Another loss underscores the 4 areas of concern within Celtics' underwhelming offense

The NBA is in the midst of an offensive explosion through the first week of the regular season. Twenty-nine teams are averaging 100 points or more per game, while more than half of the league is scoring over 110 points per contest.

The only outlier among that bunch? The Boston Celtics, who managed just 90 points against the lowly Orlando Magic in a 93-90 defeat on Monday night at the TD Garden.

The C’s rank 30th in the NBA in points per game (99.8) and 28th in offensive rating (which factors in pace). They’ve been bad by any measurable metric despite coming into the season with one of the deepest and talented rosters in the league on paper.

These struggles aren’t a huge surprise. This wasn’t a good team in the preseason on either end of the floor. While the defensive effort has shown up once the real games have started (C’s rank second in defensive rating) their offensive woes have remained consistent over the past month.

“We have a lot of work to do, that's for sure,” Gordon Hayward said after the loss to Orlando. “Through, how many preseason games did we play, three? We didn’t play well in those either, so we have a lot of work to do. I have no doubt we’ll figure it out, but we definitely have a lot of work to do.”

Some of the offensive problems stem from a small sample size, but others are bigger concerns that this team will likely have to deal with all season long. Let’s sort through the early ugliness to figure out the biggest issues that Brad Stevens will need to sort out in the coming weeks.  

Three-point shooting: If the Celtics are going to live and die with the 3-ball, they might want to start making a few. They took nearly half of their field goal attempts from downtown (40-of-91) on Monday, yet they made just nine of those attempts, a 22.5 percent accuracy mark for the evening. That performance dragged down their season average to 31.2 percent on the year, putting them 25th overall in the league.

The biggest culprits of the ugly start are a couple of the team’s high-volume shooters in Kyrie Irving (18.2 percent) and Jayson Tatum (22.5 percent). Irving did find some rhythm against the Magic but most of it came inside of the arc as he struggled to a 2-of-8 mark from downtown, including a potential game-tying miss in the closing seconds.

Both of these guys are obviously better than this, but Tatum’s numbers bear close watching in his department. No one expected him to shoot over 40 percent from deep last year and a sharp drop-off in this department may be on the docket. Still, as a team, there is nothing to panic about too much here. The C’s will be better as long as they stick to open looks, even though they may not get close to their No. 2 overall rank in the NBA last season if they don’t turn the tide soon.

Getting to the free-throw line: This is the biggest area of concern for this group. On a team full of jump shooters, they lack a long list of players who embrace contact in the paint and can play through it. Through four games, the Celtics are averaging 16.5 free throw attempts per game, the worst mark in the league. Some of that is due to guys like Hayward and Irving still building their way back to full strength (they both have the highest FTA/G for their career on the roster) but it’s a bit alarming how the rest of this group is unable to produce freebies, which are a key component to any good offense.

Monday’s loss to the Magic was an ugly example on this front. The C’s shot nine free throws all game and managed to take just four in the fourth quarter despite putting Orlando into the penalty just two minutes into the frame. Over the final 10 minutes of the quarter, the C’s did not attack regularly and let Orlando off the hook for their early physicality. A low free throw rate was a problem for the C’s last year too and it’s not going to change much this year either if the first four games are any indication. The Celtics are going to need to make their jump shots since they aren’t finding many other ways to score.

The starting five has stunk it up together: The Irving/Brown/Tatum/Hayward/Horford lineup has played a team-high 28 minutes together during the regular season. Over that stretch, their offensive rating is 87.8, which is over 10 points worse than the 30th-ranked offense in the NBA last season. Collectively, this group has no rhythm together yet and things did not get better on Monday night during which they were outscored by five points in their 13 minutes on the floor.

The lack of cohesion is evident on many possessions, whether it’s an ill-timed passed or a forced jump shot in isolation after a broken play. With so many scorers within this group, passing and screening off the ball has not happened in rhythm and that’s led to underwhelming possessions as a whole.   

“As far as figuring how I fit in with other guys, it’s going to take a little while,” Irving admitted. “But I don’t want anybody else to stop being who they are. It’s going to (need) a lot of commitment and sacrifice and understanding of that for us to be great going forward. So like I said, it’s the fourth game, but obviously, I’ve been analyzing this for a little bit.”

There’s no question that Brad Stevens sees this group has the unit with the highest ceiling for this team. He’s going to work through the growing pains to attempt to reap the potential benefits in May and June. Still, the learning curve here is going to take a bit longer than anyone expected.

“We just gotta knock down some shots,” Irving explained. “That’s all. I think also, the speed of movement is a lot different than it was last year, because the emphasis that Brad is trying to put on of playing live basketball. Making quick decisions and making sure that everyone feels good about the offense. Making hard cuts. Everyone on this team can iso. Everyone can get a basket anytime they want. Anybody can go get it. But if we do little things and we commit to that, think about how special we can be.”

Jaylen Brown’s taken a step backward: It’s unclear whether it’s a confidence issue or just an early funk but the third-year guard has regressed to his rookie form on the offensive end over the first week. While he’s shooting a respectable 33 percent from 3-point range, he’s hit just 34 percent of his shots from the field overall, a woeful mark given the fact he’s taken 26 of his attempt from inside the arc. The inability to finish inside or draw contract (seven free throw attempts on the season) has left a pretty sizable black hole in the C’s offense thus far with Brown averaging a meager 9.3 points per game, including just five on Monday night.

“It’s been a rough start for a few of us,” Irving said when asked about Brown’s struggles. “I try to think of the season as kind of sequential when I say we just want to make it through October. I’m just trying to get through October, start a new season off where obviously the excitement is now dwindling. Now we can finally just start playing basketball where the game becomes fun, which is a lot of thoughts that you could come into the season and what you expect to do, and then you come into the realization of where you are and that hurts sometimes. You’ve just gotta play better, take a few hits on the chin and weather the storm.”

The Celtics would prefer not to sit Brown given his defensive responsibilities with the starting five but they do have a couple of highly capable guards behind him in Terry Rozier (who only played 15 minutes on Monday night) and Marcus Smart. The Smart/Irving backcourt has seen success before, particularly on the offensive end with Smart setting up his teammates. Brown will need to show some progress in the next couple weeks to keep Stevens from considering that type of adjustment.