Boston Celtics: 3 stats that must improve in 2021-22
By Mark Nilon
Boston Celtics statistic No. 2) Opponent 3-point percentage
In the modern age of NBA basketball, teams generally find themselves living and dying by their 3-point shooting efficiency.
Last season, for those who squared off against the Boston Celtics, they found themselves living far more often than they were dying.
By year’s end, the shamrocks found themselves ranking 22nd in opponent 3-point field goal percentage, seeing them knock these long-ball attempts down at an average clip of 37.4 percent on 35.1 attempts per game.
What makes this statistic a bit more concerning is the fact that the Cs struggled far more at home when defending the long-ball than they did on the road.
When finding themselves taking to the parquet floor at the TD Garden, they dropped down to 26th in opponent 3-point percentage (38.2) while, interestingly enough, rising to 16th (36.7) when playing elsewhere.
This year, with a much-more versatile group of defenders at their disposal who can step out and defend the perimeter (Marcus Smart, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Josh Richardson, etc.), we believe it’s well within the realm of possibility that Boston should only improve in this statistical area.
Should they not, however, they’ll likely continue to struggle to scrape out victories.