The 76ers won Tenno Mountain at North Shore Garden, got the match point, and returned to the home court to play the decisive game, and the situation was quite favorable. Although the Green Army faced the same situation last year, they escaped Ascension thanks to Tatum's 46-point playoff career night and won two consecutive games to advance to the East finals. But the mood seems different this year.
In the first four games, the G2G3 won by the Green Army with a total of 46 points, and the G1 and G4 who lost lost a total of 5 points. With normal development, the Celtics should play dominance at home Tianwangshan to cash in on their strength advantage. But the reality is that the 76ers played almost three quarters, and the Celtics swallowed a two-game losing streak, and the content of the game was not good for the Celtics.
To sum it up in its simplest form, the reason the Green G5 lost was that Horford was 0-of-7 from three-point range, and I don't think there's anything else that has an impact that weighs that key. Among the remaining 8 teams in the playoffs, aside from the core players of their respective teams, among the puzzle players, Horford's impact on the home team is the most critical. Swap Tatum for a star of the same division, and the Celtics won't drop gear, but swap Horford for a puzzle center of the same division, and this team may just be a team competing for divisional finals rather than a championship.
We have to understand what the Celtics are so good about.
Last season, the league's No. 1 defense, which the Celtics prided themselves on, is gone. As for why it doesn't exist, it's hard to say, losing Uduka is one thing, but even when Uduka is in office, the Celtics' so-called league-first defense is gradually declining. However, the Celtics are still a defensive powerhouse, which is true, and their three guards all have strong individual defensive ability and different degrees of defensive ability, which few teams can do. The Celtics build a team with two forward players as the core, and both of them have relatively good single-defense talent, there is no lack of forward matching resources, nor lack of interior matching resources, or in other words, the Celtics have almost no shortage of resources for any players, and their defensive floor is extremely high.
But the Celtics don't have a perfect center on the defensive end. Horford has top defense, decent basket protection, and excellent sense of anti-blocking position, but at this age, legs and feet really can't change guards. Lowe can't play a full-time No. 5, and his most appropriate role is to defend a flank that doesn't shoot much to sweep the basket. Gwei only has top defense, and protecting the basket and changing defense are too reluctant. This flaw is not too fatal, the remaining 8 playoff teams, you have to find a top defense, basket protection, change defense guard are the top center, that can only be thick eyebrows. However, thick eyebrows belong to system bugs and do not participate in discussion. The Celtics' defensive flaw can't kill them on most occasions, and the first round of the playoffs was beaten by the Hawks' targeted blocking, and finally won the match, and the Hawks are already one of the most capable teams at the guard to beat the No. 5 position.
Obviously, although the Celtics are flawed in attack and defense, they are very strong offensive and defensive. With two tracks to run, you can prevent problems on one track. If the opponent can target your defense, you will burst them, and if the opponent can target your attack, then defend them. The opponent's attack and defense can target you, no way, the opponent is too strong, you can't fight. But this year's competitive environment is actually not a particularly perfect top team, and with the Bucks out, the Celtics are in their own gear as long as they don't have problems.
So why did the Celtics do this?
The first round of the playoffs played 6 games, the second round is now 2-3 behind - 76 is certainly very strong, but the paper strength is not stronger than the Green Army, and has been restrained by the Green Army in the past - since the second half of the regular season, the Green Army has shown a downward trend, in the configuration seems to improve this season, the performance is not as good as last season.
In most games, the defensive problem is even greater.
The Celtics' defensive strategy this season has been fully tilted towards the center to crouch down, not developing their seemingly rich defensive resources, and the center's inability to change defenses has led to their lack of flexibility. Generally speaking, teams with this characteristic are really difficult to play when they meet specific opponents in the playoffs, the most typical of which is the past Jazz. But the Celtics are still much better off than the Jazz at the time, after all, their backcourt and forward ability to defend and assist is much stronger, and they can think of more ways to match and defensive details.
But in reality, the Celtics' strategy and execution are difficult to say. After the G4 game, I talked about two things for Celtics to pay attention to at the level of detail, one of which is:
"The Green Army needs to avoid misalignment. When Smart and Horford played against Tucker, the assistant defense was far better than Jaylen and Brogdon played this role, and in some periods of G4, the Green Army did not do a good job in this regard. ”
The situation in G5 is that the Green Army will only do some assistance when Smart is against Tucker, and as long as Smart is not present, the Green Army is completely unconcerned about this matter. If Tucker can't be used, what is the Green Army's defensive advantage over the 76ers?
The 76ers in G5, with joint defense, a small number of center changes, Harden making offensive fouls, Embiid's death-defying basket and rotation, that is really pulling out everything at the bottom of the box and fighting with you. The Celtics' defensive highlight this time seems to be only a few of Lao Huo's basket protection and defensive removal positions to talk about, and even the enthusiasm for protecting rebounds is not as good as that of the 76ers. If you don't know the resumes of these two teams, watching them play for the first time, you wouldn't think of the Celtics as a team with better defensive resources than the 76ers.
The offensive performance of the 76ers G5 has a very strong sense of "the Hawks play the Celtics", and the center squat is very resolute. Maxi's three-point feel is online, and he is the vanguard of the 76ers' squat pit. Harris has also been given the opportunity to clear one side and eat the center alone, although his good hand has less to do with targeting. Harden delivered a balanced performance that neither pulled his crotch nor went violently, scored and drove a two-fist strike, played with Embiid's blocking, repeatedly gave Embiid a successful ball in the mid-range dessert area, and hit the Celtics' center squat in another way. Coupled with Maxi and Harris' good form, in fact, the 76ers double big brother broke out, which leveled the distance with the Celtics at the strategic level.
There are two small details:
One is that the 76ers have several blocking rounds in this game, and the fixed point player will try to cut in or stand on the dunk to clear the area above the free throw line. I'm not sure if this was intentional or accidental, but the effect was that the 76ers were more likely to get less intrusive jump shots, and the Celtics basically relied on centers to make up for the ball or cover people's catches, which was obviously difficult to juggle together. The main part of the 76ers' offensive rush is the jump shot, and Embiid will not encounter annoying swipe and pinch shots without holding the ball inside, making it more difficult for the Celtics to assist defense. Although the Celtics' defense this game is not good, it is indeed difficult for them to prevent the 76ers who are pursuing jump shots above the free throw line, which is very face-catching;
Second, in the early days of the game, Horford's defense Harden blocked and raised a large scale, but did not insist on it afterwards. We can compare the difference between the beginning of the series and the early days of this game, Horford's position against Harden's blocking.
The Celtics quickly realized that Harden's shot would destroy Horford's high position, so they stuck to the pit afterwards. But this change is quite interesting - Dengo plays the respect of his opponent with his ability.
Having said so much about the 76ers offense, the Celtics defended this end of the story, because everyone may pay more attention to the story on this end. But the Celtics did not lose at this end, they could not prevent each other on the night when the 76ers felt good, the key is that the Celtics scored 115 points, 121 points, 114 points, 115 points in the first 4 games, the stable offense failed in this game, the inability to shoot three points is an important reason, Horford can not shoot three points is the top priority.
What makes the Celtics special is that Horford is a center shooter who shoots 44.6 percent from three-point range, can make all kinds of trivial contributions on both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, and rarely makes messy mistakes. He is surrounded by four opponents who are not afraid to take the center against the main or secondary attacker, which leads most centers to face the Celtics and choose between the two bottles of poison of the basket and Horford's three-pointer. Moreover, his own single defensive weakness can hardly be hidden in the other 4 positions of the Celtics.
Remove your defensive strongest points;
Catch your defense's weakest point.
This is the underlying logic of the Celtics' offense.
If this logic is gone, are there really top-level teams that will be afraid of double probes?
Horford can't pull, which is why I went out of my way to write about his play after the G3 game - before G3, Horford had only made 7 of his 29 three-point shots, and it's hard not to think that his regular season feel would not last, and he did reach an age where he could decline at any time. G3 Horford made five three-pointers as if everything was back to normal, but G5 couldn't do it again, and it was his second fewest playoff games this year.
In Horford's poor form, Mazura chose Garoway's time, and the other detail I mentioned for the Green Army after the G4 game was Lowe's time – after Rivers dropped Jaylen, Lowe's alignment was difficult to do. He couldn't prevent Embiid, and he couldn't prevent Harden when he was in good shape — he wasn't fit to be on the defensive front, and at one point Mazura had to use Smart or even Brogdon against Embiid. But in some scenarios, Lowe can only defend the center, exposing himself to the front line of defense low post and blocking. At this point, the Celtics' defense was degraded.
Since the double scout is not good at handling and blocking the finishing center, especially when Lowe is on the floor, he can free Embiid's protective basket, which will make the Celtics' offense difficult to play. Don't look at Lowe's plus-minus than Horford's, this is because Horford played worse and the timing of Lowe's and Tatum's power coincided. In fact, at the end of the first quarter and early in the second quarter, the Celtics began to dig the big hole, which was precisely the time when Lowe was present. Even, the timing of Mazura on Lowe is very strange - it was when the 76ers joint defense was effective, Mazura brought Lowe up.
If Horford's form doesn't pick up and Mazura continues to test Lowe at center, the Celtics' advantage over the 76ers is only a single defensive quality, which will be covered by the opposition's stronger main attacker and misplaced targeting ability.
The series is yet to be decided, with Celtic winning G6 on the road last year and a chance to do so this year. Provided that Horford is still the same Horford, and Mazura insists on believing in their space superiority and being well positioned when using Lowe, as well as punishing the 76ers for Tucker's offensive flaws on the floor. Horford's state is resigned to fate, and it is indeed uncontrollable, but if it is not done at the personnel level, it is really not worthy of winning.