Were the Celtics Better Without Jayson Tatum in Win Over Kings?

Domantas Sabonis backed-down Kristaps Porziņģis and sent an early message with an elbow that sent the Celtics’ center flying into the stanchion. Porziņģis bled while the Celtics and Kings raced up-and-down the floor in what became a 41-38 first quarter where both teams combined for 19 made threes. He stayed in the game and the officials didn’t spot the blood to stop it, so when De’Aaron Fox grabbed his third steal on Jrue Holiday, Porziņģis met him for a block on the other end. Sacramento led 23-11 at the time, and Boston answered with seven straight points on the run.

Porziņģis blocked six shots as the anchor of tightened defensive effort for the rest of the game following Fox’ early 11-point run behind three triples. The Celtics ran out in transition and dished 35 assists in arguably the most-balanced offensive attack since the 1980s without Jayson Tatum. They generated 49 possessions in the first half, on track for a 100 possession pace that ticked slightly above their average (98.58) entering the game.

Boston settled at 95 only because they slowed down ahead by 27 points midway through the fourth quarter on the way to a 144-119 runaway answer to Tuesday’s disaster. Jaylen Brown, Derrick White and Holiday combined for 23 assists and four turnovers. Once again revealing a different play style for this flexible unit, not necessarily signaling a better one compared to with Tatum in the lineup, but one he could benefit from embracing too.

“I just liked our poise and our perspective,” Joe Mazzulla said. “First quarter, a lot of the stuff they hit we were willing to at least withstand for a little while … we did a great job of just staying with it, and I thought we took it to another level, two 25-point quarters in the second and the third. I thought we were playing their pace for a portion of the game, then I thought we turned it to our style of basketball and that’s when it turned. Getting stops, making the shots even more uncomfortable, pickup points were good, reading the screens at the point of attack … protecting the point … they only had six points in transition.”

Porziņģis return made the biggest difference on both ends as an easy target against Kings mismatches, particularly in the third quarter when he drew a flagrant foul on Sabonis while hitting a spot-up two over Kevin Huerter. That meant more than taking Tatum out of the picture compared to Tuesday. Porziņģis stayed in the game after turning his ankle and attacked Huerter for two more free throws, boosting Boston ahead on entry passes from Boston’s guards.

The Celtics led 79-67, and flowed between Holiday, White and Brown to go ahead by 20 minutes later in a 39-24 frame that effectively ended the game early into the fourth after Mike Brown exhausted his timeouts.

While a 95 pace would rank below the Celtics’ average, they looked comfortable playing closer to a 100 possession rate early in obvious contrast to the slow-down that afflicted Boston late in the previous game against Golden State. The Celtics won their six-fastest efforts all year, aside from the track meet at Indiana without Porziņģis, by beating the Pacers at home at their own game on the way to 155 points, albeit with Tyrese Haliburton out, racing ahead of the Wizards through Brown’s offense, withstanding a fast 76ers effort at home without Joel Embiid and outscoring offensive Bucks and Nets teams.

That’s not a knock on Tatum, who plays at a 99.04 pace, compared to Brown’s 100.99, but an example of a faster way to play that Boston would benefit from playing more often. Mazzulla always talks about winning in different ways, and he’s emphasized in the past how a faster pace means getting into offensive spacing sooner and finding easier reads. The Celtics have also won their five slowest-paced offensive games this season, so they can do both. One of them, Boston’s narrow win at Memphis, showed how difficult that approach can make offensive execution.

“You have to run with them a little bit, get easy baskets,” Mazzulla said on Wednesday. “And you’ve gotta execute … I think we’ve taken a turn offensively as a team in the last 7-8 games with our offensive execution, our purpose, our potential assists, our screen assists. We’re making the right screen read versus the coverage, and I think Jaylen’s spearheaded our transition attack, making the right play in transition and being a playmaker in general.”

Mazzulla credited adjustments on the defensive end slowing Sacramento while offensively, the Celtics broke into a pick-and-roll attack that highlighted the team’s top two playmakers in those sets to begin the year. White topped the team with 1.06 points per 100 possessions entering Wednesday (87th percentile) and Brown ranked second with 0.89 PPP. Tatum didn’t fall far behind him at 0.80, but that only ranks in the 35th percentile of NBA players and follows similar production over the past two years. Mazzulla acknowledged that when Boston needs a good set within the chaos of the game, they often look to White for a pick-and-roll set. The Celtics only ranked 17th in pick-and-rolls prior to Wednesday.

Tatum has handled the bulk (6.4 poss. per game) of those sets alongside the most ball time on the team. That’s led to some remarkable shooting, isolation and post-up success playing through him early in the season, but also a cold spell that culminated in some of his sloppier shot selection and finishing games over the past week or two. It showed the downsides of an offense that ranked bottom-10 in passes and assists. Tatum’s ankle injury further hampered his play at the Warriors and he’s now day-to-day ahead of two games to cap the road trip in Los Angeles.

Like last Friday against Orlando, the Celtics stumbled into an effective alternative play style with one of their stars out at Sacramento. Boston returned to double-big lineups effectively and beat the Magic again on Sunday despite thriving by playing small in the first game. The Celtics can go back to a more methodical approach, obviously, playing through Tatum’s gravity. Yet when games go sideways in crunch time because things slowed down, leading to more frantic than rhythmic passing like late in the Warriors game, an alternative approach is now on film. One the Celtics aspire to reach, but haven’t accomplished consistently despite early success.

They did on Wednesday, when many expected a different result short-handed, by adding 10.8 points per 100 possessions in transition, according to Cleaning the Glass, whereas they lost 2.6 at Golden State. Going from 40% shooting at the rim to 70% in a day helps, but they also went there 29% of the time compared to 17%. A product of playing faster.

“We’re playing really intentional in the first 6-8 seconds of the shot clock,” Mazzulla said after the Celtics’ highest-paced victory this year over Indiana. “About where we can get an advantage, whether it’s the guy who has the ball or whoever’s ahead of it … (Tatum was) getting to his spot faster, he’s getting to his move faster and when he sees the defense, he’s slowing down to make the right read.”