What Happened to the Celtics Offense Late in Spurs Win?

Jayson Tatum hit a baseline jumper, Robert Williams III cut off Romeo Langford and Al Horford tipped Tatum’s second missed free throw back into Boston’s hands to secure a 121-116 win over the Spurs and 2-2 road trip.

The final six minutes, and 53-point second half, called into question festering offensive issues for the Celtics, who led 112-101 before missing 6-of-7 and turning the ball over twice to allow San Antonio back within a possession. The Nuggets tied Boston in offensive rating atop the league at 117.2 points per 100 possession, a mark that’s down to 113.2 (9th) since Nov. 30 and fell to 103.9 in Saturday’s second half.

If relaxing in the fourth quarter, where the Celtics post their worst offensive rating of all four (114.3) this season, is Boston’s biggest issue, the field would envy such a problem. Seeing the lapse in effort repeatedly during the road trip raised some concern though, even from Joe Mazzulla during Boston’s best win at Dallas, telling the group during a timeout huddle to remember what made them successful.

Mazzulla enjoyed 29 assists on 41 made baskets that night, which fell to 30 out of 47 in San Antonio despite better shooting. The Celtics finished 20-of-46 after halftime, only generating 17 three-point attempts and watching their stars spray 3-for-11 on two-point jump shots. They allowed the Spurs to shoot 52% in the other direction, and lost the second half, 59-53.

The difference in Boston’s offensive activity before and after halftime stands out. Tatum, scoring 1.04 points per possession as a roller and 1.20 as a cutter, plays that diminished in the second half. Marcus Smart, often Tatum’s partner in the two-man game, fell injured with a left knee contusion in the third quarter and didn’t return.

Derrick White took on playmaking duties late while Malcolm Brogdon searched for and found his own shot. White served 11 assists and didn’t commit a turnover in his return to San Antonio, drawing a charge. He hesitated to create off the dribble though.

Despite a stellar bailout lob to Williams IIIin the closing moments of the game, the ball fell in Tatum and Brown’s hands to create often. They both committed offensive fouls and killed clock instead of searching for quality shots.

The power of the Celtics’ offense, shooting and spacing it creates have been the easy lanes they create to the basket for Brown and Tatum. Both shoot around 70% at the basket, and while Brown ranks among the best mid-range shooters and Tatum improved early this year, but they settled for pull-up jumpers too often.

When they wait until late in the shot clock, they shoot 37.1%, which falls to 28.1% in the fourth. That’s last among all teams and account for nearly one-third of their 6.2 late shot clock attempts in games.

Tatum shoots 32.3% on them, compared to 40.3% from three when he catches passes and shoots threes. Brown finished 45.6%, but struggling from three at 32.9%.

They tried to lean on pull-up threes around screens rather than passing. Tatum spinning away from the basket in the final moments of the shot clock resembled early 2022.

Defenses can load up when Brown and Tatum dribble, changing the movement of Boston’s offense from downhill to side-to-side. When the Celtics drove-and-kicked in the first half, they created 10 wide open threes, compared to six after halftime. Their pressure on the rim, hitting 14-of-22 shots at the rim, fell to 11-of-18 in the second.

“We had the intention to fight for the greatest shot,” Mazzulla said Saturday. “I think our offense and our spacing and our personnel allow us to get really good looks, but I thought we fought for great looks and that’s something we can continue to work on.”

They mixed in some intriguing looks in the second half, faking out the Spurs’ defense with handoffs common in their playbook that turned into back cuts. Williams III continues to get more acclimated with the offense, and his 1.40 PPP on 1.7 put back tries made a difference immediately upon his return. His ability to grab offensive boards adds to his leverage on the roll to free drivers.

The Celtics let him touch the ball 36 times, compared to the 24.7 he had been averaging. They wouldn’t have won without finding him late.

“The one thing we need to work on is our late game execution with our big lineup,” Mazzulla said. “Which is something that we haven’t seen. Just getting back to that.”

Mazzulla liked the majority of the shots Brown and Tatum attempted in the second half, pointing toward improvements in execution late, including his own early usage of a timeout with 37 seconds left that would’ve given the Spurs a two-for-one if Tatum missed his shot.

He didn’t, hitting a tough leaner over Romeo Langford and improving to and the Celtics escaped with a win to improve to 43.8% on clutch shots 14th out of the 35 players with the most shots in those situations.

They’ve won 11-of-16 clutch games, a marked improvement from their fourth quarter fiascos of a year ago. They weren’t capable of running some of the sets they did, even sporadically, in the second half on Saturday.

Managing the leads, again, an enviable issue, might be the biggest problem. They fall to 96.7 pace in clutch situations, 25th in the league and well below their standard. Their defense, 13th, slips below their capabilities too. Like Mazzulla preached in the huddle, and Ime Udoka talked about at this time last year, they can’t get bored with habits that worked all game.

“When we’re at our best, we have that balanced attack,” Mazzulla said after beating Dallas. “And our bench guys are playing with poise, with aggression on both ends of the floor. We’ve seen the best version of ourselves, we’ve done it for a good amount of time. Can we continue to do it over and over and over again?”