Garnett's Great Performance to Open Series

Game 1 is in the books and the Celtics took advantage of some bad turnovers by the Pistons in the 3rd quarter to make the first splash in this series. Overall, the Pistons looked rusty from the week off while the Celtics looked like they were still jacked after winning Game 7 against Lebron.

Offensively, the Celtics were led by Kevin Garnett. What led to Garnett's 26 points was a couple of things.

1. Flip Saunders chose to have Rasheed Wallace guard Garnett initially. In hindsight, this was probably a mistake. Wallace is a great weak-side defender because he floats and can stuff the lane. This most likely prompted the change that Saunders made later in the game to go with McDyess on Garnett.

2. Saunders chose to double-team Pierce on dribble penetration, so on the PNR, Garnett would pop out and hit several wide open shots from that 15-20 foot range.

Clearly, Saunders was influenced by Pierce's 41 point outburst in Game 7. I watched the regular season game between these 2 earlier in the year and they either played PP 1v1 or doubled Garnett. Listen to ESPN's Mark Jackson breaking down Garnett's game up to the 3rd quarter and a key Garnett score in the 4th quarter when the Pistons were making a mini-run,



As I mentioned, I don't really like that the Pistons decided to double and collapse on Pierce every single time on the dribble drive to the net. Obviously they're having a hard time containing him 1v1, so they need to find a defender capable of doing it. If they have to rely on the double-team, they'll be in trouble all series. In this screencap, there's actually 3 Celtics that are all wide open,


In this screencap from a play in the 1st quarter, the Pistons go to double-team PP in the corner but he's able to reverse the ball back up to Rondo at the top of the key. You can see that Rasheed rotated down on help side but is now caught trying to run back to close out KG who nails yet another jumper,


I didn't include a screencap from the last sequence of the youtube clip. It was basically a block-to-block flex screen for a KG post up with he turns inside for a middle baby hook.

Summary:

So, the Celtics have taken the first shot and scored the first victory. Adjustments to consider for Game 2: Will the Pistons go with a 1v1 on PP and who will guard him, Prince? Rip? Realistically though, it wasn't the defense there that lost the Pistons the game. The turnovers in the 3rd quarter were a real buzz kill. You can't play loose with the ball and expect to beat a good team like the Celtics in their building. Bottom line, 7 TOs in 1 quarter, UNACCEPTABLE.

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