As the Blazers were running out to a 32-16 first quarter lead, the Rose Garden was rocking. As every time-out was greeted with a standing ovation by the ecstatic fans, I turned to my wife and said, "They are going to lose this one."
The 32 point explosion was fools gold...as was the paltry 16 points the Celtics were in the process of scoring.
Even though they were seemingly scoring at will, there were signs that the Blazers' offense was in deep trouble. Every possession scored with 1 - 2 seconds left was a bail-out, long range jumper against a tough defense. Even worse, that seemed to be by design.
The Blazers seldom hurry to get the ball upcourt. By contrast, the Suns want to shoot in 6 seconds or less. 6 seconds is less time that it takes for Portland to get the ball across the mid-court stripe. Once they do, they are still in no hurry to get on offense. Typically, Brandon Roy, Jarrett Jack, or Steve Blake will dribble outside the 3-point line until 10 seconds left, with little to no ball motion during this time.
Then, they initiate their offense. Too often, that means throwing the ball in to LaMarcus Aldridge, too far out on the floor for his post up game to work, and with plenty of Boston help to force him to kick it back out. That meant whoever got the ball had 1 or at most 2 dribbles and then had to force up a shot.
Fortunately for Portland, they were hitting those shots, but good results do not mean good execution. They were setting themselves up for a scoring collapse.
Meanwhile, Boston, despite having but 16 points after a quarter, had everything in place for a high scoring evening.
As a long-distance observer of the Celtics, the guys who are scary are pretty obvious: Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett. By the end of the night, those three combined for 59 of the 112 points put up by the Celtics. As good as they are, the key to that night's Celtic offense was two-fold.
First, they got into the offense early. As soon as the ball crossed mid-court, there was near constant movement. They were making solid fundamental basketball plays such as setting back screens to free up shooters for wide open looks.
Second, the Celtics had Rajon Rondo and Portland had Steve Blake.
Blake has been a solid player for Portland this year. He shoots a high percentage and plays pretty solid defense. He generally does a good job of getting Portland into the offense, excepting the last few games.
There is a huge hole, however, in Blake's game and Rondo was exploiting it all night.
Rondo is, plain and simple, too fast for Blake. Again and again, he exploded past Blake as Portland scrambled to cover for him. This created easy opportunities for all the Celtics, not just their big three.
0 commentsLeave a Comment
Leave a Comment
You must register to post a comment.