Robert Williams played an important role in the Boston Celtics’ victory over the Boston Celtics Atlanta Hawks in Game 1 by providing vertical spacing and frame protection with its long wingspan and jumping ability. However, when watching Williams this season, there was one aspect of his offensive game that no one seemed to notice, and that was his “chopped creativity.”
When I discuss “creating the cut,” I am talking about developing a scoring opportunity for a teammate because of the space created by the cut that usually occurs before the ball is passed to the bowler. Fortunately, Williams gave us a great example late in the second quarter, as his cut opened up space on the wing for Horford to nail down an easy three-point jump.
The Celtics are entering their amazing series of screens as they look to get Jayson Tatum the ball over the perimeter. As Tatum exits the second screen in the standings, Robert Williams lunges towards the edge, taking Clint Capella with him and forcing John Collins to tag his roll, leaving Horford wide open on the wing.
Tatum recognizes space, quickly drives the ball to Horford, and BOOM, an easy three as the defense scrambles to close in time. However, had Williams not made the cut, the Celtics would have had no advantage to exploit. Below is an annotated version of the play.
All season long, we’ve seen the Celtics use cut construction to create open perimeter jumps, with Horford and Tatum being the primary beneficiaries. The interesting part of the above action is how the Celtics used the threat of a lob pass to force Atlanta to overreact on the play.
Late in the first quarter, the Celtics ran a similar out of possession (SLOB) play, with Williams receiving and a lob pass as a result.
Executing plays off their amazing moves is nothing new for the Celtics–these plays have been a staple of this team throughout the regular season. Still, seeing them make plays that easily miss and then cascade into variations of those setups is heartening, especially against a team that’s notoriously porous defensively.
It should also be noted that Boston has taken advantage of cutting creation out of its big men and hasn’t just relied on screening actions to generate easy snaps with clever cutting actions. Take the play below, for example, where Derrick White cut from the wing (cut 45) lures two defenders into him, allowing Jayson Tatum to come in from the weak corner for an easy pass and get the finish.
Joe Mazzulla has done a solid job getting his team into late cut action, where player action generates opportunities for someone else to land. Combining these moves with a truly menacing lob and chop creation becomes a valuable weapon in the Celtics’ offensive arsenal, one the Hawks may not have an answer to.