The Celtics struggled defensively, with Indiana exploiting mismatches and lacking off-ball awareness. Despite a solid performance from Jaylen Brown near the rim, the Pacers’ strategic adjustments left Boston chasing the game.
#1 – Indiana aggressive from the jump
The Indiana Pacers learned their lessons from the previous game and went at the rim this time. On December 27th, Indiana had only 15 attempts at the rim and generated only 9 shooting fouls. Last night, they generated 14 shooting fouls and 27 shots at the rim.
While the Pacers turned on the aggression, the Boston Celtics reverted to bad habits. They weren’t driving much, didn’t generate many rim attempts, and only made 12 free throws. In a game where the shooting went cold, they paid the price for their lack of aggression and let the other team set the tempo and play in their own pace.
We also noticed that the Celtics didn’t run their offense as fast as they did in the previous game, nor did they use the empty-side offense as much. It’s strange to see a team not apply what worked just two days before.
#2 – How Indiana targeted Horford drop
Without Kristaps Porzingis, the Celtics alternated between a switch-all defense and a drop defense, but nothing really worked out last night. When the Celtics were in drop coverage, the Pacers ran multiple screens in the middle of the court to keep Al Horford back and generate a pocket of space where Pacers guards could drive and finish over the veteran.
In the play below, they used a Veer Action where Turner set a ball-screen and then an off-ball screen, which put Al Horford and the Celtics defense on their heels:
Therefore, the Celtics decided to switch to protect Horford, as the drop coverage was exposed by the screens and Nembhard’s mid-range shooting. When this happened, the Pacers could pick who they wanted to attack. Myles Turner used his post-up game against anyone, but the main Pacers target was Sam Hauser.
#3 – Sam Hauser constantly attacked
Sam Hauser had a target on his back all game, and everyone could see the red dot. With multiple ball handlers, the Pacers made the Celtics taste their own medicine by targeting the worst defensive players and attacking one-on-one. Yes, Sam Hauser isn’t a bad defender, but he has limitations.
Against Pascal Siakam, he isn’t strong or tall enough, and against Tyrese Haliburton or Andrew Nembhard, he lacks the lateral mobility to contain them properly.
Yet, the biggest issue with his defense concerns his off-ball focus and ability to read the game. However, he wasn’t the only one last night to look unconcerned with off-ball defense.
#4 – Celtics off-ball defense
Last night, the Celtics’ off-ball defense was anything but good. They got caught sleeping on many actions and allowed the Pacers to punish them. The game had just started, and the Celtics already forgot to follow Pascal Siakam on a backdoor cut.
A couple of minutes later, on a baseline action, they got tricked on a simple zoom action. Jaylen Brown didn’t follow Haliburton, so Sam Hauser followed him over the screens and forgot to switch on the second screen. Jaylen Brown remained floating in the middle of the action and froze when Haliburton delivered a great no-look pass to Myles Turner. Another example of lack of preparation and communication from the Celtics defense.
Later in the game, there is a possession where it’s hard to say if the Celtics are in individual defense, zone defense, or just lost in the middle.
Bennedict Mathurin found himself alone in the middle of the Celtics defense and made an easy jumper. A few seconds later, we saw Jayson Tatum telling Jaylen Brown that he needs to be lower and closer to them for this defensive coverage.
No need to get into all the open layups the Indiana Pacers had, plus we’ve already mentioned their 28 attempts at the rim—the lack of rim protection with Porzingis out could be concerning if the big man keeps getting injured.
#5 – JB post-up keeps getting better
However, not everything was bad. Most of the problems came from the defense, even though we know the defense starts with good offense. Through this frustrating game for the Celtics and the fans, Jaylen Brown showed how much impact he can have close to the rim.
He made 5 of his 7 attempts at the rim and 6 out of 7 from his paint jump shots—a very high efficiency in the paint. This makes me wonder if Jaylen Brown should lean his game even more toward the rim. At the moment this season, he’s taken the same number of threes as shots at the rim.
At the rim, he has great efficiency with a 69% accuracy, plus the free throws, while he’s only making 34% of his threes. He hasn’t been above 36% from three since 2020-21, which makes me think he could improve his efficiency by focusing more on post-ups and drives.
#6 – Derrick White in the dunker spot
As mentioned, the empty-side offense wasn’t used as much as in the previous game, which still bothers me, but anyway. Last night, we saw another classic tactical approach from the Celtics with Derrick White in the dunker spot.
Most time spent in the dunker spot among guards this season. pic.twitter.com/gemWLlUexk
— Todd Whitehead (@CrumpledJumper) November 22, 2024
Usually, the Celtics use Jrue Holiday in that position. This has a double positive effect because it forces a small guard to be the low man help, which disrupts the opponent’s usual rim protection.
Plus, as Derrick White is a smart player who can not only finish from there but also dribble or pass, this offers a great alternative for the ball handler when access to the rim is closed.
#7 – Indiana defensive work over screen and at the rim
After getting exposed defensively with their zone mixed with individual defense on the 27th, the Pacers adapted and decided to fight over screens and switch when needed. Instead of forcing Myles Turner to be the only rim protector, they turned this task from an individual job to a collective one.
They wanted to get the ball out of Jayson Tatum’s hands as much as possible from pick-and-roll situations, and the Celtics’ lack of rim runners made it easy to predict where the ball was going if they doubled JT.
Once the Celtics started swinging the ball, the Pacers switched from one player to another on the weak side to make sure they were there to contest the shot. A great execution that also shows the Celtics’ offense might have been too easy to read last night.
#8 – Andrew Nembhard loves the Celtics
A few days after Caleb Martin, the Celtics faced another player who seemed to turn it on when he saw green. Andrew Nembhard—who was off on the 27th—delivered a great overall performance. The offensive work was obvious, but his defensive efforts were also impressive, and his block on JT really stood out.
On offense, the Canadian knows how to get to his mid-range spot, and the Al Horford drop makes it even easier for him to get where he wants.
His constant movement drew a lot of attention from the Celtics defense, and he also delivered 8 assists, more than any other player in the game last night.
#9 – Luke Kornet on T.J. McConnell?
On December 27th, T.J. McConnell made life difficult for the young Jordan Walsh. Therefore, Joe Mazzulla and his coaching staff adapted for this second game. When the bench minutes came up, we saw straight away that the new defensive matchup for T.J. McConnell was… Luke Kornet!
Luke Kornet and the Celtics gave T.J. McConnell the Ben Simmons treatment, and it worked out pretty well. The guard only made one basket, and the bench minutes with him on the floor couldn’t generate great offense—the 80 points per 100 possessions when he was on the court confirmed that.
#10 – Seeding in the Eastern Conference
The season is still young, but the Celtics will start the year closer to the 4th seed than the 1st. What could be the impact later in the playoffs? Time will tell, but the road to the 19th starts to look more challenging than the 18th.