Since taking over as head coach of the Boston Celtics to start the season, Joe Mazzola has overseen a major change in the way the Celtics’ offensive team executes. A “never say die” attitude from the three-point line, plenty of five-point possessions, and a handful of plays that we see in action multiple times per game.
Outside of the sheer volume of threes the Celtics shoot these days, one play that has become synonymous with the Mazzulla ball is the “stack” move. Simply put, a “stack” is when an action involves two screens – a screen on the ball and a back screen placed on the first screen defender.
In fact, the only thing separating the action of the pick-and-roll in esp and the action of the stack is what the second examiner does after contacting the screen receiver. However, it should also be noted that pick-and-roll in Spain can also be known as the stacking move, because it is basically just a variation of the game.
It’s something that can cause some headaches for Philadelphia Seventy Sixers When the two teams face each other in the second round of the playoffs. Furthermore, the stack motion is something that has proven to work for the Celtics when facing Sixers. Below is every time they ran a stack action during their February head-to-head.
This first clip shows how Mazzulla likes to get his team involved in stacking action early in the games as they look to create a turmoil on the perimeter. The defense is forced to make multiple decisions at the same time. In this example, Al Horford is the ball keeper, while Jayson Tatum sets screen back on Derrick White.
As events unfold, White pulls his dribbler towards the touchline, taking Joel Embiid and PJ Tucker with him; Tatum swings to the strong side wing, ensuring that Al Horford has room to get in on the weak side.
After just two possessions, the Celtics are back to their stack move, this time running a “stack turnover,” with Derrick White turning into a screenback. It’s the white backscreen that opens the way for Tatum to attack the edge, taking Embiid out of possession and limiting his ability to nail assists in a trick towards the ball.
Here’s the stack action again, early in the second quarter, with Sam Hauser serving as the backyard sieve. What’s interesting about this play is how Hauser’s screen gets into the flow of the play, thus marking defender Robert Williams while simultaneously holding back the closing on Malcolm Brogdon on the perimeter.
This time, Jayson Tatum gets clear at the weak hole after setting the backspin, creating the driving fairway for White to exploit, resulting in a high percentage shot around the rim.
Another stacking move, with Robert Williams coming off the strong side creating a gap again for White to exploit on his way to the edge.
When you achieve great success in a certain action, and the entrance to this action is easily recognized, it is logical that sometimes you will set up the alignment as a decoy, which happened above. Tatum serves as the ball’s screeners, with Williams lining up in the back sieve position; However, instead of setting an actual screen, Tatum starts a ghost screen (a non-contract screen followed by a glow in space on the perimeter).
Interestingly, this procedure was the first procedure that started with an alignment of a never-ending stack in a bucket.
With a playoff series looming between these two sides, it would be fair to assume Boston will look at creating scoring opportunities using the “stack” move in the early games before incorporating some play-calling variations to keep the Doc Rivers and Sixers defense on its toes.
In just one game, Boston has run that play six times, hitting it on five of those occasions, and you know what they say, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”