Sunday Session: First Half Analysis

Heading into the half of today's contest between the San Antonio Spurs and the Boston Celtics, it's been a mixed bag thus far.  On the one hand, Boston's activity on the offensive glass has been phenomenal, and their energy has offset some bad shooting and even more physical defense from San Antonio.  Boston is shooting over 50% from the field, but very little has come easy for them and it doesn't seem to me like they're getting the best looks possible out of their possessions.  

For instance, Matt Bonner spent most of the first half guarding Kevin Garnett, which is a glaringly obvious mismatch that, in my humble opinion, the Celtics should have tried to exploit every time down the floor.  With a huge height, quickness and vertical leap advantage over the New Hampshire native (he has 16 points on 7-10 shooting, by the way), I'd like to see Garnett take Bonner in the post and get some more high percentage shots and be a bit more aggressive on offense.  As it is, Garnett has shot mostly long jumpers (albeit wide open) and has only made 3 of 7 shots for a pedestrian 7 points.  Hopefully Doc Rivers will make an adjustment and maybe get Garnett the ball in a better position to either score in close or make a play for someone else.

The biggest problem, however, hasn't been the Celtics offense, but their defensive schemes against the Spurs.  Going into the half, San Antonio has 60 points on 58% shooting overall and 45% from behind the three-point line.  Numbers like these are quite uncharacteristic for the Celtics' defense, and it seems to me that the Spurs have found (and knocked down) so many open shots because the Celtics' have been a step slow on all of their defensive rotations.  The Celtics have been aggressively trapping on defense a lot, especially against Tony Parker, who's been somewhat limited in the first two quarters of play.  

Normally, trapping is a fine strategy as long as your defense can rotate in time to pick up the open man and close out on the perimeter shooters.  Today, however, the Celtics have been committing far too much attention to Tony Parker and haven't been able to rotate in time.  Against the Spurs, who have only won four championships in nine years by collapsing defenses and kicking the ball out to the perimeter for wide open shots, slow rotation on defense is a recipe for disaster.  Don't get me wrong, I understand the need to double Parker and keep him out of the paint, but the Celtics took it a little too far and have gotten burned for doing so.  

Going into half number two, I'd like to see at least some defensive intensity and better effort to stopping the ball in transition, as well as some better quality touches for Garnett and Paul Pierce to help fire up the Celtics' offense.  Hopefully, if the defense can tighten up, the Celtics may be able to get out in transition themselves and score a few easy baskets.  Boston's done a decent job of taking care of the ball, hopefully that can continue in the second half.  And please, for the love of God, keep finding Ray Allen!