This is one of the best NBA teams ever.

This is one of the best NBA teams ever.

After Sunday’s win against the Warriors the Celtics officially became the first team in NBA history to win three games by at least 50 points yeah you heard that right these guys are absolutely blitzing the league right now with a win percentage of 80 they’re on Pace to

Finish 66 and 16 and I’m not even sure that does their dominance Justice we’re talking about a two-way Juggernaut that’s putting together a season only rivaled by the very best teams of all time the first thing you’ve got to talk about is that they’re a walking mismatch

I don’t think everyone realizes just how huge of a team this is the starting point guard is Drew holiday who’s got one of the strongest lower bodies in the NBA so if there’s a small guard on the floor he’s taking them to the block the same goes for Jaylen brown 6’6 with

Incredible lower body strength so he’ll easily attack guards or smaller Wings then there’s Jason Tatum a big 68 forward with really crafty scoring so if he’s got room to operate out of the mid post he’ll Force his way to the rim and don’t even get me started on porzingis

Whose combination of height and touch from within 10 ft allow him to score over the top of anyone whenever Al Horford’s in the game he’s another matchup problem getting the switch onto a guard and sealing off low poost position by now I think you get the idea

And so what the Celtics will do do is hunt for any possible way to get good post position that could be an early offense Brown gets cross mashed with a smaller guard and seals him off for an easy two points this time it’s porzingis who does the same and Nick claxton’s not

Even a mismatch yet he still gives him that work more times than not though what they’ll do is completely empty one side of the floor for someone to isolate and it’s all about how much space they’re able to create every single player in the line lineup can shoot so

When they clear out like this it makes the defense pick their poison you obviously don’t want Drew just bullying his way into a layup but as soon as that double comes he’s kicking it out to Payton Pritchard a highlevel three-point shooter it’s not just the shooting that

Allows them to space so well but also their ability to play off the catch Brown’s got a mismatch that he starts to attack and watch white as he fills out space to make himself a Target before immediately slashing in off the catch to get himself a layup or how about this

One Horford has the switch onto a guard which draws a second body off the catch and he makes a beautiful skit pass to Tatum who’s going to attack the close out and take it all the way to the rack for two everyone Demands a close out

Everyone can move the ball so there’s no team better at maintaining an advantage this one starts with the clear out for Jaylen and a second Defender stays close to the ball so that he can offer immediate help the first pass puts the defense in rotation and it gets swung to

Tatum where just one more pass finds Drew by himself under the basket hang on let’s run that back real quick notice how Drew was already positioned down low before the advantage was ever even created putting a guard in the dunker spot instead of a big has become a

Staple in their offense and the idea is to take what would be a rim protector out of the play and instead have a guard down there now when porzingis plays out of the post it’s like a man amongst boys as he gets whatever he wants when you have multiple postup options at every

Position the best spacing in the NBA and everyone can make plays off the catch that’s going to lead to quite the good inside out offense this season they’re second in postup frequency accounting for 7 1.2% of their scores and they’ve been more efficient than anyone scoring 1.17 points per possession this is

Something we haven’t seen seen from Boston during the Tatum era just looking at the 2020s until the year they made that finals run they were consistently hovering around 4% which is either right at or below the League’s average last season they hit a steep low under 3% and

Nearing the bottom five in the NBA in this season like I said up to 7 and 1 half completely changing the dynamic of their approach still 7 1/2% is a very small number and just because they can go to the Inside Out approach for good results doesn’t necessarily mean it’s

Their primary source of offense I talked about how they’re a walking mismatch well that applies to the perimeter as well when Tatum gets a bigger player switched onto him he’s got a huge agility Advantage which he’ll use by attacking downhill and the same goes for brown both of those guys aren’t only a

Threat to blow by but can shoot off the dribble so if the slower Defender sags off to protect the PT paint they can still find quality offense with that said they’re still primarily hunting for switches onto smaller players this time Jaylen has Jordan pool on him and you

Can just see how easy it is to get to his spots so Boston will have their smallest guys set ball screens and because teams want to avoid the switch that means they usually have to put two on the ball all of a sudden the offense has an advantage to attack and we

Already talked about what that means to make things even tougher sometimes these guards won’t even actually set the screen and will instead ghost it into open space if two still play on the ball that’s a wideopen three this is especially deadly when a shooter like Sam Howser’s on the floor you can either

Let Drew get the DLo matchup or you can leave a sniper with room to pull the trigger tough decisions another thing they’ll do is actually use the guy they want hunting a switch as the screener here the Nick Stone give it up and that just leaves Drew with a ton of space to

Attack the basket himself the key here is that with all of that space they have so many different guys capable of applying downhill pressure Tatum has turned himself into a highlevel slasher and he shooting almost 72% at The Rim so that’s a serious presence for defenses

To deal with he’s also a really good kickout passer so as soon as extra help comes to protect the paint he’ll find the open man where of course everyone’s a threat to finish the play sometimes you’ll see Defenders load up early at the nail so that he can’t actually start

His drive and that’s where having a 7 fo3 sniper Above The Brak comes in handy it’s not just Tatum though Jaylen Brown’s another guy who can constantly put pressure on the rim especially in early offense or dunker spot meaning that there’s no rim protector in position this time it’s an

Early load up from one pass away to shut off the middle and a simple kick to Derek white leaves him with a lane to attack off the catch as he gets to a floater again it comes back to just simply having so much talent on the floor Tatum’s skip pass creates the

Initial advantage and instead of shooting Drew is going to attack the close out where he draws a second Defender before kicking it to Chris abs for a wide open open Triple A lot of their offensive possessions can only be described as a domino effect Tatum getting into the defense is the first

Domino that puts them into rotation and from there every single player who touches the ball not only Demands a close out but moves the ball with speed until you wind up with a highquality corner three I’m not sure we’ve ever seen a team that’s better at maintaining

Advantages Chris staps draws a close out and moves it to Tatum who immediately attacks on a drive collapsing the defense even more before leaving it to Drew who’s made 68% of his Corner threes this season sometimes that initial Domino being knocked over will start with a high ball screen notice how

Jaylen Brunson comes way over from the weakside to tag early so when they swing it along the perimeter it’s too long of a recovery to get a solid contest teams tend to send two at Tatum coming off of screens and when he gets the ball to

Horford in the short roll look at his options you’ve got Jaylen in the dunker spot porzingis in the right corner and white in the left corner good luck stopping that here’s another example that starts with two on Tatum and him creating a four on three except this

Time Horford’s the one spotting up and receiving that second pass which really speaks to the versatility of this offense while we’re on the topic of Versatility Christ daps is one of the most dynamic screening threats in the NBA because of his rare combination of size athleticism and of course shooting

Ability you want to throw drop coverage at Tatum to keep him away from the paint good luck recovering to porzingis on a top of the key pop and then as soon as that big comes up to the level he can also roll once again you see a guard in

The dunker spot so instead of a rim protector he’s rolling into a small not exactly ideal defenses don’t want a 7 fo3 athlete catching the ball with momentum going towards the basket so when he’s rolling usually weak side Defenders are forced to tag early and Tatum’s more than capable of making that

Skip pass to the corner to create an open three Christ stops’ multifaceted scoring threat as a screener allows him to operate in the two-man game with anyone this time it’s Drew and as soon as he comes off the screen there’s no big to be found because Reed is more

Worried about the pop which leaves holiday with a red carpet to the basket here’s another example I want you to watch Mitchell Robinson at no point does he think to step in front of the ball and even doubles down on committing to the perimeter that’s an easy drive and

Kick to a wideopen corner three some teams will try to combat these issues with a switch Derek White’s got the ball halberton peels onto the pop except switches don’t really work when the big can shoot right over him like he’s not even there white and porzingis have had

Such good chemistry in these actions that Joe moula actually has them on pretty much the exact same rotation white can handle pass he can also shoot off the dribble adding yet another wrinkle to an already vast Boston offense and I just want to keep hammering that point home the Celtics

Aren’t doing anything outlandishly Advanced this isn’t a motion offense you won’t find possessions with two or three screening actions and constant passing it all comes back to personnel everyone can handle everyone can shoot everyone can pass so as long as you have guys like Tatum Brown or porzingis whose

Individual scoring threat can put the defense in rotation you’re going to be extending and capitalizing on advantages with every given opportunity with all of that said I still do really like some of the set actions they’ll go to in the half court especially out of timeouts or

To open up quarters one of their go-tos is to get the ball to porz in the pinch post before setting a flare screen for a shooter and this creates options of course if white is open off the catch he can fire but when they switch that gives

Brown a mismatch to attack in the Middle with so much space to operate sometimes you’ll see them start possessions with those open side post-ups I talked about but not to attack one-on-one rather to initiate an action Brown cuts down the middle and Drew throws a DOT that leads

To easy points this time it’s Derek white who initiates from the open side and notice how they’ve got Chris staps up top to space so that when Drew sets a back screen for Tatum they either have to give up the switch or try to recover without any sort of Rim protection

Another thing they’ll do is set these corner pin down screens porzingis sets it for Jaylen before clearing out to space and that clears the Baseline for a real easy drive and finish every now and then Missoula will get real creative this one looks like that exact same pin

Down action only for them to flip it into a flare screen for Christ daps and the defense never knew what hit him you look at any measure of offensive production and this team’s the real deal through and through you can start with the offensive rating they’re scoring just under 123 points every 100

Possessions nearly 7 points ahead of the League’s average which would be the highest we’ve seen in a season since the infamous 2017 Warriors even crazier though is that the offensive efficiency has actually been better against top 10 defenses up to over 123 while no other team is even in the

120s and if you just look at the half court they’re scoring 1.1 points per possession good for second in the NBA now I know at least 50% of you watching have your mind made up that sure they might be Far and Away the best regular season offense but how does that

Translate to the playoffs and I get the concerns so let me work through some scenarios real quick for one it’s true that they do still have the statistical signal of a team that lives and dies at the three-point line they’re attempting 42 threes a game first in the NBA and making

38.6% of them with that they’re only ranked 27th at 47 points in the paint so it’s clear that they were rely on the outside shooting usually those teams need an asterisk because as history tells us if they go cold at the wrong time it could be bad the thing is every

Single player on this Boston roster is a legitimately great shooter they aren’t relying on streaky role players to knock down shots when the opportunity arises you could make the argument that of their top eight the worst shooter is Jaylen Brown that’s not a bad problem to

Have so while I get the concerns with over indexing on the three-point line I definitely wouldn’t bet on that being a serious problem however in the past one thing that has shown to be an issue is zone defense especially from the Miami Heat in last year’s Eastern Conference

Finals they looked like a fish out of water whenever spola threw out the Zone but I think they’ll be way more prepared this time around for two key reasons firstly remember I talked about how much more they’ve been going to the post or looking for advantageous positions in

The paint that’s a great way to attack a Zone you get the ball to the middle and force rotations then you can do what you do best with all the extra passing and shooting that kind of leads me right to my next point the simple existence of

Chris staps porzingis he’s one of the best Zone Busters in the NBA because of his unique skill set this season he’s shooting 49% from mid-range and that height gives him unlimited access to Quality opportunities over the top so against the Zone having a guy who’s easy

To get the ball to and can turn into an efficient shot at will definitely creates some problems if the spot up Shooters are hitting their countering Zone that only leaves me one major concern for how this offense will translate to the playoffs and that’s the Tendencies of both Tatum and brown I

Mentioned how these guys are incredible slashers but but sometimes when met with physical or aggressive defenses they tend to go into these modes where they want to settle for jumpers and I’m not as confident in those guys as off the dribble three-point Shooters as I am

With the rest of the team knocking down jumpers off the catch I think in order for this offense to operate at its best the two Star Wings have to be in attack mode generating shots at The Rim getting to the free throw line and of course collapsing the defense to free up those

Supporting players if they check those boxes we might just be talking about the number one playoff offense if not certainly in the top three or four and even crazier You could argue they’ll be even better on the other side of the ball I spent most of my offensive breakdown talking about

Matchup hunting and attacking weaker links while Boston’s biggest strength on defense is that a mismatch doesn’t exist of course Drew is their primary guy at the point of attack and he’s super quick laterally but he also has that lower body strength that allows him to switch across the board for example against the

Knicks they had him matched up with Julius Randall a bully ball four and he more than held his own the same goes for Derek white another guard who can play up positionally not just because of strength but also vertical pop and more importantly length those things also

Help him at the point of attack where he’s quick knows how to get her on screens and is one of the best in the game at chasing ball handlers that means even if an attacker does get the step on him going downhill they haven’t won the advantage just yet because of how good

He is at recovering as an opposing player that’s just a nightmare of a backourt to deal with you have drew aggressively helping at the nail while white chases from behind and pokes the ball right out of your hands I haven’t even gotten into their other Wings yet Jaylen Brown’s even stronger even

Lengthier and even more athletic so he too can be thrown on virtually any matchup and that leaves Jason Tatum yet another versatile forward who checks all of these boxes that’s a starting five consisting of four Ultra switchable wings and Boston will make sure you know it as soon as Drew gets screened Tatum

Seamlessly picks up the ball and that’s certainly not a guy you want UB taking one-on-one here’s another example Drew gets hit by a screen Tatum picks up and Garland thinks he has a pass to the roller but holiday takes that away as well it really doesn’t matter who’s

Being screened among their four starting Wings they’ll give up that switch just about every time knowing that it isn’t an advantage and even when switched away from the ball they remain active in help so what ends up happening is that with porzingis at the five they switch everything around him if someone gets

Beat off the dribble they peel onto an open man and that’s so they can keep the big in the middle to protect the paint christops is one of the best Rim protectors in the NBA so naturally when he’s defending screening action they want to keep him back and drop coverage

As much as possible he’s not Anthony Davis but against a higher level shooter like Mitchell he’s shown to be comfortable bringing that drop a bit closer to the level with enough Mobility to recover to the paint and shot off the rim and this is just another nightmare

For ball handlers to deal with Trey rejects a screen to beat white off the dribble and the Unicorn is there to wipe it off the glass it’s tough enough to beat that first line of defense whether it’s white brown Tatum or Drew and if you do you’re likely running into an

Elite shop blocker this is especially tough to deal with when they’re facing an offense that allows Chris staps to roam off the corner as a free SA safety Jaylen gets beat by cam Whitmore on a cut and what would typically end up in a dunk gets erased this is how they’ll use

Him when they go to their double big lineups Horford’s up in the primary action and is forced to stay in front of the ball but then you have Chris St sliding down to also shut off the rooll speaking of Horford he’s another incredible drop Defender he doesn’t

Quite have the size and shot blocking ability of porzingis but more than makes up for it with perfect positioning if the point of attack Defender gets caught on a screen he’ll step in front of the ball and buy them time to recover by slowing the attack and while they

Primarily want him in that drop he also adds the wrinkle of switch ability when I say that I mean he’s a seriously good defender in space so much so to the point where the Celtics trust him to match up with perimeter players oneon-one and don’t bring in any extra

Help this guy is is 37 years old that switch ability really stood out when they faced the Pelicans Drew was the primary matchup for Zion and anytime a screen came they would have Horford switch knowing that he’s agile enough to stay in front of a drive here’s another

Example this time it’s Jaylen who gets screened before Horford picks up and Zion gets a slight step going downhill but when he tries to finish Derek white is there for a block now feels like a good time to mention that in addition to the switch ability all of their wings

Can also protect the rim Brown gets caught watching the ball as his man cuts back door and wh’s there to save the play this time white is out on the perimeter gets beat on a close out and it’s Jaylen who slides down from the weak side for a block and here’s one

Where White’s on the ball Jaylen again gets caught watching and loses a cutter so now it’s Tatum’s turn to rotate down for a huge rejection as a team they’re averaging about six and a half blocks a game second in the NBA and opponents are shooting just 63% at The Rim against

Them good for fourth because they have so many capable Rim protectors they’re not in panic mode when Christ staps gets switched onto a smaller player even if he gets beat they have bodies here’s another one he switched on to buddy heeld who has no trouble Blowing by and

With Tatum stepping down heal instead looks for a kick out which white takes away all of these guys are just so active away from the ball as Pao tries to take Tatum one-on-one you’ve got white sneaking up on him from behind to force a turnover and as a unit they do

An incredible job of taking away the middle of the floor through aggressive help just look at Tatum’s positioning on this one there’s no Lane to attack and when the ball gets moved crosscourt everyone recovers then you see some more of that isolation defense as a result everything’s really clogged up for

Attackers who want to get to the rim you essentially have a wall in front of Zion which means a kick out should be open but someone’s there to take that away as well with that said they aren’t overdoing it you won’t see them gambling or making errors which is why they’re

Only 29th in steals and 27th in deflections it’s a very sound style of help disciplined and remaining in position to not let the offense gain Advantage once you do that the offense is forced to play one-on-one a lot more and they’ve certainly got the Personnel to slow that down in addition to the

Versatile seemingly Flawless halfcourt defense they’re incredible at getting back in transition they make every extra effort so naturally they’ll make a lot of great recoveries but some of it also comes down to how their offense operates porzingis spends most of his time at the top of the key meaning that in the rare

Event they get stopped he’s the first one dropping back to protect the rim this season they’ve allowed just 1.03 points per possession in transition the best in the NBA and they have a 11 14.6 defensive rating after being stopped on offense which ranks second again they seem to check the boxes a defensive

Rating of 111.6 4 and a half points better than average and second in the league I will say that hasn’t seemed to hold up as well against top 10 offenses slipping all the way to 1182 so that’s definitely something to track but when looking at how they operate I don’t really see any

Reason to think it won’t translate I guess you could say christs is exploitable in space but that’s why they have the Horford wrinkle and I feel confident everyone else can cover they’ve struggled with power and post play a little bit and that’s also one of Horford’s biggest strengths which he’s

Shown time and time again in the playoffs the only concern I would really have is the bench guys like Pritchard or Hower obviously don’t hold up as well as the others then again I don’t really view either of those guys as huge liabilities and they’re only playing

Spot minutes anyways so where does that leave them as an overall team well for starters they have a plus 11.6 net rating fourth in NBA history behind you ready the the 96 and 97 Bulls then the 17 Warriors yeah we’re talking rare territory even more fascinating is the

Specific brand of two-way play though here’s a look at every team in NBA history to have the number one offense while having a top two defense of course you have the Celtics so far this year the 17 Warriors and that’s it for the 21st century before them it was the 96

Bulls then a two decade jump to the 74 bucks 72 Lakers and 71 bucks even if we extend the criteria just a little bit and add number three defenses all that does is bring the 67 76ers the jury still out on the Celtics but every single one of these teams won

The NBA Finals except for the bucks in 74 who lost in a very winnable game seven I think that’s a good spot to land because whether or or not you have your concerns with the Celtics after watching these last few playoffs or maybe you don’t trust Joe Missoula as much as some

Other coaches whatever the case may be there’s no denying that all historical evidence points to this being an absolute Juggernaut the offense the defense the cohesiveness and overall Talent beating them four times in seven games sounds nearly impossible right now and only time will tell if Banner number

18 will make its way to TD Garden 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 think of the Celtics as always I hope you all have a great day and I’ll catch you guys in the next one

The Celtics are looking like an absolute juggernaut, putting together a season only rivaled by the very best teams in NBA history.

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