The Boston Celtics have generated offense at a historic rate this season with no signs of slowing down.
That was until Saturday night when the Golden State Warriors threw the breaks on the Celtics to get the better of Boston in the NBA Finals rematch with a 123-107 win at Chase Center.
The Celtics’ offense looked out of sorts for the majority of the contest as the Warriors played a different defensive style that the Celtics haven’t seen much of this season. It was similar to what Golden State did in the Finals, taking away space from the Celtics and making them work for every shot.
Celtics interim head coach Joe Mazzulla went into more detail about how the Warriors stifled the Celtics’ offense as Golden State has shown they have the right blueprint to thwart what has by far been Boston’s strength this season.
“I thought they were physical,” Mazzulla told reporters, as seen on NBC Sports Boston postgame coverage. “I thought their pickup points were really high. I thought they did a good job on off-ball screens taking away our speed. And they helped at the rim and were physical at the rim.”
While Jaylen Brown, who scored a team-high 31 points, carried the Celtics on the offensive end for most of the night, he didn’t have his running mate Jayson Tatum helping to carry the load. Tatum struggled from within close and from distance as he hit just six of his 21 shots to finish with 18 points.
To go along with Tatum’s poor showing, the Celtics shot a lackluster 30% (12-for-40) from beyond the arc, which Mazzulla credited to Golden State’s hard closeouts.
“They closed out to the body and forced us to make a decision: Are we going to shoot it or drive it to get a better shot?” Mazzulla said. “And so, they kind of took away what we usually think are great looks and kind of forced us to make plays.”
Boston’s ball movement was also lacking as it recorded 17 assists, tied for their lowest amount this season. Factor it all in and the Celtics looked like a disjointed offense against the Warriors compared to the best unit in the NBA.
“They played honestly a similar game to us on defense,” Celtics guard Malcolm Brogdon said, as seen on NBC Sports Boston postgame coverage. “Switching a lot, making catches tough, sometimes denying the top and trying to funnel everything into an (isolation) or into the bigs, you know a tough, contested two. I felt like we fell for the bait a little bit. So, next game, we’ll look at the film and next time we play them we’ll be ready to counter that.”
