Three Things I Noticed in Game 3: Boston's empty-corner action
The Celtics are one win away from a title
Free and unlocked edition of Three Things, starring the switch pocket, empty corners, and the difference between the front and back of the paint.
The Celtics, exploiting the switch pocket
You know how there is a moment when the defense is going to switch on a pick and roll or a dribble hand-off or an off-ball screen, but hasn’t actually executed the switch yet? There’s a little pocket of space that opens up when that happens, and it can be exploited. See here:
You can see P.J. Washington and Tim Hardaway Jr. navigating this Derrick White screen for Jayson Tatum, trying to avoid a switch but also knowing they will probably have to do it once Tatum takes the screen.
THJ is literally attached to White, with his hand on White’s hip. And he’s also a little bit out to the side of him, so that Tatum can’t come around the screen freely. At the same time, Washington is dropped back enough that White can’t slip out of the screen unscathed. But that’s a problem, because they are both far enough back that neither of them is actually guarding Tatum, who just pulls a three from that pocket of space.
This happened on back-to-back possessions early in the second half, with the Celtics victimizing Luka Doncic both times.
In the first clip, neither Luka nor Derrick Jones jumps out quickly enough to pick up Jrue Holiday. They’re going to switch, but they haven’t done it yet. And it’s a walk-in three. So in the second clip (which happened to be the very next possession), Luka tries to jump out so quickly that he actually leaves the baseline wide open because there was no chance for Jones to execute the switch quickly enough to get over to Brown, who had yet to come around Holiday’s dribble hand-off.
The Celtics, emptying the corner
Those two baskets both came out of Boston’s empty-corner pick and roll package, which was HIGHLY effective in this game, and particularly in the third quarter. (The Brown drive was a dribble hand-off but it’s the same general concept.) They came out spamming this action right at the stat of the second half and pretty much didn’t let up.
Dallas had no answer for this. The Celtics generated 1.42 points per possession on trips that included an empty-corner P&R, according to Second Spectrum, and 1.71 PER POSSESSION in the third quarter alone. That was enough to build a large enough lead that even Boston’s fart-around fourth quarter couldn’t blow it.
The Mavericks, not creating advantages
In the first quarter of Game 3, the Mavs consistently got deep into the paint. They forced the Celtics into uncomfortable situations defensively and they finally found a way to score AT the basket.
But things changed after the first quarter. Instead of getting all the way to the rim, the Mavs got stopped in the back of the paint or the mid-range, and their shot distribution changed dramatically.
In the table below, “% Paint” refers to shots inside the paint but outside the restricted area.
Their inability to get all the way inside let the Celtics off the hook, but was also the result of really good Celtics defense — especially from the guys the Mavericks were routinely trying to hunt. There were multiple possessions of guys like Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser, and Xavier Tillman (and, to certain extents, Al Horford and Derrick White) hanging with Luka or Kyrie Irving off the dribble.
This kind of stuff just cannot happen if the Mavs want to win a game, let alone the series, but it has been consistently happening throughout every game so far.