Pistons vs Boston Celtics

Game Breakdown

*Special Situations*

• Ausar the 5 minutes

  • PnR with THJ and gets the catch but unable to finish

  • Holiday attacks, Ausar is the rim protector and fouls putting Holiday on the FT line

  • Ausar Iso drive on Porzingis but unable to finish

  • Cade TO leads to Holiday 3PM

  • Was not a successful rotation

• Just an all around bad performance

  • You got a good 1st half from Cade Cunningham and that’s been it

Pistons

• Cade, Ivey, THJ, Harris, Stew

  • Holland Ausar minutes continue to be staggered

    • Not sure I understand the idea behind going small against the lineups the Celtics were playing…..

  • OFFENSE

    • The defense has been good/Celtics are missing shots but they have not been able to score the ball to take advantage at all

    • ATO action in the 1st quarter designed for Cade, love this

    • Harris and Ivey, 2 of your top 4 scorers, just haven’t been aggressive/involved in the offense

      • Well, they have forced the issue to start the 2nd half with not tremendous results

    • I know they are shooting bad in the 1st half but I don’t think they have generated great flow

  • DEFENSE

    • They just don’t have the point of attack defenders to stay in front and while their off ball rotations are improved, they aren’t nearly ready for this type of offense

    • They were going to give up a big run at some point BUT that’s why they needed the offense to come through early in the game and maybe have a lead when that run happened

• STEW with an AWESOME block on a Porzingis cut and potential dunk

  • He has had so many impressive blocks like this throughout the season

  • Loses Porzingis as a trail 3P shooter around 8:00 mark of the 1st quarter

    • Just like to be fair with these because it’s DEFINITELY something we would have pinpointed with Duren

• THJ, would be really nice to see him go through one of his hot stretches

  • Feel like they are creating some pretty good looks for him

• CADE with some awesome hustle here early in the game

  • Ivey had gotten blocked and Cade sprints back in transition to block the lob pass to Porzingis

  • OTHER 3 (Ivey, THJ, Harris) jog back and they still end up giving up a dunk

  • Continues to just make some weird decisions

    • 4:00 1st quarter he has a PnR with Reed and there just isn’t anything there….maybe some of these come from him feeling like he HAS to make something happen every time has the ball?

  • Lefty hook out of the mid post isolation

  • Continue to be multiple off the ball lapses every game where he loses track of a floor spacer and gives up an attempt

  • Really productive 1st half where the mid range jumper looked very smooth

• IVEY not able to knock down his first couple of C&S 3PAs

  • Finally hits his 3rd attempt

  • Defense has been….fine?

  • Idk, just don’t think you have felt his presence in this game in the 1st half

    • 4 of 5 attempts have been 3PAs and I don’t know that the C&S ones have been bad but this isn’t his path to being productive…..he has to be a continuous paint touch guy

    • Hits his 5th attempt from 3 but just has not been enough downhill rim pressure from him so far

  • Straight up, this has just been a rough offensive game to watch and he’s strung together quite a few of these in a row now

    • We know he is inconsistent but he really needs one of those bounce back performances soon

• AUSAR athleticism needs to be recognized by his teammates

  • You see him visually frustrated after not getting a lob pass in transition in the 1st quarter and rightfully so

  • Struggling with his finishing around the rim tonight

  • Where is the 6-8 foot jumper we saw him be really effective with last season?

• REED immediately shows some limitations defensively with inability to contest at the rim

  • Doesn’t have recovery ability on a pass dump off and then lob over his head in PnR

• HOLLAND with a really nice soft touch floater and then even more impressive cut off a Cade mid post isolation

  • Continues to look AWESOME attacking, and finishing, in transition

  • VERY fluid and confident corner C&S 3PM

• SASSER LOVES that right foot, right hand floater

  • Continue to see signs of the defensive pest that I think he has to be to truly carve out a role for himself

Celtics

• White, Brown, Holiday, Horford, Porzingis

  • Once they break you down defensively it is almost impossible to recover because of their spacing and the way they move the ball

  • Continue to love teams like them that take their big and put them on the non shooter on the other team

  • They are truly fun to watch when they get in their flow

• PORZINGIS rim protection is such an added addition to their defense

  • Lots of talk is always about the floor spacing, which is VERY valuable, but his rim contests always stand out to me

  • Having someone like him to score OR draw double teams out of post ups is such a luxury to have when the game slows down in the HC

    • He has been AWESOME in these isolation plays in the 1st half

  • Has thrown some really nice passes from the top of the key and out of the post

• WHITE just has such elite timing on his blocks when playing on the ball

  • It is one thing to get these rotating off the ball or from behind but he gets so many when he is squared up as the on ball defender

• BROWN gets to the lane any time he wants, just consistent paint touches

  • He will throw some pretty rough passes

• PRITCHARD continues to be an elite floor spacer who holds up physically on defense at the point of attack

  • And he’s not just doing it off C&S, either

  • Plays with so much energy and intensity

  • ELITE, ELITE, ELITE floor spacing right now for what I think is no doubt the 6MOTY at this point in the season

• KORNET always shows up as a really good mover AND ball mover