First quarter decisions allow the Celtics to inflict a world of pain on the Warriors

Coverage choices result in a blowout defeat.

There’s definitely something about this game being the last of a four-game roadtrip — during which the Golden State Warriors were on the road for a week — that contributed to them being blown out of Boston by the league-best Celtics.

There’s also the missing-two-starters part, Steph Curry being hobbled with knee bursitis, and there’s definitely the part about the Warriors plainly being not in the same tier as the team that has lost only 12 games out of 60 played, is first in the league offensively (122.6 offensive rating), third in the league defensively (111.8 defensive rating), and are outscoring opponents by 10.8 points per 100 possessions — the best net rating in the league.

But there’s definitely some things to be said about how the Warriors started the game and their approach when it came to defensive coverages and decisions. I don’t know what was said or planned beforehand, but whatever was agreed upon didn’t do them any favors.

In particular, much is going to be discussed about Jaylen Brown, who scored 19 of his 29 points in the first quarter, during which the Celtics outscored the Warriors, 44-22. Heading into tonight, Brown was shooting 34.8% on 5.6 threes per game — which apparently was enough of a “below-average” clip for Draymond Green to opt not to defend him out on the perimeter.

For all of Green’s positive reputation as a defender, one aspect of his defense that has always treaded a thin line between risky and outright reckless is his tendency to not guard players on the perimeter who aren’t perceived as outside shooting threats on the scouting report. Green doesn’t even bother to do a soft closeout/contest to make such personnel think a bit — on the contrary, he gives them all the time in the world to pull up comfortably.

I get that Brown is not an elite shooter by any means and that if there’s anyone the Warriors are comfortable sagging off of to keep Green as a roamer and rim protector (and there’s not much to choose from, given the Celtics’ loaded shooting talent), it’s Brown. But he’s good enough to the point where if you give him an open look — and keep giving him open looks — he’ll drill them in your face.

As Green learned when he opted to let him shoot:

There are also the looks from Celtics players that were the result of questionable decisions by Warriors defenders at the point of the screen. Two stood out to me in particular, and both involved going under on screens against two shooters who are shooting north of 40% this season.

This pindown by Al Horford for Jrue Holiday — shooting 45% on 4.6 threes per game this season — looked like it should’ve been a switch between Klay Thompson and Moses Moody. But Moody opts to stay him on Holiday and tries to shoot the gap to take a shortcut and stay in front.

All it ends up doing is giving Holiday a look he can score off of:

Another duck-under decision was made a couple of possessions later, except the culprit this time was Curry and the shooter was Derrick White — shooting 40% on nearly seven attempts per game from beyond the arc.

Whenever the Celtics run split action from the high post/elbow area, they are fond of having Jayson Tatum be the screener in order to force a tough decision from opponents. In the Warriors’ case, the decision they’ll have to choose between: switching and letting Curry defend Tatum, who would definitely get the ball and work against the mismatch after setting the flare screen for White; or having Curry fight over and attempt to stay in front of White in order to avoid having to defend Tatum on an island.

The latter option is more preferable — but of course, Curry must also take a favorable route around the flare screen, since White isn’t someone he should be ducking under screens against.

Curry, however, did duck under the flare screen for White — and paid for it dearly:

These are details that got lost along the way — and resulted in the Warriors losing big to the Celtics, who also didn’t let the Warriors’ offense build a steady rhythm. Having plenty of versatile options on that end helps; when you can switch near endlessly to nullify off and on-ball actions, you can keep opponents from generating all sorts of advantages.

Even the ones that are advantages on paper because of size differences aren’t advantages in reality because of the quality of the defender:

All in all, it’s clear that the Warriors didn’t take this game as seriously as they probably should have, which got them the result they deserved. From a tactical perspective, the Warriors did about everything you could do wrongly against a team that is merciless and relentless against mistakes.

As Green says in the clip below, it indeed felt like a gameplan hastily assembled and half-heartedly concocted.