Marcus Smart, Celtics Show Shooting Potential vs. Hawks

They may have lost last night but their offense was on fire

Yes, the Boston Celtics defense was exploited in every sense of the word by the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday night. The third-seed in the Eastern Conference decapitated Boston’s defense with 52 percent shooting from the field and 17 three-point makes on 33 attempts en route to a 118-107 victory.

And yes, the Hawks beat the Celtics at their own game in the fourth quarter in front of a playoff atmosphere, holding Boston to just 36 points in the second half, essentially half of their total in the first 24 minutes. They also garnered 10 steals and held Isaiah Thomas to under 20 points for the first time in 19 games. However, the Celtics showcased one facet of their game that had previously been hidden from the naked eye, their ability to shoot the ball with potency from three-point range, in a brilliant offensive showing in a first half in which they amounted 71 points.

Boston shot the lights out in the first two quarters, hitting a scintillating 10 of their 17 attempts from long range, good for a percentage of nearly 59 percent, well above their season-long 34 percent rate, while hitting 26 of their 45 looks in total.

What was most impressive was guard Marcus Smart‘s showing from deep. Scuffling mightily with his outside shot throughout the course of the season, hitting just 26 percent of his three-point attempts, the fifth selection in the 2014 draft appeared to break out of his year long shooting slump in the first half on Saturday night.

Smart canned myriad of looks from three, hitting four of his five attempts from a variety of spots along the perimeter. One make which especially stood out came in the second quarter, when Smart received the rock deep in the left corner, threw up a violent pump fake to send his defender flying past him, and sidestepped to the right before canning a three.

Smart also connected from the top of the key and the corner, hitting both contested and uncontested looks. If he can continue to resurrect his shooting percentage from the grave, while maintaining his trademark defensive intensity, he could be a valuable weapon for the Celtics come playoff time next weekend.

Shooting guard Evan Turner also hit a corner three in the second quarter of last night’s game, continuing his incredible turnaround from being a liability from beyond the arc to someone who can consistently hit jumpers from outside.

Before going one-for-three in Saturday’s game, Turner had hit nine of his 17 attempts from three since the All-Star break, his 52.6 percent rate good for fourth in the NBA in that time frame for any player with more than 15 attempts.

Next: Can Isaiah Thomas Perform on Playoff Stage?

Turner has carved out a niche for himself as a corner specialist, hitting seven of his initial 11 attempts from the two corners out of the All-Star break. Overall, he has taken monumental steps since staking the claim to an abysmal 14.5 percent shooting percentage from deep in mid-January.