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Boston’s defensive rating is only a half-point worse than last season, and the league numbers are simply much better than 2023-24 to this point. Boston ranks 10th overall while allowing 110.8 points per 100 possessions, but that’s 7.5 points worse than top-ranked Oklahoma City. The rest of the numbers in that chart are wildly similar.
So where exactly can the Celtics get a little bit better? A few areas that jump out:
Rim protection
Kristaps Porzingis should help the Celtics shore up a defense that’s allowed 51.7 paint points per game.
The Celtics have allowed opponents to shoot 67.1 percent at the rim, per Cleaning the Glass tracking. That ranks 19th in the NBA. Boston held opponents to 63.6 percent there last season, which ranked fifth.
The solution here is simple: Boston has only played five games and 143 total minutes with 7-foot-2 big man Porzingis on the court. Opponent field goal percentage at the rim drops 1.4 percent with Porzingis on the court this season. Last season, it plummeted 6.1 percent with Porzingis, one of the largest on/off splits in the league. As Porzingis gets more comfortable coming back from ankle surgery, we should see Boston’s rim defense improve.
And while we don’t obsess about the current discrepancy in points in the paint — Boston prefers to give up 2s over 3s, and we know the team’s offense is based heavily on the perimeter shooting — a healthy Porzingis will go a long way toward combatting how Boston has been outscored by an average of 11.9 points per game in the paint while allowing 51.7 paint points per game (25th in the NBA).
3-point accuracy
Jrue Holiday is shooting just 30.6 percent on corner 3-pointers this season after hitting an NBA-best 60.4 percent of his corner 3-pointers in 2023-24.
The Celtics lead the NBA with 56.5 percent of their field goal attempts coming on 3-point shots. That’s 8.4 percent higher than the second-place Charlotte Hornets (48.1 percent). This was the vision when Brad Stevens constructed a roster heavy on shooting, and the Celtics have leaned hard into what has been affectionately dubbed “Mazzulla Ball.”
Boston is shooting 37.9 percent on…
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Author : NBC Sports Boston
Publish date : 2024-12-10 17:16:00
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