There wasn’t a lot of drama in the Celtics’ win over the Nets on Friday night, as things got out of hand shortly after halftime, and Boston rolled to a 148-111 victory. There was some late drama, though, in the sense that the Celtics, almost certainly unknowingly, were chasing a number of NBA records in the final minutes of the game.
While they came up just short of breaking records for field goal percentage, three-point field goal percentage, true shooting percentage, and offensive rating in a game, they did set a new mark for effective field goal percentage at 80.8%.Â
That’s what happens when you shoot 52-78 (66.7%) from the floor and 22-34 (64.7%) from three-point range over the course of an entire game. It was all working for Boston as Jaylen Brown shot 9-12 from the floor and 4-4 from three, Payton Pritchard was 9-12 and 4-5, and Nikola Vucevic hit 9-13 and 3-3.
Those three led the way, combining for 78 points on outrageous efficiency, but it was the entire roster. Neemias Queta was a perfect 4-4 from the field, Baylor Scheierman was 3-3, Jordan Walsh was 2-2, and Ron Harper Jr. was 1-1. Beyond the perfection, Hugo Gonzalez shot 4-6, and the relative slackers, Sam Hauser was 5-9, with Derrick White going 4-9.
Dalano Banton may have ruined even more historical night
I don’t want to dump this all on Dalano Banton, but he came in for the final five minutes of this blowout and shot just 1-4 from the field. If you take away those few shots when the game was out of hand, Boston would have had the top number for almost every possible offensive statistic that measures efficiency in any way.
Even still, this was by any metric, if not the best, probably the second-best offensive performance in the history of the league. Second best in offensive rating and true shooting, which were both franchise records.
They now have the second-best-rated offense in the league, just fractions behind the Nuggets, which would currently rank as the sixth-best offense of all time (the 2024 Celtics still hold the record).
This was a great sight to see as the Celtics had hit a bit of a snag on that end in recent games, with the defense outshining the offense in February. But, hopefully, this was a bit of a get-right game, playing their first game in TD Garden since February 11th against one of the worst defenses in the league.
That combination, mixed with an incredible shooting night for the Cs, led to a record-setting performance, which, with any luck, is a sign of things to come for this team as it hits the stretch run.