Operation Shutdown
This Postseason The Celtics Have Redefined Team Defense
As mentioned in the cover story I recently did about the Celtics, the way they play defense reminds me of an NFL team. Not an all-time great like the 85 Bears, ‘00 Ravens or ‘02 Bucs either. Just a regular really good defense like the 06 Steelers or all the recent Patriot teams. There’s a distinct difference.
Great defenses totally undress their competitors and dominate them physically and mentally. Whether road or at home, no matter the stakes or the greatness of the other team, the great ones just blow mofo’s off the ball. A just really good defense will allow other teams to score, build momentum and think they have a chance to win the game. These types of teams don’t have get shutouts that often and will even allow teams to score a couple of touchdowns and keep it close but will ultimately get a big stop. The Celtics, regardless of how it turned out allowed the Hawks, Cavs, Pistons and even the Lakers to think it was all good. They were a possession away from losing to the Cavs and at times during this postseason played a maddeningly frustrating brand of basketball. Other teams brought their swagger to the court and blotted out the sunlight that the Celtics created in winning 66 games in the regular season. They had to think that they were gonna eventually break free of this team advance in their championship goal. But they didn’t. They couldn’t.
This Celtics team is unique in the way they are constructed in that no matter what happens scoring-wise for them they are gonna keep you under control offensively and eventually beat you. They differ from the recent championship Spurs because even though they were great defensively they could often score at will. Tim Duncan is not only a superior defender but a superior offensive player as well. They got theirs and you didn’t get yours and that was it. With the Celtics, they might not get theirs. Kevin Garnett is not a lights out scorer, he’s not going for 35 points. And he may even bail your defense out by taking more jumpers than playing on the block. But he limits the hell out the guy he’s playing.
And his help-side d is remarkable, he makes up for whatever his teammates miss and on top of that is a dominating rebounder. His ability has allowed Paul Pierce and Ray Allen to shine as defenders, something that seemed absurd as recent as last season. When you add Rondo’s speedy defensive pressure and James Posey’s athletic smothering and PJ Brown paint toughness to the mix, this team became a team full of guys who were gonna get key stops at some point in the game or series. You are not gonna outscore them. Coach Rivers allowed his assistant Tom Thibodeaux to be his Buddy Ryan type and his schemes have been amazing. Looking back its obvious that Lebron much like Kobe now, wasn’t just having bad shooting days. They were getting shut down.
25 Responses to “Operation Shutdown”
Jun.13 at 4:52 pm
Myles Brown says:
The Celtics defense reminds me of a football team too…
Jun.13 at 5:23 pm
B. Long says:
Khalid: Your stories are doses of reality that my heart just can’t take right now. (sobs)
Jun.13 at 5:50 pm
albie1kenobi says:
2 posts in one day! Khalid’s on fire!!!
i like this article lots. how would you say the 08 celtics D compares to 04 pistons’ D? i enjoyed their D so much during that playoff run in 04.
Jun.13 at 6:13 pm
John E. Sanford says:
Good read dude. I wasn’t a true believer in the Celts until the last 2 rounds, but these dudes D up.
Jun.13 at 6:46 pm
Karma says:
The Celtics have looked like the better team ALL SERIES. From the first game to last night, there was not one point in any of the games that I thought the Lakers looked dominant. And this is coming from a big Lakers fan. The Lakers will have to completely revamp the way they play in these next 3 games. That means, more energy off the bench, more showing up by players not named Kobe, and, sorry to say, but smarter coaching by Coach Jackson. He is getting outcoached and outprepared by Doc Frickin Rivers.
Jun.13 at 7:48 pm
Khalid Salaam says:
albie, i think both the detroit 04 D and this years Celtics team have both played great d. I think the difference is the Pistons didn’t have to rely on their D as much because they were a much better offensive team. The difference is in the intensity. the celtics d is slightly better if only because it has to be. they can’t afford to play a scoring slugfest
Jun.13 at 8:00 pm
Matt Caputo says:
The Celtics stopped listening to the people around them and critics, and just flat-out started playing basketball. They have to be intense. Going into this series people still had money betting on their collapse. The Lakers might have to adopt that mentality now, though it’s probably too late.
Jun.13 at 8:23 pm
WhaHuh says:
They have really worked well on Gasol and Odom. NO ONE can get to the rim. This worked well against LeBron as well. What the Lakers need is someone dunking everything in the paint, turiaf tries but he hasnt got the height/strength to compete with PJ/KG/Perkins
Jun.13 at 10:44 pm
Hursty says:
cool Khalid, always refeshing from the Jones style posts.
Jun.14 at 2:25 am
TADOne says:
Khalid showing his Philly roots. Buddy Ryan was a G.
Jun.14 at 4:31 am
b55 says:
great post, thanks
Jun.14 at 6:05 am
knick says:
Why don’t we just agree that these Celtics play best team defense of all times, since they really stopped the alleged greatest offensive weapon at his prime. This makes these Celtics one of the best teams I remember.
Jun.14 at 10:43 am
Arthur Rimbaud Jr. says:
Lakers in 7.
Jun.14 at 2:39 pm
John D says:
Yeah OK Myles. You can’t complain when you have Sasha Vujacic on your team. All he does on defense is swat people’s arms like he’s trying to kill a fly.
Jun.14 at 2:44 pm
SCHW says:
yo knick respectpa… I totally agree. This Celtic team could just go up wth the bulls team of 95/96 with jordan pippen and rodman…. Although they were far too superior at the 2 and 3 position defensive wise they did not have such a truly unique defensive player as Garnett… He can just flat out play defende. Only if he could just go in the paint in the offense and show this spaniard who is the lion:)
Jun.14 at 4:39 pm
Joel O's says:
@Khalid: Why do you think the Celtics aren’t offensively as consistent as the Spurs? This honestly puzzles me, because a team with PP, Ray and KG should, on paper, be brilliant offensively. Do you think they just aren’t clicking offensively yet (a scary thought), or is it just that they’ve knowingly chosen to focus on defense as their “way”?
Jun.14 at 4:44 pm
Joel O's says:
When Duncan won his first ring with David Robinson, they actually did so the very same way this Boston team is playing now. That team offensively was in fact worse than this Celtics team; outside of Duncan, Robinson and Elliot they pretty much had a bunch of grizzled vets (Jaren Jackson? Mario Elie?) who were individually limited offensively, but good in a team-oriented offense. But they flat out dominated the Knicks defensively, much like the Celts are manhandling the finessey Laker team.
Jun.14 at 4:51 pm
Joel O's says:
On the other hand, today’s Spurs team “gets theirs” so easily, it seems, because their big 3 guys have been playing together for several years now. Similarly, this year’s Laker team’s offensive brilliance is the result of a tried-and-tested young core being kept together the last 3 years. So I think this Celtic team, if they keep the tremendous trio together until they retire, has a lot of potential to develop offensively.
Jun.14 at 5:40 pm
Khalid Salaam says:
Joe: I think the reason why the Celtics aren’t as offensively consistent as the Spurs boils down to how good Tim Duncan is. He is just a completely great player. Really honestly great on both sides of the ball. He’s a better player than people generally realize. His greatness id documented and respected but people are not in awe because his game doesn’t translate well on tv. But he’s the difference no doubt.
Jun.14 at 7:17 pm
albie1kenobi says:
when the celtics were ensembled this past off season, didn’t everyone expect this team to be an offensive juggernaut? i don’t even understand why they struggle so much to score nowadays.
Jun.14 at 9:09 pm
Nick says:
SCHW: the 96 bull team didn’t have a truly special defensive player? Actually, they had 3: Rodman, Pippen, and Jordan. Rodman and Pippen could each defend 4 positions with length and agression, jordan, well, he was a DPOY once upon a time too. I’ve never seen a team able to double or help then recover like that bulls team.
Jun.14 at 9:11 pm
Nick says:
Joel: I agree with Khalid on that. Yes, the celtics have three prolific players, but none of them are the sorts that you can really, truly run an offense through like you can duncan. (KG and Piece both like the ball 15-18 feet out facing up, which won’t space the court like duncan back to the basket in the 8-12 foot range.
Jun.15 at 11:19 am
niQ says:
i don’t think this should be much of a surprise. Weren’t the Celtics beating teams by 20+ points dURING the season as well? Did everyone already forget that?
Jun.15 at 12:00 pm
Joel O's says:
True, that. I guess that’s the difference between KG and Duncan… which is unfortunate, because the Celtics right now seem offensively less than the sum of their parts. Even in the regular season when they were blowing opponents away, it always seems like when one or two of their 3 guys had a big scoring game, it seems to happen at the EXPENSE of one of them.
Jun.15 at 12:37 pm
RedRum says:
I would love to see the Celtics play the Spurs. That would be a 7 game series, with some inspired defense and toughness. The Cs have just whooped the Ls arses, with just being tough. Once again, the moto is correct, D wins championships