With an offensive efficiency of 120.6 points scored on 100 possessions, the Celtics are on the way to the most efficient campaign in NBA history! It must be said that their shooting efficiency is mind-blowing, with an eFG% (which takes into account the value of a 3-pointer) of 58.9%. Again, this is a record…
Joe Mazzulla’s men are the second team to take the most 3-pointers this season, with 41.5 per game. Only the Warriors shoot more (43.5) per game.
Best team in 3-pointers and free throws
But the Celtics are the ones who put the most, with 40% success by far. If we add that they also have the best percentage of success in free throws (84.4%) and the third in 2-point shots (57.8%), it is easy to understand how they can display such offensive efficiency. In the numbers.
Except that all this data only conveys the end, and does not explain the essence of what makes Boston players so skillful. Gibson Pyper had made a very good video about it recently.
On the heels of their second half of last season, the Celtics have found an identity, defensively but also offensively. Both ‘Jay’s’ have figured out how and in which areas they are most effective, and the ‘drive & kick’, followed by good ball movement and general selflessness, often finds the shooter free.
The Celtics are thus the team that scores the most points in “catch & shoot”, with 38.3 points scored per game on this type of action, at a superb 41.6% success rate from 3-pointers.
And then there’s the ball-free movement of the players, which makes the whole thing even more interesting.
Recently, we had seen the Celtics start their match against Charlotte with a nice movement. Jayson Tatum pretends to come back up by taking advantage of a double screen but finally cuts the baseline, Grant Williams also dives into the key, and as Mason Plumlee is obviously instructed to protect the circle rather than challenge Blake Griffin’s outside shots , the latter gets a 3-point shot completely open.
Against Phoenix last night, we saw an even more interesting sequence. It’s still Marcus Smart who has the ball on one side of the field, while the other four players will move on the opposite side.
Grant Williams thus crosses the field through the racket while Jaylen Brown goes up to the high post to go down low post on the weak side, when Derrick White will place himself in the opposite “corner”. In the midst of it all, Blake Griffin is tasked with setting up the screens and claims the ball for Derrick White, released in the corner. Marcus Smart passes him a perfect ball, above all the defense of the Suns, and it’s still a 3-pointer.
Suck the defense into the racket… to shoot better from afar
This sequence is revealing for several reasons. Firstly because all the movements have completely lost the Suns, a team that “switches” a lot but has not been able to follow all the changes requested. Torrey Craig, first on Grant Williams, had to hinder Jaylen Brown’s run but suffered his muscular movement, and he was then too far to hinder Derrick White’s shot, especially since Blake Griffin was there to set the screen and he is late because he was not sure he would have to change after this second race.
Then because the exceptional address of the Celtics is based on what could be called the “vacuum cleaner principle”. This is already the goal of “drive & kick”, with players attacking the circle to attract assists and find free shooters on the outside, but Boston is also constantly looking, via the movements of its players without the ball, to draw the defense into the key, to further create open 3-point shots.
We thus feel very well that the Celtics seek to provoke and identify a maximum of situations of this kind, by cutting and putting screens when the defense has been sucked too far from the shooters. This is exactly what is happening on this sequence, which illustrates the entire offensive philosophy of Joe Mazzulla and his men.
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Jayson Tatum | 24 | 36.9 | 48.0 | 36.4 | 86.9 | 1.1 | 7.2 | 8.3 | 4.2 | 2.8 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 2.3 | 30.8 |
| Jaylen Brown | 23 | 35.9 | 50.4 | 35.0 | 83.2 | 1.0 | 6.1 | 7.1 | 3.7 | 3.1 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 2.7 | 26.7 |
| Malcolm Brogdon | 20 | 23.2 | 48.7 | 49.4 | 85.7 | 1.0 | 3.2 | 4.2 | 3.7 | 1.9 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 1.5 | 13.9 |
| Marcus Smart | 22 | 33.2 | 45.3 | 35.7 | 76.7 | 0.4 | 2.7 | 3.1 | 7.6 | 2.2 | 1.1 | 0.3 | 3.0 | 12.1 |
| Derrick White | 25 | 26.2 | 46.9 | 43.4 | 89.6 | 0.6 | 2.4 | 3.0 | 3.3 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 2.6 | 10.8 |
| Al Horford | 20 | 31.6 | 53.7 | 46.6 | 62.5 | 1.0 | 5.3 | 6.3 | 2.8 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 10.2 |
| Grant Williams | 24 | 29.0 | 53.5 | 45.6 | 85.7 | 0.8 | 3.8 | 4.6 | 1.9 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 2.8 | 9.1 |
| Sam Hauser | 25 | 16.7 | 50.4 | 46.2 | 77.8 | 0.4 | 2.1 | 2.4 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 1.4 | 7.1 |
| Payton Pritchard | 14 | 12.2 | 41.2 | 36.8 | 62.5 | 0.6 | 1.0 | 1.6 | 1.1 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 5.4 |
| Blake Griffin | 9 | 14.8 | 56.7 | 36.4 | 72.7 | 1.2 | 2.3 | 3.6 | 0.9 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 2.2 | 5.1 |
| Luke Kornet | 20 | 13.0 | 67.9 | 33.3 | 93.8 | 1.3 | 2.4 | 3.6 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 1.0 | 1.7 | 4.7 |
| Mfiondu Kabengele | 1 | 8.3 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 3.0 | 1.0 | 4.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 |
| noah vonleh | 16 | 8.9 | 50.0 | 33.3 | 100.0 | 1.1 | 1.4 | 2.5 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 1.8 | 1.6 |
| justin jackson | 9 | 5.2 | 20.0 | 22.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.7 |
| Jd Davison | 3 | 2.8 | 25.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.7 |
