In recent years, NBA offensive philosophy has seen a heavy emphasis on creating, sustaining, and capitalizing on advantages. Teams are finding a wide variety of creative ways to get two defenders committed to the ball, force difficult closeouts, and put their best decision makers in space against leveraged defenses. Basketball Immersion does a great job of breaking down the main concepts surrounding advantages here. On Tuesday night, the reigning champion Boston Celtics opened their season against the New York Knicks, winning 132-109 and hitting an NBA record-tying 29 threes. They shot it so well that they missed their last 13 attempts and still shot 48% from deep. A large majority of their three point attempts came not from complexly designed sets but from advantages that were created from simple actions and unselfish decision-making.
Of their 29 makes, just four came against a neutral defense, all four being Jayson Tatum isolations. The other 25 all came against a tilted defense in some way, shape, or form. This lack of reliance on isolations and emphasis on creating simple and relatively easy decision-making opportunities was a huge part of their offensive success. Of those 25 makes, just two came out of designed sets for shots. One for Sam Hauser in the first quarter and one for Derrick White in the third.
The most prolific way that Boston got these makes was through ball screens, hitting nine threes against drop coverage and two against the hedge. They were very intentional in attacking both Karl-Anthony Towns and Jericho Sims as both were heavily reluctant to defend at the level of the screen. Coach Mazzula put Tatum in a variety of different looks, this stack ball screen proving to be the toughest for New York to guard. Tatum did an excellent job of not forcing the action when attacking drops, he simply shot it when they backed off too far or swung it when a helpside defender over-committed. His decision making and shooting efficiency was the primary reason why Boston was so difficult to defend. New York was stuck picking their poison: allowing Tatum to get downhill and play one on one with Towns or taking their chances in rotation where the rest of their rotation is elite at capitalizing on long closeouts.
Along with the ball screen masterclass they put on, they also found four of their 29 makes from simply driving and kicking. Every time someone caught the ball with a 2-on-1 or 3-on-2 advantage, they knew exactly when to shoot it, swing it, or drive it. They also added another make when Al Horford read the defense after setting a pin down and popped to space, deviating a bit from the set and creating a wide open look for himself. Their collective unselfishness and understanding of advantage creation simply cannot be overstated.
The final way that Boston created advantage looks was out of hustle plays as four of their 29 makes came directly off of offensive rebounds and two came in transition. They won the offensive rebounding battle 11-5 and it was clearly a point of emphasis to not only aim for tip-outs but to also get up a shot as soon as possible following the start of the extra possession. Having their guards attack the glass is a huge advantage and is going to be a problem for teams who are not actively aware of their presence on that end.
The Knicks’ unwillingness to throw different coverages and different lineups at Boston was ultimately the reason they were able to shoot as well as they did. Tatum got into a rhythm early and clearly knew exactly what to expect every time he came off a ball screen. While I don’t know if any team in the world could’ve slowed them down last night, it’s clear that not deviating from the original game plan did not help New York’s situation. While it would be short-sighted to be high on Boston because of one hot shooting night, it would be well warranted to be high on them because of the type of shots they’re getting. Creating this many high percentage looks without going deep into the playbook is genuinely impressive and is a big reason why they dominated in the way they did last season.