LOST DEFENSIVE ID PROVES FATAL
When the Celtics suspended Ime Udoka for the season and promoted Joe Mazzulla to become a first-time head coach, they did more than simply make a coaching change. They changed their identity.
The C’s were two wins away from a championship under Udoka behind the strength of their defense, but they came up short because they didn’t have enough offense. With Mazzulla in charge, the style shifted to an offensive-first approach.
Ultimately, the Celtics fell short of expectations because of that lost defensive identity. It’s what dug them in an 0-3 series deficit to the Heat that was too much to overcome even after they rediscovered their defense to reel off three consecutive wins and force an unthinkable Game 7.
“It was the issue,” Malcolm Brogdon said of their lost defensive identity. “I think this was a team in the last year that prided themselves on defense. I think defense was our calling card. This year offense was our calling card. I don’t think you win championships with a … better offense than you have a defense.”
Mazzulla’s offense was unstoppable to start the season as the unit performed at historic levels in October and November. The coach prioritized spacing and shooting 3-pointers, and it worked at the beginning. But when it reverted back to the mean, when nights came that their 3-point shots weren’t falling, the C’s couldn’t rely on anything else to win games.
Including the playoffs, the Celtics had a 52-9 record when they shot 35 percent or better from 3-point range this season. When they shot below that mark, they were 16-25.
Asked if his team was too reliant on 3-point shooting, Mazzulla was defiant.
“No,” the coach said, flatly. But on poor shooting nights, the Celtics’ defense often wasn’t there like it was a year ago. Robert Williams’ absence for the first 29 games of the season loomed large, and while the Celtics still had a top-five defense in the regular season, it was ultimately too inconsistent.
Their 3-point shooting doomed them in the most important games of the season.
The Celtics shot 20 percent from deep — their worst mark of the season — in Game 6 against the Heat and barely survived thanks to Derrick White’s miraculous buzzer-beating tip-in. They followed that up with a 21.4 percent effort — their second-worst mark of the year — in Game 7 as they missed their first 12 attempts from three, and it haunted them. It put too much pressure on their defense as they dug a hole they couldn’t climb out of to end their season.
“Defensively, I thought we had the versatility, I thought we have the talent defensively,” Brogdon said. “But on any given night we would let go of the rope and have a lot of breakdowns on that end.”
Now, as they head to the off
tue of making the ALL-NBA second team this season could be offered as much as a five-year contract extension worth as much as $295 million.
With the league’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement bringing
more limitations on how teams construct their rosters and additional luxury tax penalties, it may be a commitment the Celtics aren’t willing to make for a duo that hasn’t yet brought Boston a title.
During the regular season, Brown averaged career highs in points (26.6), rebounds (6.9) and assists (3.5).
But each of those numbers
dipped in the playoffs. And with Tatum reeling from an ankle sprain he sustained on the first play of Game 7, Brown had a disastrous night. He scored 19 points but shot just 8 of 23 from the field with eight turnovers.
It left any thoughts about his future in the immediate aftermath after Monday’s loss the
furthest thing from his mind.
“We failed. I failed,” Brown said. “It’s hard to think about anything else right now, to be honest. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”
Asked about his thought process entering this summer, he said that also is foggy at this point.
“I don’t even really know how to answer
that question right now,” Brown said. “My thought process is take it one day at a time, focus on getting better. Focus on what the future holds and see where we are from there.”
For his part, Tatum said he’d like to see the front office keep together a tandem that has made it to at least the conference finals in four of its six seasons together.