The Boston Celtics understand that basketball is a team game.
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This may seem to be obvious, but we all too often forget when we talk about how superstars take over a game. In Game 1 between the Celtics and Cavaliers, Kyrie Irving went superhuman and scored 30 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the three-point line. But as Brad Stevens observed via NESN.com, “The offensive rebounds kill you. The superhuman shots do not.”
The offensive rebounds did kill the Celtics. Cleveland outrebounded Boston 15-7 on the offensive glass and 46-34 overall. Five Cavaliers had six or more rebounds. Only one Celtics player, Evan Turner, could say the same. The Celtics starting frontcourt of Brandon Bass and Tyler Zeller had a combined three rebounds.
If your second-leading rebounder in a game is Isaiah Thomas, you know you are in for a rough rebounding day.
However, Cleveland’s success and what we have seen of the 2015 playoffs shows something. NBA teams have moved away from the offensive rebound over the past few years, but it is still a tool of great value to win basketball games.
First, we should ask why teams are moving away from offensive rebounding. Transition basketball has become more important than ever in the modern NBA. Every team now looks to run up the floor and avoid facing a set defense. Remember how the Spurs eviscerated Miami last year, and how terrifying those same Heat were with LeBron and Wade.
NBA teams have thus focused more on getting back on defense. If a player goes for the offensive glass and fails, his team could be stuck playing 5-on-4 defense for a few crucial seconds.
Doc Rivers observed in 2012 that he rarely looked at offensive rebounds. The Spurs, the pinnacle of NBA success, have been doing this for years. Since 2011, they have been a bottom ten team in offensive rebounding percentage ever single year. The LeBron-Wade-Bosh Heat also were a bottom offensive rebounding team.
But in three of the eight Game 1s this past weekend, offensive rebounding played a crucial role. In Toronto, both the Washington Wizards and the Toronto Raptors engaged in a defensive mud fight reminiscent of basketball in the mid-2000s. Just like Kyrie in Cleveland, Paul Pierce grabbed the headlines with 20 points.
But the real reason Washington won is because they grabbed 19 offensive rebounds compared to 10 for Toronto.
In Houston, the Dallas Mavericks did lose Game 1 to the Rockets. However, Dallas kept the game competitive despite poor scoring from every Maverick but Dirk Nowitzki. Tyson Chandler preyed on Dwight Howard’s foul trouble and gobbled up boards over the smaller Terrence Jones and Josh Smith. He finished with 18 rebounds and eight offensive rebounds.
And then there was the Celtics-Cavaliers game. What we see is that in at least three games, offensive rebounding played a crucial if not decisive role in the outcome.
Now, the Celtics were 17th in offensive rebounding percentage and 15th in defensive rebounding percentage last season. Cleveland was sixth and 16th respectively. So, how can the Celtics fix this rebounding disparity and take advantage of it for themselves?
The obvious thing to note is that Cleveland is actually a worse defensive rebounding team than the Celtics. While championship-level teams have been able to get away with being poor offensive rebounding teams, defensive rebounding is a different story. For example, San Antonio has been a top 10 defensive rebounding team for the past few years.
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This is a direct contrast to their poor offensive rebounding numbers and is a deliberate strategy.
Boston may not be a great offensive rebound team unlike the Cavaliers, but Jared Sullinger and Tyler Zeller grabbed 2.5 and 1.8 offensive rebounds per game during the regular season. Should the Celtics attack the Cavaliers on the offensive glass and take advantage of Cleveland’s defensive rebounding weaknesses?
Or should they focus on getting back and preventing Kyrie from hitting some quick three-pointers?
It is a difficult decision, especially so since Boston is just outclassed in this series. But every Celtics fans knows that this first round playoff is about preparing for next season as much as it is about this year. Doc Rivers may not have cared for the offensive rebound when he was coaching the Celtics.
But Brad Stevens is no Doc, and the time may come where Boston must employ a different strategy.
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