The Celtics came into Saturday night’s game on the second night of a back-to-back, which is always a recipe for tired legs and poor decisions to settle for jumpers.
That's why I was actually worried when the Celtics opened the game on a 15-5 run thanks to 5-6 shooting on 3-pointers. I thought a hot start was going to become an excuse to keep chasing the dragon and bombing away instead of driving.
The Celtics kept bombing away alright, but instead of chasing the dragon, they put a saddle on it and rode it to one of the greatest shooting nights a team has ever had.
“I think we were just real confident in the shots that we were getting,” Jayson Tatum, who contributed six made 3-pointers (and 13 of the team’s 51 attempts), said after the game. “The way that the ball was moving and guys in the right spots getting the shots that we want them to shoot.”
The ball movement was the key to all of it. Yes, the Celtics did take some quick shots and some pull-ups without testing the defense. But 21 of Boston’s 27 made 3-pointers were assisted. Boston had 30 assists overall, so that means all but nine of those assists went to shots behind the arc.
“For the most part I thought we shot great threes,” Joe Mazzulla said after the game. “Our guys are getting comfortable with the fact that when we run good offense and we have good spacing, and we read the defense, we're going to get a great look.”
A lot of us have to come to grips with the modern NBA and that one simple equation, 3>2, is the rule of law.
“I love 3-pointers. I like math. I love open 3s. I like space,” Mazzulla said a week ago, which should have been enough for us to expect a game like this. And if you think this is the last one we’ll see, you’re very mistaken.
Unlike last season, the Celtics have shooters they can rely on every night. The Celtics came out ice cold from deep a year ago, and the offense was a trash fire because of it. This season, the addition of Sam Hauser, the continued development of Grant Williams, the hot 41.9% shooting start for Derrick White, and the addition of a penetrator and disher like Malcolm Brogdon has changed the story.
If a defense is shutting off the rim like New York did, then the shots have to come some other way. If the dribble penetration hits a wall, then the ball has to find its way back out so someone else can attack. The Celtics did that in this game, but it just so happened that the attack led to kick-outs instead of 3-pointers.
Everyone knows Jaylen Brown is a good 3-point shooter, yet he had this look.
In fact, let’s look at all the shots Brown made in this game.
There might have been one that was challenged in that sequence. All of them were the result of someone opening up space with a drive. The Celtics have also done a wonderful job setting screens to prevent closeouts, giving their best shooters even more time to set their sights.
After the game, Sam Hauser asked reporters how many 3-pointers the team had hit. When he heard the number 27, he said “oh, wow” before giving his feelings on the record-setting night.
“Guys were sharing it, guys were gutting hard, really screening for each other,” he said. “Credit to Joe who’s been harping on that in film, just whipping the ball and sharing it, and guys are getting good looks and it showed.”
This is how this offense is going to run this season. They will not be shy about bombing away, and as long as they are probing defenses for the best shots possible, it’s fine that if they, more often than not, end up being shots from beyond the arc.
They have already piled up five games of 40 or more 3-pointers. This is their only 50 bomb night so far, and I’m willing to bet it won’t be their last.
No, they're not the Warriors, but you don’t need Steph Curry and Klay Thompson to have permission to let it fly. All you need are a few guy who can hit the shot and the willingness to move the ball until the right shot presents itself.
The Celtics have that. In New York, they had the right approach and effort. As long as they have that every night, then they’ll live by the three more often than they die by it.