Nobody loves winning the margins more than Joe Mazzulla, and that can mean a lot of different things. He wants the Celtics to win the possession battle and the math game any way they can. For a long time, that has been interpreted as getting up more three-point attempts than their opponent, and that still is a major tenet of the system.
But it’s not the only one. They’ve also made a major commitment to rebounding, especially on the offensive end as another outlet to maximize possessions, and another one that has become a huge point of emphasis is turnovers.
For years, the Celtics have been a low-turnover team that stresses taking care of the ball, but they leaned into that identity even more this offseason by trading away Jaylen Brown, who led the NBA in turnovers last season.
Boston's defensive playmaking has been on full display
But beyond ball security on offense, they’re now aggressively pursuing turnover creation on the defensive end in a way they never have before. They’ve had a good defense for a long time, but it has been thanks to guarding and rebounding. Last season, the Celtics had the NBA’s fourth-ranked defense, but they were bottom-five in turnovers forced.
With a new scheme and new personnel in place, that’s about to change in a major way, and we’re already seeing glimpses in the preseason. On Wednesday night, the Celtics blew out the Hornets, 114-93, despite losing the three-point battle and the rebounding battle.
They did so by absolutely dominating the turnover battle, giving the ball away just 11 times on offense while forcing a whopping 30 turnovers on the defensive end. That’s a ridiculous number, and one that’s not sustainable, but it shows the change in how the team wants to play and how they are moving on a string on defense, getting their hands on the ball, jumping the passing lanes, causing deflections, and picking pockets left and right.
Celtics forcing over 20 turnovers per game in preseason
For context, the Pistons led the NBA last season, forcing 16.9 turnovers per game, while the Celtics were 29th out of 30 teams, forcing just 12.4 turnovers per game. Through three preseason games, the Celtics are forcing 21.3 turnovers per game. That number won’t hold up, but they’re going to take a leap, and going from 29th to near the top of the league is going to make a very good defense elite.
The Celtics have great on-ball defenders, great team defenders, great help defenders, great rim protectors, and great rebounders. They have no liabilities and no one to cover for, and pretty much everyone can switch any action. That lets guys who are already good defenders get extremely aggressive and take chances, and the results have been amazing.
Paul George has 7 steals in two games (just 48 minutes), Derrick White has 5, Baylor Scheierman has 5, Hugo Gonzalez has 9 (in three games), and Jayson Tatum has 3. The added defensive playmaking and chaos creation have been on full display, and it jumps off the screen. This team already had the potential to be very good, but if they’re going to defend like this, they can be genuinely special.
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