Three-pointers have turn into synonymous with the Boston Celtics over the previous couple of seasons. They’ve used the ability of math to win the margins evening in and evening out, and maintain a championship degree of success.
“I really feel like some groups ought to perhaps not take as many threes however these groups shouldn’t be us,” Payton Pritchard replied when requested in regards to the upward development in threes across the league Saturday. “We’re the perfect at doing it. Why would we modify?”
Simply two days later, Pritchard and the Cs fired up their season-low in long-range makes an attempt, taking pictures simply 33 of them of their 108-104 loss to the Orlando Magic. Earlier than Monday, the Celtics had shot no less than 41 threes each time they took the ground. By optimizing the three, they managed to capitalize on the mathematics and outscore opponents by a mean of 10.2 factors per recreation on these margins alone.
The shortage of makes an attempt towards Orlando wasn’t precisely by selection, although. The Magic put a ton of stress on Boston and ran them off of the three-point line. There’s no getting round it — the change in gameplan rattled the Cs. They went stone chilly within the second half, scoring simply 45 whole factors.
Once they weren’t in a position to create open seems to be from three, Boston began to depend on isolation. It labored to an extent. Jaylen Brown was glorious; he constantly obtained inside, used his energy, and racked up factors within the paint.
Exterior of him, it wasn’t fairly. Their offense regarded stagnant. There was a wholesome serving of compelled passes, tough pictures, and total sloppy play. Up till the closing minutes, the Cs solely had two second-half assists.
Thoughts you, it didn’t assist that Jayson Tatum was a last-minute scratch, however they’re not going to win many video games once they’re solely dishing two dimes in a half.
They did handle to provide the hosts a scare on the finish of the sport, although. The Celtics made a rapid push to chop the result in only one, they usually did it by transferring the ball and creating open seems to be.
That first play the place they obtained Derrick White an open three was peak Celtics basketball. Al Horford did a terrific job of creating a fast learn out of the brief roll and it resulted in a giant bucket.
Orlando was in a position to take the Cs out of their wheelhouse for almost all of the evening and it received them the sport. They managed to outscore Boston by 15 from distance, which nearly by no means occurs.
This wasn’t the primary time we’ve seen groups throw off the Celtics by operating them off of the three-point line, both. Two of their three playoff losses within the spring got here in video games the place they shot lower than 35 threes.
Boston remains to be an elite workforce with out the excess of long-range bombs, however they’re not at their greatest. It’s how opponents could make the champs really feel mortal.
