NEW YORK — Jayson Tatum sitting on the sidelines (or in a hotel room in New York City) means the Boston Celtics have to get creative offensively. Jaylen Brown led the way in Game 5, dishing out a career-high 12 assists in Boston’s blowout victory. But that’s not where the Celtics’ offense started and ended.
Derrick White and Payton Pritchard poured in a combined 12 threes, and Luke Kornet racked up seven blocks, but hidden behind the curtain was a flurry of off-ball screens from even the most unlikely characters. Pritchard, White, and Jrue Holiday spearheaded the charge, finding ways to get them or others open.
As Boston rested players down the stretch of the regular season, their off-ball screening saw an increase, and the Celtics have been screening with their guards to hunt mismatches all season.
Payton Pritchard and Derrick White are great screeners
In Game 5, Pritchard and White both capitalized on Brown’s gravity in order to earn themselves open threes, and the most obvious examples came in quick succession.
First, the Celtics got Mitchell Robinson switched onto Brown at the top of the key. Then, an off-ball screen from Holiday broke Pritchard loose to set one for Brown. But instead of setting it, Pritchard ran a ghost screen, kept running to the three-point line, pump-faked Miles McBride into the air, and earned himself an open three.
Shortly after, White delivered a similar action. Once again, Al Horford screened for Brown to get Robinson on him before White ran up to the three-point line to set a screen of his own.
White set the screen, waited for McBride to switch onto Brown, but then quickly ran out to the three-point line before Robinson could attach to him, thus earning an open shot.
“I think a lot of it comes naturally.” Sam Hauser said of his and Pritchard’s off-ball work. “We work on it a lot every day, just playing off the ball. And given our roles, we're not going to have the ball as much as other guys, so you got to be able to be productive without it. So, stuff like that comes naturally to us, and we showed it the other night.”
On top of that, Pritchard also set multiple back screens for Luke Kornet to help give him lanes to the rim. Each time, he managed to either set up his teammate or earn a bucket for himself in the paint.
With Tatum out for the foreseeable future, the Celtics will have to get increasingly creative with their offense, and off-ball movement is a very solid path forward in that realm.