BOSTON -- The Celtics have already given fans plenty to chew on in the opening stretch of the season. They opened with a frustrating loss to the Detroit Pistons, followed that by flipping the script against the New York Knicks, and then rolled past the Chicago Bulls on Monday.
There have been standout moments all over the roster. Jayson Tatum had the rough night in Detroit before taking over against New York.
Payton Pritchard owned Monday’s win with a 19-point third quarter. Hugo Gonzalez looked sharp against Chicago, Sam Hauser’s 3-point shot has been relentless, and Paul George has been producing in a way that looks like if you threw the prime version of himself into a role-player Frankenstein machine.
The defense has been a big reason Boston has looked the part. Outside of a shaky second half in transition against the Pistons, it has matched the billing. The Celtics are second in the league in deflections per game at 20.7, second in opponent field goal percentage in the restricted area at 56.6%, and third in opponent turnovers per game at 20.0.
What has not gotten as much attention, though, is how often Boston is turning opponents into illegal-screen offenders.
That side of the ball fits neatly with the Celtics’ more aggressive defensive approach. And it has shown up fast: through three games, Boston has drawn 12 offensive fouls. Only three teams have more at 13 - the Oklahoma City Thunder, Charlotte Hornets and Memphis Grizzlies - while the Utah Jazz are the only other team at 12.
The league’s new emphasis on push-offs is part of the backdrop, with officials being instructed to call more offensive fouls when a ball-handler uses the off-arm to push off a defender. But the Celtics are also benefiting from what appears to be a crackdown on illegal screens.
Joe Mazzulla said the key to staying clean on offense is simple.
"Just following the rules. Set good screens," Joe Mazzulla said of avoiding offensive fouls.
"Very important that we arrive there early. It's a relationship between the ball handler and the screener, making sure we're set, making sure we're just following the rules that they're having.
And defensively, I think just being physical at the point of attack to where you can mess up their ball-handler-screener relationship."
Boston did get tagged with five offensive fouls Monday night, but Chicago did too. The Celtics are sprinting into screens, and that pressure is creating problems for opposing teams before the screen can even get set.
That pressure starts with the ball. Boston is playing with a lot of on-ball force, and when defenders are up into the action quickly, they can catch screeners in motion and force awkward collisions. Hugo Gonzalez put it plainly.
"We're trying to play pressure, and sometimes that occurs on the screener moving a bit of it, but we're not trying to force nothing," Gonzalez said. "Just trying to apply pressure to the ball and make them feel uncomfortable."
One example came on a handoff involving Baylor Scheierman and Norman Powell. Scheierman stayed locked to Powell and knew Wilson was coming as the screener.
Instead of giving ground and trying to slip around the action, he beat Wilson to the spot. By the time contact happened, Wilson still hadn’t gotten set, and the result was an offensive foul.
The same pattern showed up again when Payton Pritchard was guarding Josh Giddey above the break and Noa Essengue came to set a screen. Giddey went too early, Pritchard stayed with him step for step, and Essengue arrived late. That meant Pritchard was already in position to run into a screener who was still moving.
Part of the credit goes to the Bulls, who didn’t have the timing right. As Mazzulla pointed out, the screen-and-ball-handler relationship has to be there. In these plays, it wasn’t.
But Boston’s effort matters too.
On another possession, Ron Holland and Daniss Jenkins ran a handoff with Pritchard involved in the coverage. Holland went into the action intending to screen, then backed out when he saw Pritchard had already beaten him to the spot.
It was too late. Pritchard kept coming, sold the contact, and drew the call.
The Celtics need that kind of hustle. It is not always about getting there first. Sometimes it is about taking the hit the right way and forcing the whistle.
Jordan Walsh showed that on a sequence with Jalen Brunson and Mikal Bridges near halfcourt. Walsh stayed right on Brunson, fought over the screen, and absorbed enough contact that Bridges added a little extra shoulder. Walsh went down, and the offensive foul followed.
That play could have gone the other way if Walsh had tried to sneak around the screen. Instead, he went through it and made the contact matter.
The bench is buying into it, too. When Scheierman drew that offensive foul on Wilson, the Celtics’ sideline reacted like it was a big bucket. Matt Reynolds was first up on the back left of the bench, then DJ MacLeay, and then the rest of the back row began to rise as the camera cut to Scheierman.
That kind of reaction kept happening. Every time Boston drew an offensive foul, the bench treated it like a win.
It makes sense. These plays feed everything the Celtics want to be about - possession control, defensive pressure and energy.
It won’t jump out in a box score, but Boston is clearly tracking it. Early on, the results have been there.
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