The Celtics highlighted three main priorities from their shootaround prior to Sunday’s Game 4 against the Magic: push the pace, reduce the turnovers and gets Kristaps Porziņģis going.
The game feels like an inflection point in Boston’s attempt to repeat. After reaching their offensive low this season, suffering two injuries that cost Jayson Tatum and Jrue Holiday games in this series, and seeing Jaylen Brown dislocate his left index finger, the prospect of Celtics-Magic continuing for more than five games would threaten their future aspirations even if they’re still unlikely to lose.
The Knicks, Boston’s likely second round opponent, put themselves in position to close their series out in five with a late comeback Game 4 win in Detroit. The Celtics, who have played better overall than they’ve seemed to realize through the physicality of this series, have a good round two matchup in front of them. They only realistically need just over 100 points to win tonight given their defensive performance so far. But that’s easier said than done based on their Game 3 show. Especially with Holiday out again tonight.
Getting Porziņģis going
Porziņģis fell to 28.1% from the field and hasn’t made a three in 10 tries. While switching has limited three-point opportunities for everyone, Porziņģis’ inside struggles have been stunning to watch. The main culprits for his issues appear to be his catches coming too wide from the basket, lacking touch on his advantage face-up shots and creeping Magic help defense from the corners appearing near the rim and causing him to hesitate on his moves.
“They made me rush just a tiny bit,” Porziņģis said on Friday.
Al Horford didn’t talk to Porziņģis between games and expressed confidence that he’ll recover from his start to the series. Embracing physicality, something he teased after Game 3, could help some. Officials have called Orlando’s fouls and he shot 14 free throws in Game 2 to drive his most representative showing yet.
But he’s also been called for offensive fouls while trying to discard his defenders. Dribbling or backing down too much has hurt the rhythm of what his quick shots and elite touch have allowed him to do for two seasons.
The more concerning takeaway from Game 3 was the Magic’s ability to take advantage of Porziņģis’ defense by pulling him into high screening actions and attacking him downhill. Franz Wagner beat him on consecutive downhill.
His positioning has also left him less consistently involved. Significant minutes playing alongside Luke Kornet and Al Horford left him playing in the high post and corner more often. His threes coming almost exclusively coming from far behind the line have to have played at least some role in his misses across limited attempts outside. Boston could get more creative in drawing up some better looks for him outside. The possessions where they put him in the dunker spot gave him a new, but effective look at the basket playing behind Magic collapses.
Payton Pritchard mentioned getting Porziņģis going as a Game 4 priority. They want to make Porziņģis’ post-ups draw the double-teams that have rarely come from Orlando through three games. Pritchard noted that the Magic want to defend them on an island, which he said their stars, including Porziņģis, can exploit.
Of course, turnovers pulled shots away from everyone.
“We can try to get KP going tonight,” Pritchard said. “It’s huge. If he can dominate the paint, we get him going, that changes the flow of the game. If we can get him to bring two onto the ball, that can allow our shooters to get easier looks. A lot of that comes off pick-and-rolls, him sealing. Obviously, he’s always a mismatch. We’ll definitely look for him though.”
Setting up mismatches quicker
Playing with more pace is no-brainer for the Celtics on Sunday and should solve some of Porziņģis’ issues as well. The plays where he got into his position, made a quick move and simply missed came following quick transition setups for Boston. Beyond the raw pace numbers, the Celtics want to get into their actions quicker so that if the Magic reject an initial one, they still have time to set up another play later in their offensive progression.
The Celtics are shooting two more attempts late in the shot clock compared to the regular season, and five fewer attempts early in the shot clock. Pressing by the Magic proved incredibly effective at slowing Boston and forcing turnovers.
Pritchard, who took only two shots in 25 minutes last game, also saw pace as a potential way to get more involved. He wasn’t as concerned about his attempts going down as he was how rarely he got into the front court quickly and created for the team as a whole. When he got stuck in the half court, he and others became swallowed up by the Magic’s collapses and run off the line to get stuck in-between, where they’re less comfortable and efficient.
“It’s a balance,” Pritchard said. “Sometimes…the flow of the offense isn’t going through you, and that can be ok. Our team has a lot of depth & it can go through a lot of people. I still think there are times, maybe in transition…I need to be more aggressive… that doesn’t mean shooting. That just means trying attack or looking to create a shot.”
Cole Anthony, across the street at Magic shootaround, took a victory lap for the way they limited Pritchard. He also stressed continuing to force Brown and Jayson Tatum into tough two-pointers. Tatum has shot 50% from the mid-range in the series while doubling his attempts, but missed all five in the second half on Friday. Brown, usually strong in that area and physical playing through crowds and big defenders inside, lost the chance to do so when Joe Mazzulla held him out for most of the final five minutes of Friday’s loss after picking up his fifth foul.
“I don’t think he even got a three-point attempt up,” Anthony said. “So I think that was big, and then obviously forcing Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum into a lot of contested twos, and that took away from a lot of his shots. So I think that was big, but we gotta just be ready to do a great job on not just him, but Derrick White too on the other side of it. Because they were X-factors in the first two games. The biggest thing we’ve done is limit their (three-point attempts) … that takes away from a lot of their scoring ability … guarding our yard, that was the big thing last game.”
More hostilities?
Both the Celtics and Magic have mostly toned down their feud over Orlando’s hard fouls since the Kentavious Caldwell-Pope foul in Game 1. But the tense moments have continued. Caldwell-Pope and Horford came face-to-face early in Game 2. After a hard foul by Anthony in Game 3, Brown said the Celtics might have to fight the Magic if they aren’t playing basketball.
The Magic mostly brushed off those comments over the past two days, calling their fouls physical, playoff basketball, while Mazzulla tried to put the Celtics’ focus back on the details instead of the Magic’s fouling and the officiating, which hasn’t been slanted against Boston in the free throw department.
“Points in transition…free throws…second chance points…focusing on the margins,” he said. “That’s a little less than half the (Magic’s) points. You have to focus on the things that you can control … I have to be better in the third quarter with our play calling…you have to cut those 46 points down more…physicality and defending without fouling…all those things add up to the physicality that we’re talking about.”
