Lakers masterfully disrupt Boston’s offense

By playing off Rajon Rondo a bit, Kobe Bryant and the Lakers cut off the point guard's penetration and forced him to shoot jumpers. (Steve Babineau/NBAE via Getty Images)

Doc Rivers, as usual, nailed it after the Boston-Lakers game Thursday night when he said Kobe Bryant’s defense was the decisive factor in the game. The Celtics shot just 30 percent after halftime, and by the last five minutes of the fourth quarter, the defensive strategy Bryant and Shannon Brown used against Rajon Rondo had taken Boston out of its normal offense.

You know the defense by now: Bryant (and, for brief stretches, Brown) played several feet off Rondo, giving him the 18-foot jumper. The idea is to deny Rondo’s penetration and screw up Boston’s pick-and-roll attack by forcing the Celtics to start those plays at the foul line — in a very cramped space, where the Lakers’ big men can easily come over to help on any drive.

And if you look at every Boston possession over the last five minutes of the game, you’ll see that the Celtics had essentially given up trying to run their normal offense against this strategy. The Celtics took the ball out of Rondo’s hands and had their veteran players initiate the offense down the stretch. The Lakers, in other words, turned the point guard into a finisher rather than a creator, and Boston’s offense is built around Rondo serving as the creator. Why do you think all of Boston’s old guys are putting up such ridiculously high field-goal percentages? It’s because they rarely isolate, and because Rondo’s work produces such good looks for them.

Here’s a rundown of every Boston possession from the five-minute mark until the game was out of reach in the last minute:

• 4:35: Boston has Paul Pierce set a screen for Rondo at the foul line with the goal of drawing a switch. It works, and Pierce isolates with Bryant on his back. The Lakers double-team Pierce, who kicks to Kevin Garnett for a long jumper. It misses.

• 4:20: Boston grabs the offensive rebound and resets. It runs a Pierce/Garnett pick-and-pop. The Lakers double Pierce, who again kicks to Garnett on the perimeter. Garnett passes on the J and tries to beat Pau Gasol off the dribble. He misses an awkward runner. Garnett working off the dribble from 20 feet out is not exactly on page 1 of Boston’s playbook.

• 4:02: Boston grabs another offensive board and gets the ball out of bounds after Bryant fouls Glen Davis. After the inbounds, Rondo holds the ball on the perimeter, waiting for Ray Allen to post up Derek Fisher on the right block. Allen gets Fisher on his back, takes the pass from Rondo, backs down Fisher and misses a tough but makeable leaner.

• 3:28: Another Pierce/KG pick-and-roll, this time on the right side, and Pierce loses the ball on his drive to the rim. Rondo does not touch the ball.

• 3:02: Out of a timeout, Rivers calls for Pierce to get the ball on the left wing and pass to Garnett inside after KG takes a screen along the baseline. The Lakers foul Garnett before he can shoot. Rondo’s job on the play? Stand still at the top of the arc with the ball and pass it to Pierce.

• 2:54: Boston runs a Pierce/Davis pick-and-roll on the left side as Rondo roves along the right side, totally uncovered. The C’s swing the ball around, and it eventually gets to Rondo, who nails an open 20-footer. Again: Rondo as finisher, not creator.

• 2:25: Boston has Allen set a screen for Pierce at the top of the arc as Rondo hangs out in the right corner. Pierce drives and dishes to Davis, who makes a layup.

• 1:35: Boston calls the same Pierce/Allen play. The Lakers contain it, forcing Boston to swing the ball around again. Rondo (with Kobe again ignoring him) flashes to the lane, takes a pass from Garnett and lays it in, plus the foul. Again, Rondo plays the role of finisher.

And that was really the last meaningful Boston possession, as the Lakers ran nearly 40 seconds off the clock on the following trip down the floor.

Let me be clear: It’s not as if Boston’s offense can’t function like this. Rondo scored twice during this stretch, after all. But the offense is not designed to function like this. The Celtics will run their share of Pierce/Garnett pick-and-rolls and all sorts of stuff for Allen, but Rondo’s creativity is what fuels this team when it’s going well.

The Lakers took that away, and Boston suffered. This is not a new anti-Rondo strategy. A handful of teams do this against the Celtics, but none of them have the combination of a defender like Bryant and a pair of 7-footers ready to attack any driver.

This is an ongoing issue for Boston, one it conquers sometimes and flails against sometimes. And some contenders — Orlando, for instance — just aren’t equipped to guard Boston like this.

But the Lakers are. And with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and a few key lineups that include no traditional point guard, so are the Heat.