10 takeaways from a spacing battle in Oklahoma City

#1 – Court geometry

Court geometry last night was at the heart of the battle. Both teams set up their players in precise positions to ensure their stars had the most space to attack the rim. For example, to start the game, the Celtics set up Kristaps Porzingis against Cason Wallace so he could ignore him and remain close to the rim.

However, to counter that, all the OKC off-ball players moved to the opposite side of Cason Wallace and Porzingis. As a result, there was a lot of space on the left side, where only Wallace and Porzingis were. This allowed Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to drive to his left with all the space he needed. This also removed any rim protection from Porzingis, who could only try to disrupt the drive, but there was simply too much space.

On the other side, the Celtics also set up their players to give Jayson Tatum as much space as possible. The Celtics theoretically had better spacing than the Thunder, thanks to their centers who can shoot from three. Here, for example, Porzingis is dragging Isaiah Hartenstein away from the rim.

Additionally, as the Celtics are playing five-out, the stunts weren’t very effective on the drive, and the rim protection from Jalen Williams was a bit late. The geometry of the court and the location of every piece on the chessboard were key last night—and evolved in the second half. Indeed, if the Celtics scored only 27 points in the second half, it’s because OKC coach Mark Daigneault adjusted how his players would defend the Celtics’ spacing.

#2 – Shrink the floor

To beat the Celtics, you have to choose your poison and hope you chose wisely. That’s exactly what OKC did, but the Celtics also helped them a little bit. First, OKC was hoping that, thanks to hard closeouts, the Celtics would miss more three-pointers than usual—and they did. Three for 24 in the second half; this was a great imitation of the 2018 Houston Rockets in the Western Conference Finals.

To shrink the floor, the Thunder didn’t hesitate to constantly switch and sent two players to the ball when needed. After the Celtics created a lot of easy opportunities from post-ups in the first half, the Thunder decided to send two players and forced the ball to move. They preferred to run after the ball and contest the three rather than give the Celtics an easy path to the rim, and it worked.