the ball, protect the rim, and pull down almost every rebound.
On a recent episode of the All-NBA Podcast, Adam Mares described the defense as a swarm of killer bees, and it makes perfect sense when you watch them play. Unlike a lot of NBA defenses, they aren’t sitting back and reacting to what the offense does; they are aggressively attacking the ball and forcing a reaction, which has resulted in good things for Boston.
The Celtics were doing it all in the preseason, as they were third in fewest points allowed per possession and second in turnovers forced per 100 possessions. Basically, not only were they not letting other teams score, but they were often taking the ball away before they could even get a chance.
Most of the time, you have to sacrifice in one area or the other. An aggressive defense usually causes you to allow some easy buckets, whereas a more conservative approach to limiting scoring generally means fewer turnovers.
Celtics have rare ability to prevent scoring and cause turnovers
But this Celtics team showed that they are able to do both, and that is going to be special to watch this season. They truly don’t have a weakness or many players who can be picked on. The only liabilities are due to size, and even the smaller and taller players are adept at guarding away from their positions.
The bottom line is this roster is just stacked with plus defenders who are all operating on a string. They know how to pester the ball and crowd the area to make life difficult. They can afford to take chances because when it doesn’t work out, they have the personnel to recover and make up for it.
Things aren’t going to be perfect every night, but based on what we’ve seen, they can cover just about every base and make life difficult for the opposition regardless of the circumstances. The depth and versatility give them advantages against any type of personnel, and they can keep coming in waves with the deep bench, filled with dogs and chaos-creators.
There’s a lot to be excited about when it comes to this Celtics team, but perhaps nothing more than the defense, which has the potential to be elite in a way we haven’t seen in a long time. They’ll have off-shooting nights, and there will be things they can’t control, but they should be able to bring it on the defensive end every single night in a way that should give Boston one of the highest floors in the entire NBA.
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