A controversial take

The boxscore is prone to telling lies

Sunday night was a tough one for the Boston Celtics. They came out flat, struggled with the Philadelphia 76ers’ adjustments on the offensive end, and, quite frankly, didn’t show the level of fight we’ve come to expect from this Celtics team.

Yet, down the stretch, Joe Mazzulla found a way to galvanize his troops, and they rallied back into the game before Mazzulla then decided to screw it up by not calling a timeout on the final possession of OT. We can argue over Mazzulla’s timeout strategy until we’re blue in the face; it won’t change anything. At this point, Mazzulla is who he is, at least for the remainder of this season.

I’m not here to talk about the final play of the game today — I did enough of that on the Green With Envy post-game stream.

Instead, I want to talk about Malcolm Brogdon. You know, the recently crowned Sixth Man of the Year. The player who has won the Celtics multiple games with his performances off the bench. And the player who ended Sunday afternoon with 19 points, 8 rebounds, and 2 assists on 46.2/62.5/100 shooting—excellent stats off the bench. I agree.

BUT

I also think this was one of Brogdon’s lesser performances of the season. Sure, he provided the scoring spark he was acquired to bring. Yet, he also got hunted relentlessly on defense, with James Harden toying with him repeatedly. And, at times, it felt like Brogdon had his blinders on when running the offense, pounding the air out the ball, missing some good reads, and forcing his narrative when the Celtics needed a flow and rhythm in their offense.

I want to start with a possession that frustrated the life out of me, where Brogdon gets caught ball-watching and doesn’t react to the Celtics’ defensive structure by stepping higher up the court to ‘split the difference’ between Georges Niang and Tobias Harris.

As you can see in the above clip, as Rob Williams rotates over to protect the rim, Brogdon is left as the only weak side defender. As such, it’s his responsibility to split the difference between the two shooters on the perimeter - 1 on the wing and 1 in the corner. Yet, rather than taking the 2 or 3 steps required, Brogdan stays glued to the spot. So, when the ball is kicked out to Niang, the close-out is late and has minimal impact in changing the shot.

It’s a simple adjustment that all NBA defenses understand, so to me; this was a brain fart on Brogdon’s behalf at a point in time when the Sixers were ramping up their pressure and looking to gain momentum.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying Brogdon is a poor defender, as usually, he is a team-average contributor who can hold his own on that side of the floor. I mean, throughout game 4, Brogdon limited Tyrese Maxey to 1-of-6 shooting when guarding him.

Yet my issue with Brogdon on defense wasn’t due to his man coverage but rather how he contributed to team schematics, like in the first clip I provided. An aspect of Brogdon’s defense that could use some work is his screen navigation and decision-making when dealing with screens.

When guarding Harden, in the most basic of P’n’R sets, Brogdon gets tangled up with Embiid as he fights through the contact, pulling at the MVP as he begins his roll. There’s nothing wrong with playing physically; we’re talking about playoff basketball. Yet, a basic mistake when trying to navigate your way through contact has no place on the floor when your team has fought to tie the game up, and your error could send a legitimate free-throw shooter to the line.

Frustratingly, Brogdon makes a similar mistake on the next trip down the floor.

This time, Brogdon does an excellent job of navigating two Embiid screens but manages to flat-tire Harden on the drive, sending him to the floor and earning him a foul call. Once again, this happened in the clutch, with the scores tied — that has to hold some weight when talking about Brogdon’s negative impact on the defensive side of the floor.

Look, no one is expecting Brogdon to be elite defensively. He’s clearly the most limited out of the Celtics’ three-headed monster, but the mistakes were certainly piling up in this game. That’s enough of the defensive issues, though. There are only so many clips I can pull that show the same thing (poor navigation, lousy decision-making).

In the clip above, I provided three different options Brogdon had available after he ran into traffic on the above possession. Those options are as follows:

• Cross-court swing pass for Grant Williams in the weakside corner

• Escape dribble, look to reset the play, and run an action

• Nash the dribble (dribble across the baseline into a second-side action)

Instead, Brogdon goes full Miles Logan (Blue Streak) and takes the fadeaway jumper with Harden all over him—wrong decision.

And then, there was this beauty.

My thoughts here are simple.

We’re seeing these crazy turnovers from Brogdon more and more recently as he continues to deal with the additional attention that comes with being in a postseason battle against a legitimate rival who just so happens to be the other major contender left in the conference.

And now, for the final clip before I go on a rant about utilizing your big man around the rim.

Ok, so Rob fouls Harden - or Harden flops; either way, a whistle could have blown there - but it didn’t. Under no circumstances should Rob be that wide open around the rim, and the driving point guard not put the ball in the air for him to hammer down on a lob play. We’re talking about one of the most athletic bigs in the league, who thrives when tasked with playing above the rim. Yet, Brogdon looks off him and smokes the layup instead. Again, this isn’t selfishness; it’s just lousy processing and a mistake we haven’t seen from him much during the regular season.

When Dennis Schroder was on the roster last season, one of my most significant issues with him was how he rarely rewarded the roll man on P’n’R actions, preferring to go it alone and force the issue. The above play gave me Schroder vibes, and I wouldn't say I liked it one little bit. That got me thinking, though. Just how much is Schroder utilizing Rob Williams in the playoffs? Now that both of them are coming off the bench?

According to PBP Stats, Brogdon has assisted Williams 4 times since the start of the playoffs and Horford twice. Over the first 10 games of the playoffs, Brogdon has run 40 P’n’R’s as the ball handler but has only assisted the big man on 6 occasions. Sure, there will be other possessions where Brogdon has found an open shooter, but given the eye test, logic would dictate that he’s looking to score the majority of the time.

It was a similar story during the regular season. Brogdon assisted Horford 16 times and dimed for Rob on a further 15 occasions. Just to put this into context, NBA Stats has Brogdon as running 301 P’n’R possessions as the ball handler during the regular season, yet he only found his big man on 31 occasions? That’s a 10% pass rate to the guy who is springing you free on the perimeter. Again, Brogdon was probably hitting Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and Grant Williams more frequently, but it'she isn’t one to reward the screener in these situations.

So I ask you, why not? Why would you not hit Horford on the pop when he is among the best perimeter scorers in the NBA this year? Why wouldn’t you test the defense’s vertical coverage by putting it up for Rob to get? It’s a question I don’t have the answer to, but it’s undoubtedly perplexing.

Let me end this by re-emphasizing that Brogdon is an elite guard and has been a vital pickup and contributor to the Celtics this season. He will win the team more games between now and the end of the playoffs (if the Celtics continue to progress), and he will continue proving a shrewd piece of business for Brad Stevens. However, that doesn’t mean he can’t have bad games, and it certainly doesn’t mean the boxscore tells us the whole story - about him or anybody else.

So there is my take on Malcolm Brogdon’s game 4 performance and how his impact was as positive as you may have been led to believe when watching highlights and looking at the boxscore the next day. Hopefully, we see a more Brogdon-esque performance in game 5 because if there were ever a time to snap out of the hometown slump for the Celtics, today would be that day.