Boston Celtics: Secondary Scoring Changes Everything

The Boston Celtics need their secondary scorers for the offense to be at its best

The Boston Celtics have gone through a difficult up and down stretch since their schedule went into hyper drive. We really have not seen them at their best, and they have been inconsistent all the way through. We have quickly realized that Kyrie Irving cannot do everything on his own as a scorer, making it vitally important for the players around him to be successful.

If you look at the last two wins for the Celtics, it was not because Irving had a miraculous performance. In fact, they did so well because of how little Irving had to do. The Celtics had balance on offense, and everyone got involved.

The Celtics know that Irving is going to be their number one scoring option, and they want him leading the way. The problem is that they still do not have a definitive number two scorer, and a second unit that has struggled all season long.

They Celtics know their offense still needs time to settle, but it is clear how important the balance and secondary scoring is. The Celtics need to do more things to make these games easier on them, and that is what happens when everyone gets involved.

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The Celtics have the best facilitating big in Al Horford, and willing passers all over the court. They have the players to run an offense that gets all kinds of secondary scoring, and that is clearly how the Celtics get to their best.

It is a lot of fun to see Irving making plays on every possession, and his ability to hit hard shots is unparalleled in this league. That being said, the Celtics cannot keep putting themselves in difficult positions.

If you look at Boston’s last two wins, they were so successful on offense because of that secondary scoring. They always need Irving to be at his best, and have Horford getting people involved. The difference is that the Celtics can expect good play from the two of them on any given night. The uncertainty is with the other players, and getting them involved makes this Celtics offense incredibly hard to beat.

Irving was the leading scorer against the Hornets, but just with 21 points with the fourth most minutes played on the team. Obviously, we have seen Irving do more, but the offense looked as good as ever with Horford, Jayson Tatum and Terry Rozier all scoring more than 15 points. Irving did his job getting everyone involved with eight assists, and the offense as a whole looked as good as they have all season long.

When you look back at the win against the Bulls, it was a similar situation. Irving was tied for a team lead with 20 points this time, with the emerging Tatum. Horford, Daniel Theis, Rozier and Marcus Smart all then did their part scoring in double digits.

The best games on offense over this stretch for the Celtics have been two of Irving’s lowest volume games. There will never be a debate as to who the number one option is, but the real potential of this offense only comes when they can overwhelm their opponent with great balance and secondary scoring.

Irving is the kind of play maker that every offense wants to be built around, but no individual can carry an offense. If Tatum can emerge as a top secondary scorer, then maybe they will not need as much balance. Right now, however, Irving does not have that go to secondary option to pick up some of the slack.

If the Celtics want their offense to be able to keep up with the best in the league, they need the ball movement and the balance that gets everyone involved, and they need that second unit to get an edge, despite their shooting struggles.

The Celtics are still discovering exactly who they are as a team, but balance and ball movement are always going to be important. There are still a lot of different ways this team can improve, and Tatum still has great potential to bring that shooting edge. For now, the balanced attack that gets four and five players continually involved on offense is the best they can offer.

When you combine that balance with the play making of Irving, there is no way they should not be able to keep up with everyone. With that secondary scoring, they can counter pretty much anything any team can throw at them.

Next: Celtics Catch Break Against Rockets

Against a team like the Rockets, who have a player like James Harden with all kinds of shooting around him, they need their absolute best from Irving, and every other player around him on offense.

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