Four Things Before Game Four

Game Three was an incredibly important win for the Celtics. Over the past 36 hours, you've probably read plenty about it, so I won't go into the game as a whole. But here are four things I wanted to highlight.

Jrue Holiday's Rebounds

Much has been made of the fact that the C's defense finally locked in in the last quarter and a half. Never was this felt more than in the rebounding game. In the first half, the C's were outrebounded 21-10 by Indiana. In the third quarter, they were so again, though by a closer margin – 15-13. But in the fourth quarter, Boston finally edged them, winning the rebounding battle 13-7. It should come as no surprise that the key player to making that happen was Jrue Holiday.

Much has been made of Jrue Holiday's and-one to give the C's the lead and his steal on the final play. They can't be overstated, they were gigantic plays. But don't overlook his five fourth-quarter rebounds. The C's didn't actually get many points off of them, but there is just that thing that he does where he knows exactly what the team needs, and does it. As I mentioned, the C's were -11 on the glass in the first half. And then Holiday came out in the second half and pulled down eight rebounds, which led the team, and the C's worked their way back to a positive differential on the glass. Was it the difference in the way the other things he did were the difference? No, but I thought it was important nonetheless.

Rick Carlisle's Final Play

Rick Carlisle should have called time out before the Jrue Holiday steal. I think everyone can agree on that. At that point, it had been two and a half minutes since Indiana had scored, and Andrew Nembhard was essentially trying to go 1-on-4. But I thought his play call after that was just as questionable.

First, let's take a look at the "formation."

As far as overthinking things, this right up there with another infamous call that happened in Indianapolis – Bill Belichick going for it on 4th-and-2 from his own 28. What is even happening here? Despite this odd formation, Indiana actually got a player open. The pass to that player was wide open. But the player in question was completely idiotic.

I love Aaron Nesmith. I've made that pretty clear. But Nesmith, to that point, had only taken three shots in the game. The last shot he had taken was with 5:19 left in the third quarter, and the decision he made on that shot was terrible. Jaylen Brown blocked it, and got an easy lay-up in transition off of it, which led to Carlisle calling time out. Knowing this, would you have drawn up the final play for Nesmith?

Up to that point in the game, Indiana was 5-for-21 on three pointers. Andrew Nembhard hit four of them, with the lone other coming when the C's dared TJ McConnell to take one. In a situation where you needed a three pointer, it's pretty clear that Nembhard should have been the one shooting. Except Carlisle seems pretty locked in to the notion of Nembhard triggering the inbounds pass. I'm not sure why, especially since he had already made a critical mistake in a similar situation in Game 1, and then also because the pass in this case was easy. Nembhard actually underhanded it to Nesmith!

You can never be 100% sure on these play calls. There's a chance it wasn't designed for Nesmith. But watching it a few times, it really seemed like it was. The action is designed to get Nesmith separation. Also, look at where the other players go. Doug McDermott fades to the other side of the court, so a pass getting to him would have been a miracle. Myles Turner sprints right past the three-point line, so passing to him would have been pointless. And Pascal Siakam doesn't do much of anything, he looks to have been a decoy. As you can see above, he's barely across half court when Nembhard throws the pass, and like McDermott, fading away from the side of the court where the ball is. The play seems pretty clearly designed for Nesmith.

I just don't understand why you wouldn't have Siakam or Turner trigger the ball in and get it to Nembhard. But I'm glad Carlisle chose not to.

Jayson Tatum's Behind-the-Back Pass

I just want to take a minute to appreciate the behind-the-back pass Jayson Tatum threw to Al Horford late in the game (and the second one he threw him in the fourth quarter). Down five points with just over a minute left, the C's had to score. The game was over otherwise. Tatum did what we are always asking/pleading/screaming at him to do – he took the ball to the rack. Except when he got there, he was engulfed by three Indiana Pacers:

At this juncture, Tatum seemingly had one of two bad choices:

1. Go up with a shot that is probably getting blocked and just cross your fingers the ref calls a foul.
2. Hope Pascal Siakam falls asleep and doesn't immediately steal a pass to Jrue Holiday. You can see Siakam has played this perfectly, and is both in position to block Tatum and/or steal a pass to Holiday.

Honestly, pretend you didn't know what happened. Tatum is going full speed. If he tries a jump pass to Horford, Turner is right there to pick that off. He simply doesn't have an angle to throw a normal pass to Horford, and any pass to Jaylen Brown or Derrick White would have basically been a jump ball.

Instead of taking doors one or two, Tatum made a superstar play, and whipped that behind-the-back pass to Horford. If he tries that again tonight in Game 4, Indiana is probably ready for it. But on this night, they were helpless to watch like the rest of us. Let's look at another still-frame from right after Tatum throws the pass:

When I said engulfed before, I meant it. You literally can't see Tatum. Turner has jumped to try to block a shot that never came, and in doing so, blocked out Nesmith and Siakam from getting anywhere close to Big Al. This was the result:

Al might as well have been in practice. Now, Big Al has missed his share of wide-open looks, so the bucket still wasn't a guarantee. But given the time and score, to get a shot this wide open was a miracle. A miracle that Jayson Tatum delivered. And my favorite part? Tatum never stopped moving. As Jaylen and Jrue crashed the boards for a potential rebound, Tatum – whose momentum carried him away from being able to get a rebound – was busy relocating to the perimeter in case the C's got a rebound. He would have been wide open for the follow-up three-point attempt:

Just a master class from a player who stepped up big time.

Feed Sam Hauser

Before the series, I said that one of my fears was that Sam Hauser would get played out of the series. After being a big key in the first round against Miami, Hauser scored just 15 points in the five games against Cleveland, and just two points in the first three games of the Indiana series. He's 0-for-9 from three in those three games. This is very un-Hauser like, as one of the things that gave him staying power this season was his ability to not let one bad game bleed into the next.

The difference is that in the regular season, there was a concerted effort to involve him in the offense. But as we get deeper into the playoffs, a lot of the plays where the Jay's collapse the defense and pass out to Hauser are turning into plays where they just go strong to the hoop. In a vacuum, that's great. We want those guys driving to the rim. But Hauser hasn't hit a three pointer since May 15th. If Boston wins tonight, they won't play again until June 6th. That'd be three full weeks of Hauser not hitting a three. That's not great. In a perfect world, the C's would get Hauser cooking tonight. It's not fair to say they need Hauser to win, obviously that's not the case. But you'd like to head into the next round with everyone feeling confident, and a few threes seeing the bottom of the net tonight would be a big boost for Hauser.