The Boston Celtics reclaimed their lead in the series in Game 3 of the NBA Finals. Once again, the Warriors are the best team of all time for twelve minutes – but once again the mentality monster from Boston strikes. The findings.
1. NBA Finals: Boston Tactical Knives Fruits Vs. Warriors
After Game 2, calls came from many corners of the basketball world for the Celtics to play more small ball, and coach Ime Udoka followed suit. For at least three quarters before returning to his familiar lineup of two bigs (Al Horford and Robert Williams III). In a way, both turned out to be the right decision, Udoka’s adjustments bore fruit both before and during the 116:100 win against the Warriors.
It started with an increased focus on small ball. Although the same starting five as in games 1 and 2 started with just Horford and Williams III, Udoka took the latter off the field after 3:15 minutes of play to replace him with Derrick White – much earlier than usual. So Horford was the only big, later Boston played a few minutes with Williams III as the only center and also with Grant Williams, who anyway only acts as a floor spacer.
This paid off especially when it came to spacing, one of the problems in Game 2. Boston’s small ball widened the playing field, opening up the zone for drives. In the first quarter it was mainly Jaylen Brown who shook off his defender Draymond Green several times and created from his penetrations either for himself or for his teammates. With Golden State also calling the small ball, the dubs lacked almost any ring protection.
The statisticians then counted 18 plays by the Celtics directly at the ring, four times the home side drew a foul, the result of the other 14 plays was 10 goals. Noisy Second Spectrum Boston scored 1.4 points per drive in the first half – an outstanding value. However, the Warriors’ weak point-of-attack defense must also be mentioned, which too often let Boston’s guards into the zone too easily. In addition to Green, this also applied to Stephen Curry, who acted too passively and loudly due to his foul problems ESPN allowed an enemy hit rate of 8/12 FG.
But there was another reason for the success of these lineups. In a direct comparison of the small-ball lineups of the Warriors and Celtics, Boston has significantly more size and athleticism in their hand luggage, which was noticeable in the rebound numbers (15:6 offensive rebounds, 22:11 second chance points).
NBA Finals: Boston Celtics find several working lineups
Despite this pandering, the Celts’ small lineups began to struggle in the third quarter, especially with Curry heating up against Horford’s drop coverage. Udoka’s adaptation: In the final section he trusted his starting five again for long stretches, which now dominated the boards even more with their size (4 offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter).
And thanks to the strong performance of Williams III, the already excellent defense left the dubs with little room to breathe. “Not only his blocks, he influenced many throws with his presence alone and prevented the opponents from moving into the zone,” praised Coach Udoka. “He was extremely important to us.”
Since “Time Lord” looked much more agile, much more mobile, he enabled Coach Udoka to have several functioning, variable lineups, which was not the case in game 2. The Warriors, on the other hand, seem to be still looking for the top five.
2. NBA Finals: The mentality monster from Boston
During a hiatus when Boston faltered after multiple turnovers, Coach Udoka made use of what is perhaps his greatest strength: powerful language. “Would you guys please stop playing like assholes?” he said, according to Steve Bulpett of Heavy.com asked his boys. The message got through.
Daniel Theis, who incidentally fell completely out of rotation in Game 3, also praised Udoka’s “direct communication” in an interview with SPOX in mid-April. The rookie coach doesn’t mince his words and doesn’t even spare his stars with flowery words. That goes down well with Theis and his colleagues. And works.
Firstly, in terms of turnover (more on that in a moment). To others but also in terms of attitude and hardness. Udoka has transformed his team from a bickering bunch into a mentality monster over the course of the season. This Celtics team isn’t that easy to break down, and they’ve proven that many times in the playoffs.
In this postseason, Boston has lost a total of seven games, each time the Celts responded by winning the next game. That 7-0 record is an NBA split record for a postseason. In game 2 of the finals, they let Draymond Green and his intensity take the butter off their bread, but that was the end of it.
“We kept up better with their physique and intensity than in the last game,” emphasized Udoka. “We didn’t like how we flopped in the last game. That was our focus.” Boston now has to maintain this attitude for Game 4 on Saturday night: “The message to the team is: ‘We can do it after defeats. Now we have to do it after wins too.'”
That will not be easy. Because: The Warriors are in these playoffs with a record of 5-0 after a loss…
