The Boston Celtics are taking advantage of one of the Knicks‘ biggest weak spots — spotty transition defense with gaps behind the three-point line — and it’s an area Tom Thibodeau and his crew know they need to shore should they advance to the Eastern Conference Finals to face the Indiana Pacers.
The Celtics shot 22-of-49 from three-point range in their 25-point blowout of the Knicks in Game 5. Many of those threes were generated off missed Knicks field goals that turned into fast break opportunities for Boston.
Thibodeau said ahead of tipoff of Game 6 against the Celtics at Madison Square Garden on Friday that transition three-point defense is “a priority” for the Knicks, who entered the night owning a 3-2 series lead, but faced a win-or-go-back-on-the-road for a sudden death Game 7 at the TD Garden in the event of a loss.
“To me [taking away transition threes] a priority because that’s one of the big ways they generate their threes. So we have to understand that,” Thibodeau said on Friday. “We have to be disciplined. We have to make defensive transition on every play. And then your communication also has to be great.”
Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said getting out in transition creates “an advantageous” situation for the team with the ball. The Knicks, who have chalked their transition struggles to poor communication, have oftentimes left opposing shooters wide-open off of their own misses and turnovers.
Derrick White made a number of his seven Game 5 threes in transition, and Payton Pritchard made five 3s on 14 attempts by pushing the pace off of a missed shot.
“There’s a five-on-four or a four-on-three. You just have to make the right reads,” Mazzulla said ahead of tipoff on Friday. “So to me, we’ve gotta get out in transition, get out to our spacing, and then make the right play. Most times, the thing in transition is there’s usually a two on one somewhere. You just have to find it.”
The Celtics made 60 threes in Games 3, 4 and 5, and have continued to generate clean looks despite Kristaps Porzingis battling an illness that has kept him on the sidelines more often than not. Shoring transition has to be a top priority — because in the event they advance to the conference finals, the run-and-gun Indiana Pacers, led by play-making point guard Tyrese Haliburton, will pelt them from three-point range on the break.
STARTERS NOT PLAYING WELL
The Knicks’ starters have not played well against the Celtics, and they can’t explain why.
“That’s a question yall have asked me several times, and I don’t know — I wish I could give you all an answer, and address it,” said Josh Hart. “But I don’t know. And at the end of the day, we’ve got to figure it out and execute. But that’s not what we’re doing.”
The lineup of Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, Hart, Mikal Bridges and OG Anunoby was outscored by an average of 16.7 points per 100 possessions through the first five games of their second-round series.
“As a group, you said we’re a minus-22? In this series? … Well, first, talk about who we’re playing. Let’s talk about the Celtics: the defending champs, a team with a lot of experience, a team that — obviously, we’ve seen what they’ve been able to do the past couple years,” said Brunson. “So, we’re playing a really good team. Obviously we don’t wanna be minus-22 coming into tonight, but you gotta understand who we’re facing. And we need to be better, flat out. That’s what that means.”
MITCH’S FREE THROWS
Mitchell Robinson shot a perfect six-of-six from the free throw line in the Knicks’ Game 5 loss to the Boston Celtics. Mazzulla said Robinson’s streak wouldn’t deter him from intentionally fouling to put a historically poor free throw shooter on the foul line,
“I think you’ve gotta take a bunch of things into consideration: home vs. away, first quarter or second quarter, time and score, what the score is when you want to do that,” he said. “So it depends. So that’ll be a constant read as you go throughout the game.”
