#1 – Kings beat the Celtics at their own game

Last night, the Kings beat the Celtics at their own chess game. We will dig into how the Sacramento Kings placed their paws to make sure the Celtics’ main pieces couldn’t move as they wished.

The Kings came into TD Garden, shot, and made more threes than the Celtics—beating the champs at their own game. They aren’t the first team to try this, but they are one of the first to be successful at it.

#2 – A sequence to sum up the Celtics’ game

The fourth quarter was still young, and the Celtics were only losing by 5… yet, it felt like they were giving up already. On a play where the Kings weren’t even playing fast, the Celtics got caught off guard and sent three players to Sabonis and Lyles, leaving Malik Monk open from three.

The guard missed his shot, but the Celtics left the ball bouncing on the floor, and it ended up in Sabonis’ hands. He was open from three too and now had a chance to try again from beyond the arc, as the Celtics didn’t seem to want to play defense on this action.

#3 – Kings collective defense

The Sacramento Kings have been a great defensive team since Doug Christie took over as head coach. Since Christmas, the Kings have been the 6th-best defense, thanks to their ability to create turnovers (6th) and protect defensive rebounds (1st). What the Kings have been doing is pretty simple—since they don’t want to be targeted one-on-one, they close the gap as much as possible.

To do so, they either step into the driving lanes next to the ball handlers or switch to a zone defense. As they have many players who can be targeted one-on-one by the Celtics’ mismatched offense, they crowd the paint as much as possible and close out as hard as they can. They hoped the Celtics would miss their threes—and they did.

It looks like, more and more often, the Celtics’ opponents are willing to bet on them missing threes while protecting the paint and driving lanes.

#4 – The Celtics out rebounded by one man

The Kings have been the best rebounding team in the NBA lately—and they destroyed the Celtics on the boards last night. Sabonis alone grabbed as many offensive rebounds as the Celtics did.

On half-court possessions, the Kings grabbed offensive rebounds on 39% of their misses and were highly efficient on these plays. From their offensive rebounds, Sacramento scored 1.3 points per possession, making the Celtics pay for their lack of seriousness and energy.

#5 – Celtics pick-and-roll defense struggle

The Celtics also struggled to contain the Kings on pick-and-roll actions. The Kings are a great team with ball screens, pick-and-rolls, and handoffs. They used these actions to attack mismatches or to get ahead of the Celtics’ defense.

On these actions, the Celtics also lacked seriousness and communication. In the play above, Jaylen Brown forgot to switch and left Sabonis open on the cut to the rim. In the next play (below), he didn’t box him out after the mid-range shot, and Sabonis found himself free at the rim again.

As the Celtics wanted to avoid leaving Porzingis switched onto the ball handlers, they would send help in the paint to crowd the area. That left Murray free beyond the three-point line—another way to punish the Celtics’ pick-and-roll defense.

The last example shows how much the Celtics lack communication on these plays. The Kings played a spread pick-and-roll. Al Horford switches, while White tries to go over the screen instead of switching.

Behind the play, nobody comes to help from the weak side, and Jayson Tatum is guarding DeMar DeRozan from the three-point line… weird.

#6 – Jayson Tatum off night against the blitz

Jayson Tatum has improved a lot lately against double teams and pressure from the opposing team. Yet last night, he struggled a lot.

What the Kings did was pretty smart and simple. On every pick-and-roll, they sent two players at Jayson Tatum to make sure the drive was impossible and that he had to get rid of the ball.

The entire defensive scheme was to slow down Tatum and force the rest of the Celtics team to beat them 4-on-3—and they weren’t able to. Also, Jayson Tatum’s 8 turnovers show that the Celtics’ franchise player couldn’t find his teammates either.

#7 – Jaylen in the middle

The Celtics forward started early by attacking Keon Ellis—who has been one of the best defensive players this season—and Jaylen Brown just went at him as if he were a regular mismatch.

Jaylen Brown used his broad shoulders to find some room in the Kings’ crowded paint. Thanks to that, he was able to make 8 out of his 12 attempts in the paint. His post-up and drives are still improving—he is becoming really good and efficient, even when the shot doesn’t fall.

Yet, his jump-shot volume could be smaller in a game like this, where he seems unstoppable, but nothing is going in from long range.

#8 – Porzingis post-up struggle

Since Porzingis came back from injury, he doesn’t seem as comfortable in the post-up as he was last season. The opposing teams also seem okay leaving only one man on him, stopping the double-teams that used to slow him down. This creates less space for his teammates and forces him to take tough shots.

Last season, Porzingis was generating 1.31 points per post-up, but now it’s down to 1.17. It’s still very good in the league, but it shows that teams have adapted to the Celtics’ post-up offense around the big man.

#9 – Bad execution on offense in the 4th

The offensive execution in the fourth quarter was the low point of the night. The Celtics couldn’t find any open shots or good positions for Jayson Tatum, who ended up with 0 field-goal attempts in the last quarter.

He wasn’t the only one struggling late in the game. Jaylen Brown drove here but instead took a difficult shot at the rim while Derrick White was standing alone, free in the corner.

After a pick-and-pop situation, Kristaps Porzingis was able to fake Malik Monk from three and decided to drive. He drove into a crowded paint but took the difficult shot anyway and almost missed the rim.

Everyone seemed to be struggling last night, and the connection between the players seemed off—both on offense and defense.

#10 – DeRozan in the 4th

Contrary to the Celtics, DeMar DeRozan woke up in the fourth quarter, scoring 12 points over 12 minutes and delivering 4 assists. He owned the court in last night’s fourth quarter, seeing everything and scoring above everyone. On one play, he anticipated Jaylen Brown’s gamble and punished it with a pass to the open man:

His post-up and driving game were impossible to stop one-on-one for the Celtics players, and DeRozan scored just as easily on Payton Pritchard as he did on Jayson Tatum.

While the Celtics were collapsing in the most important moment of the game, DeRozan rose above it all and gave the Kings their sixth win in a row.