Celtics Defense from NBA Finals Run Returns in Hawks Series

BOSTON — Jaylen Brown blocked Trae Young on a first quarter fast break as Marcus Smart audibly yelled get that s***. Derrick White rejected a Young drive into Malcolm Brogdon’s hands to end the frame, sending his teammate toward the offensive end for a heave that banked in off glass. Later, White broke through Clint Capela’s screen to stuff Young at the rim and Jayson Tatum bookended the Game 2 blowout win by sprinting ahead of his block on Young at the three-point line into a running dunk with two minutes left.

Earlier in the week, the NBA released voting for defensive player of the year that didn’t feature a single vote for a Celtics player. However much that galvanized Boston, the Celtics returned to their stifling defensive posture reminiscent of what led them to the 2022 NBA Finals as a historic unit last year. Switching and suffocating. It followed a call from Al Horford in practice last week for the group to not rest on its No. 2 ranking on that end.

“You could tell by the way the first half defense was for (Smart), I just thought you saw a different Marcus in that (Game 1),” Joe Mazzulla said before Game 2. “He’s the kind of guy who, even if he doesn’t get an award, you don’t really understand what he’s able to do defensively. There was even a play last game where he sniffed out the play, came across the entire court and blew the entire play up. He just has natural instincts to have an effect and I try to tell him he doesn’t need an award to get that value from us and the staff, because we know what he does for us.”

“I’m a big spite guy,” Mazzulla quipped. “So yeah, (I like the snub).”

The Celtics’ 119-106 win on Tuesday featured more show-stopping defensive intensity. Their offense only ninth in scoring this postseason (111.6 points per 100 possessions), but their defense so far surpassed its stinginess from last year’s regular season and playoffs (100.5 PP100). White, Brown, Horford and Robert Williams III efforts leading a 12-block game fell one short of the franchise record set last year in a win over the Bucks, and overcame a night where the Hawks out-shot, out-rebounded and limited their fouling to keep the margins close. They challenged the Celtics again in a 58-57 second half and pulled within 96-88.

White answered by stepping into a three around Malcolm Brogdon’s screen. He chased Young to the rim and forced him to kick-out for a De’Andre Hunter miss. The defensive possession, he wrestled with Hunter on their feet for the ball as they veered toward the Celtics bench that increasingly applauded his efforts as the night went on. Instead of taking him or Brogdon out, Mazzulla inserted Smart for Williams III and went triple-guard. White slipped out of a screen and scored two inside, sprinted for a layup and found Tatum for a three in the decisive run. Tatum passed out of a pair of double-teams to Horford and Smart for three, then dunked for a 20-point lead.

“We’re just so much more of a dynamic team when D.White is asserting himself and being aggressive, and not being passive,” Tatum said. “We’ve talked about it, being too passive and looking for guys too much. He’s too good of a guy. These past few games, being aggressive, making the right play, attacking the rim, not necessarily waiting makes us that much better of a team. We’ve got so many guys, so many weapons offensively and everybody can essentially be themselves. We can play the right way and be ourselves at the same time.”

Young fell to 14-for-40 in the series (35%), hitting only 23.1% of his three-point attempts and turning the ball over 10 times to his 14 assists. While Tatum acknowledged the Hawks’ offensive rebounding and shot-margin being something Atlanta can believe in as the series shifts south, Quin Snyder’s team looked increasingly unable to free its most important players.

Clint Capela complained of getting stretched out on defense, and on offense, he only attempted 12 shots for 16 points as Boston’s switching disables his pick-and-roll with Young. John Collins shot 1-for-8 from three. Hunter gets more looks than Bogdan Boganovic. Saddiq Bey and Jalen Johnson disappeared.

The frustration mounted in the third quarter for Young when he couldn’t shake Sam Hauser, who deflected the ball off him in the first quarter for a turnover before threw away a pair of passes and lost his dribble against him. Young fell after an early three-point attempt bumping into Brogdon and drew no call and later awkwardly missed a left-handed floater in the lane. He lost all his momentum and front-rimmed his next shot attempt as White stood in position to take a charge. The Hawks fell to 7-for-20 in the series shooting against White.

Plays later, with the double-big combination back in the game, Williams III blocked Collins driving for a layup attempt back into the Hawks center’s hands. He pivoted to the right block, when Horford met him with a double-team as Collins up-faked then tried again as Horford obliterated his shot with both arms.

Tatum drove in the other direction and hit Horford for three — building another 20-point advantage. At the beginning of the fourth, Brown toppled Dejounte Murray to the floor with another block.

Get that s*** outta here.

“We’ve been a group that’s hung our hat on defense all year,” Brown said. “We started to transition from when Brad Stevens was the head coach to Ime Udoka taking it up a notch and even now, we’re a defensive group. We play both sides of the ball and we do it at a high level. Sometimes it goes unnoticed, sometimes people depend on analytics to make their decisions, but when it comes down to it, in moments like this, this is where our defense matters the most, in the playoffs. We’re looking forward to showing what we can do on that side of the ball in these playoffs, me included.”