Can Celtics Stop Cavaliers from Scoring Inside?

BOSTON — Joe Mazzulla, taking the podium after a bloodbath in the paint that the Celtics narrowly escaped, looked down at the box score to find how many points Jakob Poeltl scored. Boston had allowed 76 points in the paint in their 126-123 overtime win, falling to 27th in that area defensively.

 

“You have to go 76 minus 35, because he shoots floaters from inside the dots and that’s a shot that you’re willing to give up over time,” he said. “Those are all technically in the paint, so some of those you have to give up. Do we have to get better at it? Yeah. 76, I know that’s a number that generates a lot of headlines and you’ll be able to use that later tonight in your articles, but I would say probably about half of those are because of the coverage that you’re gonna play on a guy like him throughout a game.”

The points still count, and despite the best intentions of allowing twos in favor of taking away the three from opponents entirely, the inverse of Mazzulla’s three-point heavy offense that draws more attention, the Celtics’ rim protection has cratered without Kristaps Porzingis. Inside five feet, beneath where Poeltl poured in 9-of-10 post floaters, including eight straight between the second and third quarter, Boston has allowed teams to shoot 65.8%, the 10th-worst mark in the league.

That’s up from 60.6% last year, which ranked third-best. Just last week, Toronto shot 66.7%, Brooklyn hit 70.8% and Atlanta converted 67.9% inside over the C’s. On Tuesday, the Cavs arrive with a 67.3% efficiency there (5th).

Payton Pritchard and Sam Hauser followed Mazzulla’s lead at practice on Monday, taking the blame collectively as a team for poor individual efforts that have led to breakdowns inside. Mazzulla admonished the Celtics for getting outplayed in every way in the loss to the Hawks, while Raptors cut inside past perimeter defenders, mostly passing up threes in favor of twos. Boston hit 21 threes and lost, a rarity, while the Raptors won only making nine. Toronto made 41 twos, beating out the Celtics’ 23. Boston hit more free throws, too.

“We accept that, but then also, we just gotta be smart,” Jaylen Brown said after the loss. “Teams aren’t beating us at the three-point line. It’s not like we want to encourage teams to shoot threes or anything, but we definitely don’t want to just keep giving up layup after layup after layup. So we gonna figure some stuff out, we’ll watch it and we’ll adjust.”

Al Horford, who’s back at center most nights with Porzingis out, guarded Poeltl for 20 possessions while Neemias Queta played away from the ball in a spot start inside. Double-big looks didn’t help much, and while Mazzulla shifted to a Sam Hauser and Luke Kornet combination that played a different coverage against Poeltl, it allowed 15 Toronto offensive rebounds.

The Celtics found themselves going back-and-forth, including to start overtime, which Horford closed conflicted, accepting the math and the win while putting it on himself and others to contest more of the looks. He also predicted they’d adjust in the future.

Porzingis returned to practice with Maine’s players in Boston on Monday, and while he remains without a timeline to return, his prognosis of December awaits less than two weeks away. Drastic changes defensively don’t make sense with the full team yet to play together, while Queta’s more consistent minutes have helped settle the unit. The drop-off coming from lacking effort on that end comes early into the path to repeating. Malaise usually strikes into the winter months. Mazzulla found himself repeating, individual defense and rebounding, at Monday’s practice.

“Honestly, a lot of rim protection comes by getting blown by, so a lot of it can be fixed by our on-ball pressure and containing people,” Pritchard said. “It’s a full team effort, but I feel like we’ll be ready for next game. We look at every part of the game, different defensive parts. So there are a lot of things we need to get better at. It’s early in the season. We look at it as a good thing.”

The Celtics’ buy-in to living with twos in favor of threes reached its high point midway through the second round in May when Donovan Mitchell went down for Cleveland. With the Cavs empowering Evan Mobley and needing his offense, Boston effectively allowed him to go off while focusing on Darius Garland and Cleveland’s shooter. The shift effectively ended a run early in the series where the Cavs kept up with Boston’s three-point volume.

One year later, Mitchell’s back and with Kenny Atkinson at coach, the Cavs are actually shooting fewer threes, prioritizing pace and cutting. They’re the best offense in the league by a hair over the Celtics, prioritizing the paint on offense, while Atkinson has explained how the right cuts can create spacing as well as three-point shooters in the wings.

They have to play that way to make their double-big combination work, and with Boston’s center position currently vulnerable, the 15-0 Cavs will shoot there to try and score their signature win. Mazzulla touted their third-ranked defense after the Hawks loss. Since, they’ve fallen to ninth.

“You have to be able to do both, that’s the most important thing,” Mazzulla said earlier this month. “It’s not necessarily taking (threes) away, it’s having an understanding of whose threes we want to take away, but you have to have great individual defense, you gotta have great team defense, you just gotta be connected, you gotta protect the rim.”