Less than a minute into the New York Knicks’ second-round series against the Boston Celtics, you could see why coach Tom Thibodeau decided to lean into switching on defense. The Knicks’ Mikal Bridges started the possession matched up with Derrick White, then picked up Jayson Tatum, then Kristaps Porzingis. The big man established position in the paint, but Bridges blocked him at the rim.
The Knicks did not put themselves at a disadvantage, unless you count the eight inches of height that Porzingis has on Bridges. They did not put two on the ball, and they did not have to fly around all over the court in rotation.
This is how the Orlando Magic defended the Boston Celtics in the first round. In that Orlando was hell-bent on limiting the Celtics’ 3s, it was successful: They attempted an average of 34.4 3s per 100 possessions against the Magic, down from 49.6 per 100 in the regular season. In the first half of Game 5, they attempted only six 3s and didn’t make any of them. Boston ended up winning that game by 31 points, though, and the team scored 120 points per 100 possessions in non-garbage-time minutes during the series (after scoring 120.9 per 100 in the regular season), per Cleaning The Glass.
The defending champs force their opponents to pick their poison. In two straight series, those opponents have chosen to live with their bigs defending guards and their guards defending bigs because the alternative seemed less appealing.
“When you look at five-out spacing and the ability for them to shoot 3s — but not only shoot 3s, but to get to the offensive boards and then kick out and create more 3s — it’s a challenge,” Thibodeau told reporters Tuesday.
The Knicks, however, did not limit the Celtics’ 3-point attempts on Monday. Boston got up 60 3s in the game, and, fortunately for New York, made only 15 of them. After Bridges swatted that shot at the rim, Porzingis grabbed the offensive rebound and found Derrick White open for a corner 3. White clanked it.
All of this is to say that, even though the Knicks won the series opener in which they switched Karl-Anthony Towns onto smaller players again and again — and even switched Jalen Brunson onto the Celtics’ stars on occasion — they didn’t win it because of all this switching. If the strategy seemed surprising to you, it was because New York’s defensive personnel is nothing like Orlando’s. While Bridges, OG Anunoby and Josh Hart can defend up and down the positional spectrum, it is another thing entirely to ask Towns or Brunson to guard Tatum and Jaylen Brown without help.
For the vast majority of Game 1, Boston generated clean looks with relative ease. The team targeted Towns and Brunson individually, and on several occasions managed to involve both of them in the same action. The Knicks surrendered open 3s because of mismatches, late rotations and poor execution of the switch itself.
Just for fun: How many of the 3s in the video below do you think went in?
The answer is zero. But that has little to do with the Knicks’ defense.
The Celtics shot 7 for 24 on wide-open 3s (i.e. the closest defender is at least 6 feet away) in Game 1 and 7 for 32 on open 3s (i.e. the closest defender is 4-6 feet away), according to NBA.com. They shot 8 for 29 on catch-and-shoot 3s, which are the type of 3s that switching is theoretically supposed to prevent. (Boston attempted 29.3 catch-and-shoot 3s per 100 possessions, compared to 20.8 per 100 in the Magic series and 31.6 per 100 in the regular season.)
“We know we’re going to have to be even more locked in next game and try to limit their 3s,” Hart told reporters Tuesday. “They’re a great shooting team. A lot of the shots that they shot, they’re comfortable with. Even on the mismatches on some of the switches on the perimeter, those guys are comfortable shooting the ball off the dribble and from deep. We gotta make sure we continue to just guard our yard and have each other’s back.”
Giving Boston favorable matchups is playing with fire. Towns picked up two fouls defending Tatum on switches in the first five minutes of Game 1, and he picked up another early in the second quarter while defending Brown on a switch. Thanks to a historically putrid shooting performance and an uncharacteristically long list of mistakes on the margins, though, the Celtics did not continue to punish the switches. If the Knicks stick with this plan, they’ll soon go up in flames.
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