The Celtics make more 3-pointers per game than any other team. The gap between them and second is about the same as the one between second and ninth.
But they are a middle-of-the-pack team percentage-wise. They are shooting 36% so far this season, making them an average shooting team. So how do you get to make so many shots shooting the way they have after 10 games?
Volume.
The Celtics are shooting almost seven more 3-pointers per game than anyone else right now, with 56% of their shot attempts coming from deep. It’s a trend that continued Friday night against Brooklyn, even though they shot 26.4%.
One might think that somewhere along the way, with Boston trailing most of the game to a Nets team that is certainly scrappy, but also certainly tanking, they might try something different. Getting to the rim seemed to be working (Boston was 14-18 in the restricted area). It had to be difficult to stick to shooting those shots, even if most of them were the kinds of looks the Celtics want to generate.
“It’s not that tough,” Joe Mazzulla said. “You’ve got to live by principle, not by feeling.”
The Celtics offensive principles are simple: Call a set to start things rolling and go to a matchup they like and then the players read what’s happening and react accordingly. If someone on the team is open, that guy should get the ball and, when he does, he’d better shoot it.
“One thing I can tell you is I learned to trust Joe pretty quickly,” Al Horford said. “He has a good feel for the game, and I just trust his judgment, and I feel the same way. Prepare, do the things that I need to do and we’re ready to go and we’re sticking to what we do. We just have to do things consistent. I think that’s the key for us.”
When Xavier Tillman and Jordan Walsh were hesitant with their shots, they were pulled. Sam Hauser, on the other hand, kept firing even though nothing was falling, but he kept getting chances.
“We were mad at him when he missed (one) and he was mad at himself,” Jayson Tatum said. “Al was yelling at him on the bench like, ‘Yo, don’t ever put your head down. The next one.’ We always believe the next one is going in.”
Tatum proved that with Boston down two with 2:12 to go. He gathered a rebound and pushed the ball up the floor. He had a step on his defender and, it seemed, a sliver of space to get to the rim. But as he was challenged by the help defender, he made the read to pass it to the guy that defender left.
It was Hauser in the corner. He drilled it. Boston had the lead.
“We have so much confidence in Sam,” Tatum said. “He’s such a proven shooter, works really hard at his craft. So no, I’m never like, ‘Oh, shit, Sam just missed his last two shots, I’m not about to pass it to him. No, I would never think that.”
He could, though. He’s Jayson freakin’ Tatum. He’s averaging more than 30 points per game. No one would have blamed him for trying to dunk it instead of passing it.
Except Mazzulla. Mazzulla would have taken him to task in the film session. Because if they get away from their principles now, then they risk getting away from them when they matter most.
“That’s like principles of life, right? You’ve got to be the same person when things are going great and when things aren’t,” Tatum said. “It’s not time to panic when things aren’t going (well).
“We weren’t hitting shots that we normally do. How are we going to respond? How are we going to figure out a way to win? And it’s not from getting away from things that make us who we are. Sometimes you’re going to make shots. Sometimes you’re going to miss them. But we’ve still got to play the way that we believe to be the right way to play.”
Hauser was 1-8 when he hit that 3-pointer. Horford was 1-6 from 3 and then he hit two of his next three. One of them triggered a 12-6 run to send it to overtime, and the other put Boston up for good in the OT.
“We know the type of shooters that we have,” Horford said. “We work at this every day, and those are shots that we have to take. We had a lot of good looks, and you just have to take them and trust in your process. And I always just think back on our work, on our preparation when we have any kind of ruts like this.”
It’s not always going to be pretty. And sometimes when the Celtics, as Horford kindly put it, ease into games like this, they're going to be their own worst enemy. A lack of energy on one end isn’t always rewarded on the other.
But as the game rolls along and the energy changes, so does the potential for the accuracy of their shots. We can cry all we want about how much 3-pointers have changed the game, but this is what the game is and who the Celtics are. They won a championship this way. The formula is proven.
So that means sticking to it no matter what.