the celtics harassing kevin durant
being really physical off the ball to disrupt a scorer's rhythm
kevin durant is the best scorer in basketball, and when he has it rolling he'll let you know about it.
but against boston in round 1 of the 2022 playoffs, he averaged a mere 38.6% shooting from the floor (33.3% from 3) as his brooklyn nets were swept by the celtics.
boston has been incredible on defense this year. they trust the gameplan, play with incredible synergy at all times, and have a whole roster of guys - marcus smart, jayson tatum, grant williams, derrick white, al horford, jaylen brown, daniel theis - who can switch and defend 2-4 positions at a high level.
one thing they did to slow kd down was to be extremely physical with him off the ball. not allowing durant to have freedom of movement anywhere in the half court must have been a point of emphasis for them, because they absolutely harassed him wherever he went:
whenever al horford could sneak in a body check, he did:
whenever they could grab his body or arm for a split second, they did:
they would sandwich him on screens, on the other side of the court from the play that was being run:
every high-post catch was contested and pushed out to a step inside the three point line:
even when picks worked, they didn't because of the celtics' switching. here kessler edwards gets grant williams off of durant but he just gets passed on to jaylen, who bodies him into horford, who gives him another hip check that sends him farther out to call for a pass:
look at how much kd has to fight just to go and set a screen. the shot clock goes from 16 all the way down to 7 when he finally gets the ball, and he's still just isolated 20 feet away from the hoop with help looming from every direction and no nets player movement whatsoever:
here's another similar play. brooklyn started trying to force kevin the ball, which usually didn't end up well:
no matter what he was out there doing - set a screen for someone else, jog from one side of the court to the other, post up and call for the ball - there was always a celtic on durant making sure he felt their presence.
i think this highlights the fact that although durant is incredible (for the record, he still averaged 26/6/6 for the series) he does have physical limitations. no one has ever attempted to defend lebron james this way because of his size and strength, and teams have [mostly] failed in their attempts to defend steph curry this way because his agility and stamina are both at near-superhuman levels. kd has a lack of strength to hold his ground like bron, but also a lack of quickness and stamina at his age now to go around physical roadblocks.
with that said, it's definitely not entirely his fault. what makes steph's off ball movement so unstoppable (outside of his abilities) is largely how well the golden state warriors move the rock around, set picks for each other, and shoot - they literally never stop. the nets, on the other hand, just dribble in place until they find a matchup to attack with an iso or pick and roll, then everyone tries to spread the floor standing in one spot. it takes away the effectiveness of durant's gravity and makes it so much easier for defenses to hone in one one or two specific guys that they want to slow down.
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