There’s a lot to unpack from last night’s comeback win over the Miami Heat.
Boston’s furious rally featured about as rough a shooting stretch as you can possibly imagine in a half of basketball, along with a 22-point comeback in a playoff-like atmosphere that featured blood, profanity, and a generational clash between 32-year-old Norman Powell and 20-year-old Hugo Gonzalez.
What also stood out was a new wrinkle added into the offense from newly acquired center Nikola Vučević, who utilized his size and Miami’s willingness to switch to put his back to the basket in nearly every appearance in the paint.
This year’s Celtics are dead last in post-up frequency by a healthy margin, averaging just 1.5 attempts per game. That’s a 1.4% frequency within their offense. That’s not a surprise based on their personnel, but it is a significant difference from last year, when they were third in post-ups with 6.5 attempts per game (6%) behind the back-to-the-basket activity of Jayson Tatum, Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford.
The only consistent source of post-up scoring this season has come from Jaylen Brown, who has scored 62 of their 78 points through work in the post.
Enter Vooch, who is among the most active post players in the game. His 19.84% post-up frequency ranks him 13th out of 520 players and puts him in the 98th percentile of the league, according to Basketball Index. That volume has not been met with high efficiency, as Vučević has scored just 0.87 points per possession on 45.8% shooting. But as we saw last night, Vooch’s activity facing away from the basket is a bit more than just a set-up for self-creation.
What we saw against Miami was a promising start to this new piece of their offensive identity. After a rewatch of Vučević’s 27 minutes, I logged 30 possessions where he at least opened himself up to an entry pass with his back to the basket. On those possessions, he got into a post-up 12 times.
What stood out the most in his post possessions was his quick processing as a passer. Only one of his post-ups ended in a true assist, but the vision he showcased opened up scoring opportunities for cutters and shooters off the catch. He looked to Derrick White on 45 cuts twice in this game, one earning an easy bucket for his teammate and the other ending in a foul on the pass.
His vision to shooters from beyond the arc also created easy opportunities. Those passes on the perimeter didn’t necessarily show up in the box score but created wide open looks for White and Sam Hauser that just didn’t fall their way. The passes themselves were both highly impressive, quick-instinct finds.
Vooch takes no time to send the ball to the open corner, with Davion Mitchell forced to suck in and help off Hauser because of the position Powell is placed in by the mismatch. The Celtics haven’t had a big with this level of natural passing vision all season.
With four assists to go with a points/rebounds double-double, we saw his passing affect the game from different areas of the floor, like in his dribble-drive kickout to the corner to White for a go-ahead three late in the game, but it’s in the post that he looks the most comfortable setting up teammates.
Vooch’s understanding of when to dig in and set up shop with his back to the basket wisely correlated with the matchups he was given. While he did have one poor post-up that ended in an over-dribbling turnover against Bam Adebayo, he mostly sought to exploit the switch-heavy Miami defense that focused on maintaining higher pickup points on the perimeter to limit Boston’s 3-point shooting.
If he saw Jaime Jaquez, he was posting up. If it was Dru Smith, yeah, you bet he was posting up. And if it was Norman Powell, well, you get it.
We saw Vučević seek out these mismatches more often in the second half, particularly in the third quarter, where he flashed to the post 11 times, more than the 10 post flashes he made in the first half alone.
He received the ball five times in those instances, taking advantage of a switch onto Smith for his first post-up bucket of the night and later getting a nice entry pass from White after a scram switch from Jaquez left the paint open for an easy finish.
This game ended with Neemias Queta on the floor to help deliver the final stops needed to pull off the comeback, but the Celtics instilled a significant level of confidence in their new center addition. He played 27 minutes in his debut and six in the fourth quarter, which included opportunities in clutch time.
With 1:04 left to go in a two-point game, Brown sailed an entry pass just over Vučević that resulted in a turnover.
A tough result, no doubt, but a telling sign that even in his debut, Vučević’s teammates displayed a level of trust in his ability to impact the game when it’s down to the wire. The hope is, with time, they’ll be able to iron out those wrinkles. We certainly saw enough to indicate a positive first step to a great new relationship.
