When the #1 Team Meets the NBA Champions

When the #1 Team Meets the NBA Champions

Before last night the Celtics had won 27 straight games on their home floor including a record of 20 and0 this season when it’s played in the garden these guys simply don’t lose but this most recent one wasn’t just some ordinary home game they were hosting the defending Champion nuggets for one of

Their two matchups of the Year many would consider this to be a preview for the upcoming 2024 NBA finals and let’s just say that the hype didn’t disappoint one bit the game started with a battle of the big men on one hand you have porzingis who the Celtics run their

Opening play for a cross screen to get him the ball in the middle and once he’s got that position there’s not much you can do and then on the other side you of course have jokic who the Nuggets run virtually the exact same action for except he seeks out contact so when

Chris ABS Dodges it he loses his footing and turns it over the Celtics respond by quickly running the ball up the court which leads to a quality three for Chris staps in early offense he was on fire from outside this time it’s a pick and

Pop and joic plays it in a drop coverage while calling for Porter to switch Porter doesn’t switch though instead staying attached to the ball which leaves the big man with room on the wing to comfortably catch and shoot and they go right back to the pick and pop on the

Next possession Tatum draws two which means porzingis is open on the wing and he knocks down his fourth shot in four attempts scoring Boston’s first 11 points he’s so unique in that he can play so many different positions on offense you can curl him off of screens

Like a wing and his jumper is so impossible to contest that the only way Jamal gets a hand up is by fouling him or he can play that two-man game I just talked about where he isn’t just a threat to pop but also to roll again Tatum draws two and and Gordon’s forced

To rotate down from the weak side which leaves brown with some room on a corner three although he doesn’t capitalize and in the event that the high pick and roll doesn’t materialize into any immediate Advantage then Christ apps can just use all of that space to post up in the

Middle drawing another foul with that Skyhigh release point in addition to the off ball game he can also initiate from up top like how most modern-day offenses like to utilize their bigs with the facing and passing ability to generate some good interior offense for the guys around him though I should mention

They’re facing Aaron Gordon as for yic on the other end he was absolutely terrorizing porzingis in the low post he slowly works his way to the Middle with a few dribbles before turning back over his left shoulder for a little one-legged push shot then on the next

Play he once again attacks the middle definitely should have been called for a carry but the refs miss it and as soon as porzingis plays the right shoulder he absolutely shreds him with a spin over his left the Celtics were mostly playing him in single coverage a strategy most

Commonly known as make yic a scorer and he responded by torching them even with a packed paint there’s just no way to stop this fallway jumper when Horford checked in they made him the primary matchup for Joker with Chris staps roaming in the dunker spot that didn’t

Make much of a difference he continues to attack the middle of the paint and as soon as that help comes he drops it off to Gordon but a rare Miss for Mr nugget on the finish and as soon as he got that match up against the Unicorn again it

Was right back to that block physically overwhelming him turning over his right and finding a crafty angle to finish with yic though isolations are the least of your worries the true staple of Denver’s offense is those Twan actions of course you have Jamal Murray notice how Horford’s has hant to step in front

Of the ball at first and that leaves him with an easy Lane to the basket he can also set up these plays by handing it off to mpj I think it’s insane that Derek white actually blocked the 6’10 snipers moving three but yic chases the ball down for a second chance

Opportunity and as we all know by now Porter is the last guy in the league who would lose confidence another player yic can run the two-man game with is Reggie Jackson here you’re going to see turned the corner on a drive putting pressure on the paint while Payton Watson also

Sets a cross screen for jic to move into open space on the wing that leaves the big fellow with some room to pull from Deep Reggie’s been a pretty big scoring presence Off the Bench for them this time they start with a high pick and

Roll and the Celtics are in a zone so the initial action doesn’t really create any advantage to attack that’s where Jackson’s ability to create a shot becomes most valuable giving drew a little bump before turning into a jumper in the rare event that these actions don’t lead to anything that’s when yic

Will go to work himself the middle of the floor is completely cleared leaving him with a ton of room to operate and he fakes a turn right to set up his signature somore Shuffle from about 15 ft he was getting quite literally whatever he wanted oneon-one here he

Patiently bullies his way to the front of the restricted area and that’s just way too easy and as soon as porzingis slid down to the paint to offer a little more resistance Joker wrapped his arm around the rim protector for a ridiculous backwards pass to an open shooter who’s unable to

Capitalize this right here was the biggest Difference Maker between these offenses early on Boston was on fire from three six of 12 in the first and Denver was not even with such a disparity the Nuggets didn’t have much trouble keeping up and through 12 minutes it was was just a one-point game

Because jic played the entire first that meant he had some resting to do in the second and the way the Nuggets do their rotation leaves Jamal Murray on the floor with a more defensively focused lineup running the show and right away I got flashbacks to last year’s playoffs

Because this dude was cooking this one starts with a high ball screen but as soon as Tatum plays the right Jamal rejects it and explodes left leaving him with space to pull up for a three next time down he’s matched up with the smaller pton Pritchard so instead of

Playing from the perimeter he takes him to the post and Spins into a beautiful one-legged jumper even when yic checked back in Jamal was the focal point of their attack of course you have the Twan game notice how Jaylen Brown jumps to the side of the initial screen so when

They instead flip it to attack left now he’s got porzingis out in space and drives into a floater the reason I wanted wanted you to focus on Brown is because the next time they set it up instead of playing aggressive he kind of sits back and waights which leaves Jamal

With too much room from Deep In other words this guy was going into the entire bag to put the ball in the basket his last points came in SC 15 points on six of nine shooting while the nuggets as a whole recorded just 24 with that said I’ve got to at

Least shout out this moment Payton Watson had on defense he picks up a huge block from behind then he Trails the play on the other end and steps into a three outside of that though other guys were missing shots making careless mistakes with the ball one of which led

To this big time play in transition where Tatum caught a body speaking of Tatum he started this quarter on fire on the opening play it was a high ball screen and the nuggets are just a touch late getting out to switch so he steps into a three typically when he comes off

A screen like that he’s met with a more aggressive coverage two jump out to him here so he quickly shovels it into the roller who makes a quick extra pass to the corner for a wide open three it’s crazy how far tatums come as a playmaker

This one’s closer to the end of the half but again starts with him drawing two and instead of quickly giving it up he keeps his dribble Al as he surveys the floor for the best opportunity that puts the defense in rotation and results in another good look from the corner in

Addition to the perimeter game they were setting him up in the mid post quite a bit he has no trouble getting around Watson with his first step and finishes through contact for two plus a foul although some things were clearly working interestingly enough the Celtics actually didn’t shoot well at all in the

Second after that sharp shooting first they followed with four of 14 from three and 11 of 27 from the field usually with numbers like that it’s hard to generate good offensive production but the key for them was completely dominating The Possession game Brown gets another highquality Corner three and when he

Misses christs keeps it alive by tipping it out to Tatum who immediately kicks it to White for a second chance jumper and on this one it’s white who misses the first three Tatum who flies in from the perimeter for a rebound before quickly kicking it to Brown the defense is

Disoriented so when Jaylen attacks there’s nobody to protect the rim even in transition they got whatever they wanted on the glass Porter should be the one locating Christ staps and putting a body on him but he instead chooses to go for a block resulting in a 3-2 points

They didn’t turn the ball over a single time in this quarter and picked up six offensive rebounds so despite shooting poorly they still wound up with an incredibly efficient offense and won the quarter putting them up six heading into the break in quarter number three we saw

A stark difference the star of this one Denver’s defense this play starts with a ball screen that the Nuggets switch leaving porzingis with a mismatch to attack in the post Porter comes over to double and watch how the entire defense shifts jic is ready to pick up white if

That’s where the ball goes and when it gets skipped to Holiday it’s kcp who closes out with Gordon jumping out to the corner from the paint that’s a perfect rotation that mitigates any numbers advantage and the Celtics are forced to fall back on some ISO ball

This stretch was a reminder of what the locked in nuggets look like in semi- transition yoka finds himself crossmatched with Tatum and Porter aggressively helps at the nail to prevent an easy Blow by leaving kcp in between two Shooters again look at the shift kcp rotates up while Porter

Immediately closes to the corner and once again there’s no numbers Advantage it’s man coverage but it really feels like a Zone with how they move and it’s on a string nobody misses their rotation that’s what a perfect scramble looks like it felt like whenever the Celtics did

Create an advantage it was just erased Tatum draws two and hits Chris steps on a slip creating about as good a four on three as you’ll find now the best option here would probably be a pass to Brown on the weak side but the big man doesn’t

See that instead kicking it strong side where kcp can recover to run holiday off the line that leads to another opportunity for an advantage with yic covering too but he baits a pass and deflects it then from there it’s some pretty standard paint defense to not

Give up a bucket it was clear that the Nuggets prioritize the paint over anything else yic plays the ball screen in a deep drop coverage and instead of peeling into a switch kcp continues to Shadow the drive holidays open but that’s a tough read to make and Tatum

Instead tries a tough finish that’s not to say they didn’t still have great possessions there’s a reason they have the best record in basketball a few times they were able to punish Denver’s aggressive helping by moving the ball and making all the right reads this one

Creates a long close out for white to attack getting all the way to the rim for a chance at three points white was pretty much the lone bright spot for the Celtics in this quarter he actually went on a bit of a flurry pouring in bucket after Bucket from all over the court

Contributing to an impressive 16 second half points the problem is that he was the only guy shooting the ball well as a team they created some quality threes out of Denver’s paint focused defense but simply weren’t knocking them down and with the Nuggets packing the paint those offensive rebounds weren’t there

So they couldn’t live off The Possession game anymore on the other end jic pretty much had a repeat of his dominant start first you have this broken possession that ends up in his hands for a completely stupid shot and the Celtics once again let him operate against porzingis in single coverage which I’m

Sure you already know the result of when Horford checked in it was his turn and instead of setting up in the low post Joker spent a lot of time out in space he can’t be left open because of the shooting but he’s also a threat to put

It on the deck beating Al off the dribble and drawing a foul here it is again he starts a drive from up top but this time Horford Cuts him off so he instead waltes into a floater from the nail which of course hits every inch of the rim before dropping the next time

Yic started from up top the Celtics finally committed to a double team and he just throws a little spin move while surveying the floor finds a wide open shooter in the corner but uh you can’t make them all right so he cooked Christ apps cooked Horford there were also a

Few times where yic found himself crossmatched with the much smaller Drew holiday and that’s obviously L not a matchup you can leave one-on-one so he started to dissect the defense as a playmaker this one was nasty staring down the corner to send Derek white on a

Close out and kicking it up top to Murray who’s left with a warm-up Chomper here’s another play where he’s got the Drew matchup and when he flashes to the post notice how Horford comes over early so that he can double right off the catch naturally jic responds by throwing

A 360 pass to the open cutter for a dunk like I mentioned earlier in addition to the one-on-one Mastery he’s always a threat to set up some Twan game with virtually the entire roster this time it’s Murray and I love the wrinkle of having Gordon also set a down screen so

That there’s nobody to close on jokic’s pop here’s one that starts with yic handing it off to Porter and I know I sound like a broken record but once again jokic’s own gravity as a screener makes the big hesitant to step over at first and leaves the door open for a

Huge dunk I’ve got to take a moment to talk about mpj he wasn’t shooting the ball well at all but found a way to make a big impact by crashing the offensive glass he grabbed four offensive rebounds three of which came in the third including this one on the final

Possession of the quarter that he quickly puts back up for a trip to the line after he hits both free throws we we’ve got a one-point game heading into the final 12 minutes the fourth quarter was all defense from both teams Denver made sure it was a point of emphasis to

Load up in Tatum’s driving Lanes as much as possible this one’s in semi- transition and you can see how aggressively Reggie Jackson’s playing the nail later in that same possession porzingis tries to take Jackson in the mid post but look at Gordon he’s not giving the big man anywhere to go and he

Has to settle for a tougher shot over the top here’s another example of them loading up on Tatum he isolates from an open Wing but you have Watson sitting at the nail to help on a drive right and Jackson coming way over from the weak

Side to help on a drive left the idea here is to make Tatum settle and it worked not just this once over the course of this game he attempted 83s many with a high degree of difficulty and off the dribble which is exact L what the Nuggets wanted because as soon

As he puts his head down and attacks the rim by any means necessary he becomes one of the hardest players in the league to cover whenever Tatum set up in the mid post they’d bring in a double team from the middle of the floor and with the shot clock winding down he’s forced

Into a really tough look I’m sure you can tell but the offense was really stagnant you’ve just got to have more movement when they went to a set play Chris STS in the pinch post while Tatum sets a flare screen for white all of a sudden they’ve got a great look from

Outside once the movements established you can go to the ISO game whenever there’s an advantage to attack like here Brown’s got a clear physical Edge on Murr and they clear aside of the floor for him to go to work in the post which leads to a shot at The Rim look at the

Score after that bucket 98 points with just under 5 minutes left they finished the game with 100 so if you’re wondering how much they struggled well there you go some of these empty possessions were good looks that just simply didn’t fall but some of them were also a result of

Tatum and Browns settling or the offense stagnating luckily they had a defense of their own to fall back on they went with a double big look for the entire quarter here they’ve got cornette on Gordon sitting back to play the drive while porzingis who’s matched with Watson

Is free to roam as a rim protector the idea here was to take away the paint and make the nuggets roll guys knock down shots and clearly it worked well onun everyone except for Jamal Murray it’s like we’re in a Time Loop yic takes over one quarter and when he sits here comes

Jamal it pretty much all came down to the high pick and roll game he turns the corner and finds some space to drive where he puts in an absolutely ridicul ridiculous finish through contact then he topped that one on the very next play Boston does a great job of shutting off

The paint but he just keeps his dribble alive and continues to hunt for a lane eventually spinning into a layup at an unfathomable angle clearly they’ve got to keep him as far away from the basket as possible and when they commit to the Deep drop coverage he’s stepping back

Into a smothered mid-range jumper finally they decide to get the ball out of his hands trapping him all the way out at half court but all that does is create a 4 on three and the result is a wide open jumper for kcp just like I talked about earlier

Whenever he had the smaller Pritchard on him instead of the high ball screens he’d set up in the post and the level of shot making that was on display can’t possibly be overstated because of Jamal’s play at the beginning of quarters 2 and four the Nuggets were actually able to win win

The non yic minutes pretty rare and when it happens they really don’t lose as soon as yic checked back into the game they went right back to that signature Twan game and the Celtics play it in drop so Jamal threatens a drive before spinning back out towards the perimeter

Creating a ton of separation for another tough shot so next time they again try a blitz letting yic catch the ball in the middle and this is where that size comes into Play Because porzingis can cover both the lob and the floater of course Joker really isn’t phased by the double

Big look though this time he’s backing down Horford and with christs coming over to shut off the rim he spins into a fallway jumper off the glass and here it is one more time faking the hand off to Murray before isolating and there’s just nothing Horford can do that one made the

Score 99 to 98 and I don’t know if if those numbers triggered something but from there this game turned into complete chaos you’ve got yic at the end of the shot clock attempting a one-legged three-pointer while mpj flies in for his fourth offensive rebound and

Puts it back up to extend the lead then you have Tatum isolating Gordon but this time the Nuggets don’t load up so he’s exploding into a drive and dunk the Celtics completely lock up which means joic against has to hoist a last second awkward three and porzingis perfectly

Times it for a huge block the Celtics come down and white gets a decent look from the corner that misses only for Christ staps to do his best impression of Randy Moss but he gets called for an offensive foul after that the Nuggets get a wideopen three of their own except

Gordon isn’t much of a shooter airballing directly into the hands of Tatum who immediately takes off so that he can try try to take the Nuggets three onone he somehow fumbles his way to the rim and secures it just in time to lay it up but misses by a hair and Gordon

Gets fouled off the rebound after making the first free throw yic does something I’m not sure I’ve ever seen before pretending to step into the lane to bait the Celtics into a violation now I’ll be the first to admit I have no idea what the rules on this are and I don’t know

If the refs did either because they don’t know what to do and just end up calling a jump ball what in the world is going on Boston wins the jump leaving them with 13 seconds to try and tie the game their first attempt gets completely shut down the Nuggets play near Perfect

Defense joic is out there moving and switching like Anthony Davis but in all seriousness Boston calls a timeout to attempt something else what they come up with is an isolation for Tatum he goes to to a follow a jumper that doesn’t come anywhere near dropping and the

Nuggets squeak out a win as a team Denver only shot 26% from three but they were able to rely on their Superstar Duo to get the job done combining for 69 points on 67% shooting on the other side Brown and Tatum sh combined two of 17 from three only took five free throws

Really playing into the hands of Denver defense as the team died from behind the ark with that they were still able to keep the final score within two showcasing just how Elite they actually are all that’s to say when the number one team meets the defending Champions

Us fans are in for a treat and it leaves me wondering did we just see a preview of the MBA finals if you enjoyed this breakdown make sure to drop a like subscribe and turn my post notifications on to be first on more content if you’re interested in my more in-depth research

Make sure to check out my website and social media profiles you can find those links in the description feel free to let me know down in the comments what you thought of this game as always I hope you all have a great day and I’ll catch you guys in the next one

The Celtics had won 27 straight at home, while the NBA Champion Nuggets are locked all the way in, did we just see a preview of the 2024 finals?

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