Consistency vs. Inconsistency: Boston's fluctuations and Kerry's superiority

The defense and sub-stars atone for the Celtics' instability, and only Steph, with the help of Kerr's flexibility, manages to stay at the top in money time and strengthen his historic position while Clay and Green appear to be in decline.

Summary of games 3 and 4 in the NBA Finals Series

Assaf Ravitz

11/06/2022

Saturday, June 11, 2022, 4:30 p.m.

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Stephen Kerry after the performance in Game 4 of the Finals Series (from Twitter)

1.

Equal NBA Series is a fascinating psychological thriller.

Not only between teams and players, but also within teams and within the minds of the players.

Boston is the ultimate example of this.

Throughout three series, its salient feature is the instability, the sharp fluctuations between excellent and mediocre games and below.

Golden State is also unstable, but inconsistent in the inconsistency of a busy day / basket day like the Celtics.

It's from Boston's unconscious solution to its instability that allows it to connect to enough big games in any series.

Fascinating and surprising time and time again to see the phenomenon of group unconsciousness, which causes everyone to function together in one moment and fade together in the next moment.

It's easy to focus on falls, especially since that's what happened in the last game, but I think it's more appropriate to start the discussion from the good old days of Boston.

Because they are very very good.

Time and time again Ima Yuduka's gang finds strength for another big game at the team level, which includes some impressive displays at the individual level.

The defense these days touches perfection, the offense moves a ball wisely, the shots from outside come in, the stars win in one-on-one fights.

Game 3 was such a game.

His main story was that Boston won all the small fights: all the 50/50 balls were hers, she took over all the long rebounds, while Golden State was the one that made the small mistakes in the drop to the defense.

Sometimes these are the things that decide games, even in the final.

Game 4 was not a fallen game like most of the games that followed Boston's wins in this playoff.

The stars were less focused and lost quite a few balls, but the threes came in high percentages and the defense remained great.

It was the Greens' offense that faded as the game progressed.

It is very difficult to tactically analyze the Celtics 'offensive line against the Warriors' defense, precisely because of the sharp difference between games.

One night Andrew Wiggins gets stuck in the blocks and fails to stop Jason Taitum from getting shot, the next night it is very difficult for Taitum to get a good shot in front of him.

One night Boston's outfielders find penetration lanes and look smarter than the Golden State defense, the next night the defense wins exactly the same fights and forces offenses.

The tactical changes are minor (later I will touch on Steve Kerr's change as it seems significant), it is the level of performance on both sides that is crucial once here and once here.

The problem for Boston is that because of this instability, it had very few moments of money in the playoffs,

And as they were she had great difficulty in most cases.

This happened in Game 4 and may happen later.

The pressure only increases with each game.

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To the full article

Winning and losing intermittently in a matchup.

Wiggins maintains Tatum (Photo: GettyImages, Elsa)

2.

What causes this instability?

The answer is that stability is exactly the hardest thing.

A big game requires enormous physical and mental forces, finding these forces once again after two or three days is already an almost impossible task.

Certainly as the playoffs progress, the rivals become stronger and better prepared, the physical and mental load accumulates, the media noise increases and the consequences become more significant.

Only the really great, historic players are the ones who know not only to function at a very high capacity throughout a sequence of games, but also to bring that ability to a climax in the most important moments.

In the final there is currently only one player who meets this definition: Steph Kerry.

If Golden State wins the championship, Steph's Game 4 will probably be remembered as the biggest game of his career (unless there are more to come later in the series).

Because he led Golden State to a critical non-critical victory in the final, in a game where the Warriors would not have had much chance of winning if he had not been on a day like this.

Kerry has evolved over the years as a player, he is much more than this player who scores crazy threes.

He reads the defense great and drives the offense better than ever, he finds more and more ways to get to the color, his defense is constantly improving.

But in this series, these are first and foremost the crazy threesomes.

Boston's defense is trying to get higher and higher, so it's hitting farther and farther, with increasing difficulty.

Game 4 was the highlight, but it happens throughout the series, Steph's range in the four games ranges from very good to amazing.

Many times the peak of a great player comes precisely when he is beyond his physical peak, because this is the stage where he learns to bring himself to the maximum ability at the right moment and stay there.

Steph was not like that in his first two finals, he did not have to be like that in the two finals with Kevin Durant because the team was so good.

Against Toronto there was a strange and inconsistent final, which was due in no small part to the fact that the players around him were finished.

As of this moment, the current final is the best and most impressive in Steph Kerry's career, and if he continues like this it will greatly affect his historic status, certainly if he wins the championship, but even if he does not.

It should be mentioned that he does it against the best defense in the league and when he retains the first guard to win the title of defensive player of the season since the father of Kerry's teammate Gary Peyton.

Strengthens its historical status.

Steph Kerry (Photo: GettyImages, Elsa)

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3.

The previous two sections explain what Golden State's biggest advantage in this series so far is: it has this player who at any given moment on the hardwood influences the game, Boston has none.

Jason Taitum is not there yet.

He has moments where he functions as a scorer and game manager at the highest level, but there are also quite a few moments where he disappears or has a hard time.

This is exactly the difference between a superstar around whom a champion can be built and a historic player.

The status of a superstar around whom a champion can be built is very impressive in itself, and to strengthen him Taitum will require at least one big show in the remaining games, but it is hard to believe that he will be able to change the equation of the best player in the series.

Boston has two important advantages over Golden State, which are related to what is around their star, and if it wins the championship it will be mainly thanks to them.

The first advantage is related to the sub-stars.

Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart prove in this playoff that they are numbers 2 and 3 at the highest level.

Brown evolved to be an island of stability.

In every game he finds a way to satisfy his productivity.

He dropped 17 points just twice in 22 playoff games, averaging 22.8 points on 47.6 percent from the field, including 2.5 threes on 37.9 percent.

These are the numbers of a senior playoff player.

Smart is much less consistent, but finds a way to manifest offensively in a large portion of the games.

He has good shooting days, there are days he uses his body to get comfortable shots in color, there are days when he mostly manages the attacking game fine.

He scored 21 points in a win in Game 6 in Milwaukee, 24 in a win in Game 7 in Miami and 18 and 24 in both finals victories.

Golden State, except for Steph, has no safe stock like Brown and an actor who appears for enough big moments like Smart.

Wait, but this is not the team of Clay Thompson, Drymond Green and Jordan Paul?

Yes, and a rival at the Boston level highlights how the first two are already past the peak and the third is not yet at the peak.

Clay and Paul look like players who catch good shooting days no more than once or twice in a series.

Paul's difficulties in defense make it difficult for him to play in his less good days (Clay is getting better there, the last game was his best defensive game in the playoffs).

Dray, the man and the podcast, is one of the most talked about actors in the series, but in only one game did he mention the greatest actor ever.

He is probably the player whose influence of age is most noticeable - in small moments in defense, in the ability to finish in color, in the rise in shooting, in the ability to maintain concentration over time.

It could very well be that there will be more big games of all three, but on a general level one can talk about Golden State right now as a team of one superstar and alongside him a lot of unstable players who can appear big on a given evening, but (already) can not be trusted.

The sub-stars hold Boston in the playoffs.

Smart (Photo: GettyImages, Elsa)

4.

Boston's second advantage is defense.

At its peak, Golden State's defense doesn't fall short of Boston's, but it's where the Warriors are much less stable.

The Celtics defense has no holes, no really weak squad, and has the ability to handle even the highest quality attacks.

It can be said that Boston's defense is the stable superstar it does not have on offense.

It will appear for every game and will affect every game.

She absorbs in the playoffs 106.2 points per 100 passers, just like in the regular season.

And she does it against some of the best attacks in the league and some of the big stars in the league.

In the first round Judoka's defense neutralized Kevin Durant, since the focus is less on stopping the stars and more on preventing anything else.

Lannis Antocompo, Jimmy Butler and Steph Kerry have had some great performances in front of this defense, but Yudoka refuses to panic, not sending an aggressive double-team just to get the ball out of their hands, betting that even they can not be excellent all the time and if only Very good, it will not be enough.

It was not enough for Milwaukee without Chris Middleton, nor for Miami which got older by a few years during the series, but Golden State has the scenes and the method and was not at all sure that the Boston defense would be able to handle it.

She's successful.

One of the important stories of the series is how the Celtics 'defense makes it difficult for the Warriors' machine dance.

In the vast majority of cases Judoka's players read the movement and cuts of Kerr's players, preventing both the release of the scenes and the movement to the color of the blockers.

They know when to switch and when not, they know what to give to which players, big enough and athletes enough to interfere with most shots.

And several times each game, even after Golden State already thought it had broken Boston's defense, Robert Williams popped up to block a shot in the paint.

Rob-Will proves to be a great defensive player in the making, one can only hope that his knee will last to the end.

One of the most flexible coaches in the NBA.

Steve Kerr with Drymond Green (Photo: Reuters)

5.

The Golden State of the last decade is a historic and unique group.

If Steph Kerry is the number one reason for this, then Steve Kerr is the number 2 reason.

But no less, Kerr is the most flexible coach I can remember in the NBA.

Among other things, this is reflected in the fact that if an opponent comes along who neutralizes the method, he has no problem getting Steph back to being a deadly pick and roll player.

As mentioned, Boston refuses to double-team or go very high against Steph's pick and roll, so as not to allow the Warriors' 4-on-3 game.

Occasionally Boston makes substitutions, and Steph pretty much celebrates on the Celtics ’inside players, usually Smart and Derrick White trying to fight a block while the blocker’s guard comes out high, but not too much.

Kerr uses quite a bit in the first block where Taitum or Brown get Steph in exchange,

And it is much harder for them to fight the second block and arrive on time to prevent cases from going up to a three.

If at the end of Game 3 it seemed that Boston was coping better with Steph's pick and roll, Game 4 came and made it clear that it still had no solution.

Kerr's flexibility was also reflected in the way he managed Game 4. He made a seemingly strange change: he moved to a low lineup, with Otto Porter replacing Kwon Lonnie, in front of Boston's top five, and as soon as Boston moved to a low lineup with Derrick White, He changed to a high lineup with Lonnie.

it worked.

We have no ability to know what the considerations were for the move, the training team sits for hours on videos and goes into the smallest details.

My hypothesis is a lie felt that Lonnie is his solution to Boston's four penetrating lineups.

He waits for color and changes shots like no one else in Golden State can, especially for White when he's there.

Faced with low vehicles, Lonnie's ability on offensive rebounding is also much more pronounced.

Facing the high and slightly heavy lineup of Boston, Kerr preferred a five with more outside shots that would force the inside players to close out a lot of territory.

Kerr made some interesting decisions in the final quarter as well.

He continued to insist on Nimlia Belicza and received from him some surprising defensive stops.

He benched Draimond Green for significant minutes in the fourth quarter, a very self-evident decision with a player of Drey's caliber, because Lonnie was simply better.

In the final minutes he made an offensive defensive exchange with Dry and Paul, including a timeout he took to make an exchange between them.

Perhaps the bench managed to move something in Green, who in excellent time was excellent and performed some very important actions on both sides.

Golden State does not have enough safe stocks, but there are a number of players who can change a given game, especially at home.

A good Wiggins shooting day, for example, is not something that will be easy for Boston to deal with.

Right now they're pretty much letting him throw.

Nor will I be surprised by another hot Porter day or two or several consecutive Baylitz threes at an important moment.

And the Warriors have a coach who knows how to play with the rotation and identify the right players and the right fives for a given day.

It did not always work in the series,

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• Golden State Warriors

• Boston Celtics