Boston Celtics: What Went Wrong on the Road Trip and How to Fix It

Who Can Score in the Paint?

The Boston offense is built to create open catch-and-shoot three-pointers with the drive-and-kick game, so the Celtics are going to keep launching from deep at a record pace. Still, when the three-pointers aren’t falling, Boston hasn’t had a Plan B. Or, too often, Plan B has been an isolation move followed by a pull-up mid-range shot.

In order for the Celtics to withstand the inevitable three-point shooting slumps, they have to find a way to generate other efficient offense, either by getting to the free throw line more often (Celtics rank 29th in FTA) or, instead of settling for pull-up jumpers, push their way all the way into the paint for layups and dunks.

Other teams that shoot a ton of three-pointers, like the Houston Rockets and the Milwaukee Bucks, have other ways to score when the threes aren’t falling. James Harden can flail his way to the free throw line. Giannis Antetokuonmpo can seemingly score in the paint whenever he wants.

Of the Boston rotation players, only Jaylen Brown gets to the rim at a high rate relative to his position this season, ranking in the 83rd percentile with 40 percent of his field goal attempts at the rim. Of course Brown, a 58 percent finisher at the rim in his first two seasons, is converting just 49 percent this season.

The rest of the regulars are below the 40th-percentile for shots attempted at the rim for their position, according to Cleaning the Glass. Boston ranks 21st in the league with a 60.1 percent field goal percentage at the rim and only the San Antontio Spurs attempt a lower percentage of their shots at the hoop.

In their return from season-ending surgeries, both Irving and Hayward are drawing fouls at a career-low rate. Horford has done a great job driving closeouts and creating kick-out  shooting opportunities for his teammates, but he’s also drawing free throws at a career-low rate so far; on some of these 1-on-1 opportunities at the rim, Horford has to go hard to the rim and try to get to the line when the three-pointers aren’t dropping.

Unless someone on the Celtics takes it upon themselves to be more aggressive getting to the rim and scoring, Boston will continue to hit offensive lulls when the outside shots aren’t falling. And so far, when the outside shots aren’t falling, the team has let that affect its defense as well.

Through 13 games, the Celtics are far from being a well-oiled machine, but hopefully the really bad road trip will wake the players up to the importance of playing hard for 48 minutes and sticking to the game plan.

If Boston gives us a full game of effort and focus, I’ll bet the Basketball Gods will reward the Celtics by letting some of those open outside shots drop.

Boston has a big week upcoming, with a return trips from Toronto and Utah, both teams that beat Boston at home. But first, they face off against the Chicago Bulls at the TD Garden Wednesday night at 7:30.

The Celtics are a far more talented team than the Bulls, so we’ll see very early on in the game if they learned anything from a disappointing road trip, and if they can turn around what’s been a subpar start to a season of such high expectations.