The NBA announced its Coach of the Year finalists last week, and Brad Stevens’ name was conspicuously absent. On Sunday night, the Boston Celtics bench boss reminded everyone that he’s one of the game’s best young coaches, no matter what the ballots say.
The Celtics shocked the basketball world by erasing a 21-point deficit midway through the third quarter and ultimately beating the Cleveland Cavaliers 111-108Â on a last-second shot by Avery Bradley in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals.
Bradley and Marcus Smart will get plenty of deserved credit for their roles in the comeback. LeBron James will take plenty of heat for disappearing down the stretch. But don’t overlook what Stevens did both in terms of motivation and strategy.
“If we play harder than them, they will let us back into this,” TNT captured him telling his team on the bench in the second half.
But even after erasing that seemingly insurmountable difference, the Celtics needed one more play. Kyrie Irving tied the score at 108-108 with just over 10 seconds to play, and Stevens called timeout, advancing the ball and giving him a chance to call up a play.
Stevens already has developed a well-deserved reputation for his diagrammed plays. There are 14-minute YouTube videos devoted to them. It was obvious he’d come up with something effective, and the only question was whether the Celtics would properly execute and make the shot.
They certainly did.
The play starts simply enough. Jonas Jerebko inbounds the ball to Marcus Smart, who has James guarding him. The Cavs aren’t going to let Smart — who got red-hot in the second half — beat them. One of the first things that stands out about this play is the spacing. The Celtics spaced the floor to start, giving them plenty of real estate in which to operate.
Stevens talked after the game about how the Celtics — whether they made or missed their final shot — didn’t want to leave time on the clock. Best-case scenario, they wanted the win. Worst-case scenario, they take up enough time to have overtime. Basically, everyone just stands around until the 7-second mark at which point the play starts, and you can even seemingly hear someone (perhaps Stevens) yell “Go!” as the play begins to develop.
The first option is Jae Crowder. Bradley runs into the corner to set a screen on Iman Shumpert, who was guarding Crowder.
One important thing to notice here is how hard Crowder comes across the screen. Sure, he’s trying to get open, but even if the ball isn’t going to him, he wants to at least give the Cavs something to think about. And for a second, it looks open.
Of course, it’s easier said than done for Smart to make that pass through James. And even if James wasn’t able to knock down the pass, Crowder probably would have had a tough time scoring unless it was a perfect pass from Smart that led him to the rim. That’s because both Shumpert and J.R. Smith (who was guarding Bradley as the play began) both bit on Crowder’s cut and went chasing him through the lane.
That was, um, a mistake. Smith really screws the pooch here by leaving Bradley, and there’s a moment where both Shumpert and Smith realize at pretty much the exact same time they’ve made a mistake.
Because as they’re lamenting that lapse, Bradley — the original screener — is popping out to the wing in front of the Boston bench, where he’s now the screenee.
And that’s where Al Horford comes into play. It appears Horford was going to screen Smith (or Shumpert, if Cleveland switched on the initial screen), but since both Shumpert and Smith chased Crowder, there’s no one there to screen. Horford quickly realized that and instead screens his own man, Tristan Thompson, allowing Bradley to not only get open but stay open.
Even with Bradley getting open, Smart still has to make the right pass. And he makes a perfect pass. It’s perfectly timed, and it hits Bradley in stride, just as he’s starting to get in a good shooting position. Had Bradley not caught the pass, it would have hit him right in the “ST” in “BOSTON” on his jersey.
Again, notice Horford’s screen.
And Bradley obviously takes care of the rest. He’s been terrific at moving without the ball this entire series — it was one of Boston’s only sources of offense through two games — and this is no different. He goes down and sets the screen for Crowder and then cuts hard back toward the 3-point line and is crisp around the Horford screen. Again, he gets himself in perfect shooting position and squares to the basket. Even the shot itself is textbook with perfect shooting rotation that helps Bradley get the shooter’s bounce.
The Celtics weren’t going to take their chances, though. As Bradley puts up the shot, Horford, Smart and Jerebko all follow the shot with hopes of getting the would-be rebound.
Of course, there was no rebound, and only one-tenth of a second remained on the clock as the ball fell through the net.
Just how they drew it up.
