10 takeaways from the Celtics looking a step behind in Denver

#1 – A second behind

Sometimes in life, you feel like you’re a step behind. Nothing big, but yet, it creates a difference between where you should be and where you are, and this small difference has consequences. Well, that’s how it felt looking at the Celtics’ off-ball defense last night.

This first bucket from the Nuggets is a great example of the Nuggets being a step ahead. The screen from Cam Johnson causes a bit of chaos as Derrick White and Jaylen Brown don’t switch, leaving a lot of space for Jamal Murray to cut to the rim. A few possessions later, it’s Brown again who is half a second late when Johnson starts moving, and that’s enough for the Nuggets to punish the Celtics.

Denver is a very smart, very well coached team. It isn’t a surprise they involved Jordan Walsh’s matchup in the screen because the young wing has a tendency to overpressure off-ball. Therefore, with all the screens and movement the Nuggets are creating, it is hard for him to keep up.

This game was a great example of what makes a team like Denver so good. They can find a breach in a great defense by targeting players’ tendencies. Like the Celtics, they scout, they learn, and they adapt their approach to the opponent, and it worked out pretty well, even in garbage time.

#2 – The offense broke under pressure

On offense, the Celtics lost the ball on more than 15% of their possessions. When this happens, the Celtics have a 50% win rate. Taking care of the ball is one of the foundations of that team, and they couldn’t deliver last night. Led by Bruce Brown and Spencer Jones, the Nuggets put a lot of pressure on the Celtics’ ball-handlers.

They also didn’t hesitate to bring a second defender to force a quicker decision and generated some mistakes from Boston. With that appetite for steals and the domination on the offensive glass, the Denver Nuggets were able to generate 10 more field-goal attempts than the Celtics. And when the Celtics lose the possession battle, it becomes a lot harder to compete against the best teams in the league.

#3 – Jokic deep-drop

It was a different sight than usual on defense for the Denver Nuggets. We are used to seeing Jokic hedging on the pick-and-roll to force a pass and put pressure on the ball-handler, but this wasn’t the case last night. The guards put a lot of pressure while the Serbian was commanding from the back.

It was an interesting way to take away the paint from the Celtics while showing bodies beyond the three-point line. While Jokic was in the paint behind the pick-and-roll, the Nuggets’ closest defender next to the screen would come to disrupt the action.

Thanks to that, Jokic had less effort to expend on defense and could compensate on offense. In some possessions, Jokic would come up to surprise the ball-handler and create some chaos, like here:

But overall, the 3-time MVP remained in a drop position, and this explains why the Celtics had so much trouble getting to the paint last night.

#4 – Denver daring Ron Harper Junior to shoot

The young wing is discovering the NBA and what it is like to be scouted by the best teams in the world. After a standout performance against the Suns, he was back on the bench to start the game. Yet, like every other player on the roster, the Nuggets scouted him and had a plan in mind for when he would come onto the court.

As the defensive plan was to protect the paint at all costs, they decided to leave him alone beyond the line to make sure the Celtics touched the paint as little as possible.

The Celtics tried to get him involved in the screening action, hoping he would draw some attention from the defense, but the Nuggets couldn’t care less about his shooting threat.

In the end, that approach worked out pretty well for Denver as Harper shot one for seven from deep in 10 minutes. This also took away part of his offensive impact, and the Celtics had to adapt their rotation.

#5 – Double-big again

Because the Nuggets were willing to leave non-shooters open, the Celtics tried their double-big lineup again. If the opponent isn’t going to respect your shooters, you might as well play big. And the idea makes sense.

Because the Celtics played with two bigs and the non-shooter of the two is Neemias Queta, Vucevic was matched up with a smaller player. Therefore, it was easier for him to get a mismatch in the post. However, it was also easier for Jokic to come help from behind because of Queta’s presence in the paint.

To make this work on offense, I think the Celtics need to work on high-low offense with more movement from the off-ball players around the two centers. Defensively, it brought more rebounding stability and rim protection. The Celtics could target non-shooting threats like Christian Braun so the paint remained stacked.

If the Celtics can build some offensive synergy between Queta and Vucevic, things could be really fun and bring a great balance against big teams like Denver.

#6 – Spread actions

Because Denver was so aggressive when it came to protecting the paint, the Celtics decided to start their actions from the half-court line to stretch the Denver defense.

Here, a zoom action for Derrick White starts from half court, with Sam Hauser screening at the logo and Queta handing off at the three-point line. Because of that space and the distance of the screen, Jones has more difficulty containing White. This created a little bit of chaos in the defense and worked pretty well.

Yet, starting from deep isn’t enough, and using screens correctly remains one of the most important parts of off-ball actions. Here, look how easy it is for the Denver Nuggets defenders to stay connected to their matchup despite the various screens.

The idea was great, the execution not so much. Yet, it gives some perspective on how the Celtics offense can adapt when the spacing is missing.

#7 – More volume for White?

Looking at the stats from cleaningtheglass.com, I’m left with a couple of questions.

First, why didn’t White have more opportunities with the shot? He was really efficient with 1.25 points per shot attempt, created chaos with his speed and passing, and yet his usage was pretty average.

In the meantime, Jaylen Brown’s usage was once again close to 40% despite really low efficiency. When the defense shrinks the space like last night, I would like to see more possessions for White to unlock Jaylen Brown off-ball.

Against such a smart defense, isolation and drives in a crowded paint won’t work as much as usual, and the Celtics need to readjust how JB plays against elite teams to make sure to maximize him next to a great connector like Derrick White. The former Colorado guard scored 18 points in the second quarter but couldn’t get anything going after that.

#8 – More minutes for Hauser?

A second question I would have asked is why Sam Hauser didn’t get more minutes. As we saw earlier, the Nuggets were willing to leave a shooter open to protect the paint – even if that shooter was Sam Hauser.

So, when Sam was the guy next to the ball on the pick-and-roll, it created great things for the Celtics because the help defender couldn’t fully commit. And if he did, the Celtics could swing the ball to the wing.

Even if he didn’t make all the shots, the added value in spacing was so crucial that it was vital for the Celtics to keep him on the court to have the best chance on offense.

#9 – Be patient with Vucevic

It took seven games for someone to raise the question – let’s be patient. And also let’s take a step back and remember that Vucevic isn’t the Celtics’ savior. He never has been an efficient scorer, never been a great interior defender. But he is a smart player with great passing for a 7-footer.

If you are expecting Nikola Vucevic to reach Kristaps Porzingis’ numbers in rim protection and scoring efficiency, well, be prepared to wait for a while because it never was the case. However, Vucevic can bring a push in the possession battle while providing spacing and great secondary passing once he gets more comfortable in the Celtics offense.

Let’s be nice, let’s be patient, this roster isn’t changing anytime soon.

#10 – Out of gas, out of air

Three games in four days, the last one 5280 feet above sea level, and the Celtics were out of gas and out of air.

This month, they played six games on the road, a lot of time away from home. March should be far more comfortable with nine games at TD Garden.

Might be the perfect timing for Jayson Tatum to come back (and for me to book a ticket from France to cover some games from the ground).”