Al Horford and the Celtics connect to 50% (20 for 40) of their 3 -point attempts in match 3.
New York – It might be difficult to believe given the way these qualifying series took place, but when a team leads 20 points, it generally wins.
There was no incredible return in match 3 of the semi-finals of the Eastern Conference between the Boston Celtics and the New York Knicks on Saturday. The Celtics built a huge advance for the third consecutive match and, this time, they did not give up, by making a 115-93 victory which reduced the series of the Knicks series to 2-1.
It was the reigning champions who did what they did most of the time, they faced this particular opponent, with whom they correspond favorably. They took advantage of the weaker defenders, created open shots and have (finally) overthrowed them. Five Celtics scored at least 15 points, led by Kia NBA Sixth Man of the Year Payton Pritchard, who had 23 on the bench.
Here are some notes, quotes, figures and films while Boston won his fifth consecutive match at the Madison Square Garden and the road teams improved at 6-0 in the two semi-finals of the Eastern Conference.
1. Celtics connect beyond the arc
After two difficulties, the Celtics start to connect early and often in match 3.
Matches 1 and 2 concerned the offensive of the Celtics less than one point by possession, despite better shots than the Knicks, the offensive seeming particularly anemic while Boston exploded two tracks of 20 points after half-time.
In Match 3, the Celtics looked much more like the team that ran into second offensive in regular season, their 115 points on only 89 possessions being their most effective performance in the playoffs.
Their rotation rate was lower than that of games 1 or 2, but improved efficiency mainly concerned Celtics making open blows.
After having drawn 12 for 48 (25%) over 3 points of Open-Opt in the first two games, the Celtics were 12 for 19 (63%) out of the 3 large open on Saturday, according to the second follow-up of the Spectrum. Pritchard (5-Pour-8) made as many 3 wide open in match 3 As the whole team did Three days earlier.
When he was asked why his team could prevent the Knicks from making a return on Saturday, the coach of the Celtics Joe Mazzulla stressed everything but a shot.
“Having no live ball turnover,” he said, “valuing basketball, bouncing and not putting them on the free throw line.”
But the team that won the possession game (obtaining more shots and travel on the line) is now 0-3 in this series. While the Celtics had only 12 reversals in match 3, the Knicks were only 11 years old. And New York won the rebound battle for the first time.
The thing “ol” make-gold-maniss league “may seem simplistic, but sometimes … it’s really East A league to do or miss.
2. The defense of the Celtics arrives inside inside
At the other end of the floor, this is a match of an offense among the first five and a defense among the first five. Until now, the Top Five of La Défense has won, the Celtics having held the Knicks at only 101.4 points per 100 possessions during the three games. It was 15.9 less for 100 that New York scored in the regular season and 8.4 less that he scored in the first round.
And while the 3 -point shot (20 for 40 against 5 for 20) was the big difference in this game, the Knicks were not able to mark in a coherent way. They outstripped the Celtics, 48-34, in painting, but these 48 points survived 48 shots.
The 50% shot in the paint is not good. The league average in painting this season was 57.1% with the worst paint shooting team (Charlotte) with 52.0%. And it was only the 14th time of their 91 games that the Knicks (eighth in the regular season at 58.5%) fired 50% or worse in the paint.
Three of these 14 games (including match 1 of this series) came against the Celtics, which ranked second as a percentage of goals on the opponent’s field in the paint (54.8%) in the regular season and are now 24-2 when their opponent fired 50% or worse inside.
This painting defense on Saturday included spectacular blocks. The Celtics had eight houses of five different players in match 3.
After having totaled 39 transitional points in matches 1 and 2, the Knicks had only eight in match 3, according to Synergy Tracking. And the first block of the Celtics was Luke Kornet stifling a transitional attack by Josh Hart at the start of the second quarter:
Rim Protection is not only for the Bigs, and Derrick White entered the act when he was apparently beaten by Jalen Brunson on a cup at a door derived later in the second:
Large effort, big timing. And the knicks now have 5-9 when they drew 50% or worse in the paint.
3. Knicks starting slowly, not having enough from the starting group
The Knicks cannot keep the Celtics on Tilt, and locking the open looks of Boston will be a game key 4.
Returns are cool, but returns cannot be counted, especially when you have already set the record (within 29 years of Play-By-Play data) for most 20-point feedback in a single Playoff series.
If the Knicks will win this series, they will have to go for better departures. They lost the last two quarters by a total of 27 points and only scored 58 points out of 72 possessions in the first quarter (0.81 per) in the series.
“We have to play with more sense of urgency,” said Jalen Brunson, “the first half must be much better. We cannot play a catch-up with a team like this … regularly.”
“I don’t think we want to be in a 20 -point hole in every game. It won’t suit us well. ”
The Knicks are counting strongly on their starting range, but this programming was not very good. It has now been upgraded by 29 points in 68 minutes in this series, after scoring 90.4 anemic points for 100 possessions in attack.
The minutes of Mitchell Robinson on the bench were great in matches 1 and 2, but he contributed to early offensive problems on Saturday, pulling 0 for 4 of the line (he finished 4-in-12) when the Celtics intentionally clogged him.
4. Consecutive property illustrates the inconsistency of the Celtics
The favorite action of Celtics in this series was a ball screen for Jayson Tatum from which is defended by Karl-Anthony Towns. There were several in the second quarter on Saturday, with two consecutive property illustrating the inconsistency of Tatum’s decision -making.
On the first, Towns blit the screen and Og Anunoby stayed with Tatum, leaving Al Horford alone at the top of the 3 -point line. Tatum did not abandon the ball and, rather, returned it:
On the following possession, Horford put another screen for Tatum. The cities and Anunoby returned to the ball. But this time, Tatum made the right game, bringing him back to Horford for a 3 -point pointer:
Sometimes the right game does not lead to the best results. There were two consecutive possessions in the third quarter where Tatum came out of the ball even more quickly and both led to 3 points wide attempts, one by Derrick White and the second of Horford. But the two shots were out of the brand.
Tatum and Jaylen Brown can make big games, but the RIGHT Games generally lead to the best plans of Celtics.
5. Early offense is a good offense
While the Knicks had only eight transition points in match 3, the Celtics had 20, their top for the series, according to Synergy.
Their attack is to look for discrepancies and the best time to find them is in transition. Sometimes it was Brown or Tatum attacking Brunson when they got a transitional match. Sometimes it was a large early post establishment.
At the end of the first quarter and after a bucket made on the other side of the ground, Horford had Miles McBride in the post. The Knicks did not double the team, but they were scrambled.
Robinson lost Kristaps Porziņģis, who found space on the basic line. And as Robinson recovered, he could only defeat the 7 feet of the Celtics:
For Mazzulla, the early offensive concerns spacing that matches.
“When you can dictate a tempo feeling by going to your spacing as quickly as possible,” he said, “then it is easier to see the readings that are there. We were deliberate this evening, decent in the first two games, but it was better tonight.”
When the Celtics are at their best to make shots, they are the best team. But they still hang out this 2-1 series and still need at least a victory on the road. Their next chance is in match 4 Monday (7:30 he, espn).
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John Schuhmann is analyst of senior statistics for NBA.com. You can send him an email herefind His archives here And Follow him on x.
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