Why Boston gets easy shots and Dallas doesn’t | NBA Finals Game 2 analysis

Why are the Celtics able to break down Dallas but the Mavs are stuck with hard shots in isolation? This detailed film breakdown & scouting report explores the Celtics mismatch hunting of Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving and others to create easy offense, while Dallas has struggled finding any mismatches against Boston’s defense.

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[Music] the Celtics took a two nothing lead in the NBA Finals despite shooting just 26% from three because they have a massive advantage through the first two games of this series both teams are playing a game of mismatch hunting but Boston’s version is very different than Dallas’s and there are two huge reasons why first Boston has multiple weaknesses to attack in the Dallas defensive chain first and foremost starting with with Luca donic who had a hard time staying in front of anyone which collapsed the Mavs D and led to wide openen shots Jason Tatum was often the one hunting for Luca on these switches and he blew by him repeatedly throughout the night again scrambling that defense and leading to offense at The Rim this time Luca is crossmatched against Jaylen Brown So Daniel Gafford rotates over to help he wants to move Gafford out of there and reset his dribble so when Brown gets it back he goes instantly leaves Luca in the dust and now Boston’s just finding their preferred shot and it’s Drew holiday wide open in the corner Tatum again calls up Luca but this time Drew fakes the screen and that freezes donic because Luca is anticipating a switch here so ghosting the pick leaves him behind the action holiday Blows By him on the drive and it’s another score and on the next possession they run the exact same play this time it’s an actual screen and Tatum gets Luca on him then he leaves him in the dust and finishes with an N1 and on both of these plays Dallas’s Center is out of the paint guarding christops porzingis so there’s not much shop blocking at the rim for the Mavs when Boston goes to finish this is the second reason Boston has so much success mismatch hunting they stretch out Dallas with all their Shooters and here stick a guard near the rim so when Tatum goes by Luca their smallest player is left to protect the hoop same thing here they pull Luca on to Tatum Drew is spaced in the near corner so Derek Lively has to stay way out on him and when Tatum smokes donic it’s an easier shot at the basket the second vulnerability to attack is Kyrie Irving who has had a really strong defensive run in the playoffs so we didn’t see this much in game one but in game two it was another weak point again the shop Locker is out of the paint and brown can float it in and because he’s usually the smallest guy out there switching all these screens leaves Kyrie exposed against Boston’s size and porzingis loves this elbow jumper over the top of little guy this time Tatum is the screener they could seeed the switch PJ Washington comes over to help on the mismatch and that’s dunk City for Boston and Lively so worried about porzingis his shooting that he completely misses Browns cut and on this one the problems start on offense for Dallas because Lively chases a rebound that leaves him matched up with a perimeter player in Holiday Lucas is then fighting in the post with porzingis Tatum sees Kyrie and blows past him and donish is not the rim protector Lively is Boston can also hunt Dallas’s big men to isolate against their guards and wings and with all that space they’re just too quick they send the defense into rotation and then it’s target practice going after the MAV centers also organically pulls their shop blocking away from the rim so when you blow by one smaller players have to defend the hoop and they don’t even have to attack the center directly the Mavs concede a switch on this porzingis screen and Derek White’s a 40% three-point shooter so Lively can’t leave him and that’s just an easy straight line drive for brown and a finish so Boston has multiple points of attack on any possession Tatum could go after Lively here but instead they play through the porzingis height advantage and if a double never comes it’s an ISO game for the Celtics and even against Dallas’s small ball lineup they can still bring the big into the action 30 ft away Luca becomes the rim protector and he never slides over and it’s a clinching layup for brown teams were shooting just 60% at The Rim against the Mavs in the first three rounds of the playoffs they had done an incredible job shrinking the floor and keeping their shop blocking centers near the rim to choke off penetration but in the first two games of the finals the Celtics are shooting 83% at The Rim because of their spacing and their ability to Target multiple mismatches in the Maverick shell the obvious way to stop bleeding layups like this is to help more in the pain Luca is early this time but PJ Washington and Kyrie miscommunicate so Lively literally runs out of the picture contesting this three he never gets back and Drew’s Corner crash pulls Washington off Tatum for the offensive rebound and again no one steps up in the lane and it’s a dunk and they’re rightfully worried about Boston shooting Tatum actually takes Lively into the post here Washington overh helps and that’s too much space for white this time they’re in transition again Lively has to match up with Tatum so he just takes him off the dribble and the help is there but that opens up a layup pass and Boston did a ton of damage in this game attacking their mismatches in early offense Kyrie gambles desperately and that leaves KP with an easier shot and this one is off a make and Dallas is all crossmatched again Kyrie’s on Brown their Center is stretched out on holiday Jaylen drives and Forces help that sends the defense scrambling and Drew ends up finishing against Irving at the rim because Tatum is wide open so Maxi clayber thinks he needs to leave to help on him and meanwhile on the backside Luca thinks there’s a player in the corner so it’s a layup line it was a rough night for donic defensively on that swore knee starting with the opening play where he drops his head getting back then just assumes he’s switching to Brown instead of his normal matchup with holiday there’s no communication and it’s a blown coverage so Boston was able to generate amazing shots all night with their pace and mismatch hunting but Dallas can’t do that to them on the other end in our game one breakdown we discussed Boston’s defensive scheme with Tatum guarding a center and then protecting porzingis but it’s really the MAV spacing that is so different they’re essentially playing four on five on offense with someone like porzingis roaming and just daring Dallas’s mediocre Shooters to make non Corner threes the maps basically took to hunting Tatum throughout the game to see if they could collapse the defense or find easy offense but this just led to a ton of shots or turnovers because Tatum is an elite Wing Defender Kyrie tried him a few times and the results weren’t much better with a huge steel here and this is just stagnant isolation basketball Without Really any advantage so the Mavs are relying on the brilliant shot making of their two offensive Playmakers and they’re letting the Celtics Defenders sit in those driving gaps and choke off the floor every once in a while the Mavs have found a decent mismatch to attack in isolation without help coming but even those don’t go so well Payton Pritchards matched up with Luca on this possession that pass is crazy but a bit low and when they reset Pritchard is still in his grill multiple Celtics are hugging the lane line and it turns into a tricky fade from 17 ft Pritchard also had an amazing stand against Irving where they clear out the side again the Celtics roam off the shooters and that’s a good contest on the fallway Kyrie played a ton of isolation basketball like this throughout the night here boldly taking on Derek white there’s that four on five thing again and it’s yet another contest tested jumper and this time instead of attacking holiday he’s waiting for Luca to come off a screen away from the ball white does a great job jumping out on it and now Kyrie’s stuck trying to score undrew one onone that’s not doctor recommended and Luca runs into more help at the end of the play holiday has done amazing defensive work against Irving including this revolutionary idea of not conceding the switch and Irving settles for a tough three and here he fights through the screen again to avoid the switch and when they try to bring Al Horford back into the pick and roll Drew stays with Irving around the pick and rips him on the drive for another near turnover holiday was everywhere in this game whether it was a timely help leading to another donic turnover or this game defining play late in the fourth where he bats the first pass pressures the second so can steal it and then Luca never comes out on him so he’s left open in transition for the dagger three Drew also had some really high IQ Cuts in this one going early in transition then suddenly snapping back towards the rim here and on this play Tatum was stuck on the Baseline against a double team Kyrie loses track of him so he sneaks in behind for another great Tatum dime so through two games of the NBA finals it has been all Boston thanks to Tatum’s playmaking their defensive scheme and their ability to avoid mismatches on one end while constantly creating them on offense and as a result this incredible starting five is now just two games away from an NBA title to support us directly check out patreon.com/crashcourse cast and this channel otherwise thanks for watching this one all the way through as always and of course I hope you are having a great day