Under Joe Mazzulla, the Celtics have rightfully earned a reputation for their volume three-point shooting. It has become a polarizing topic around the league, with some trying to claim Boston was ruining the sport, while others, more accurately, realized that Mazzulla and his team were creating a major advantage over the competition.
The NBA has largely caught up, and there are lots of teams that employ a pace and space type of system that results in a lot of three-point shots, but the Celtics still get the reputation. And for good reason. The Celtics are good enough that they can win on an off-shooting night, but when the shots are falling? Forget about it.
So, a big part of defending the Celtics is taking away the three-point line, making them uncomfortable, and getting them to change the way they play. It’s a lot easier said than done, and we’ve seen teams sell out to do that and still just get smoked in the paint.
When all else fails, and the ball is humming for Boston, sometimes it seems like the only hope is to just hope the shots don’t go in. But one thing that teams can do to at least try to counteract the advantage and keep up is to fire up threes on the other end, and that’s an area where the 76ers failed massively in Game One.
Philadelphia needs to shoot a lot more threes
The Celtics had a pretty average shooting performance in Game One, but they got up a lot of good shots. They made 16-44, good for 36%, which is not bad and not great. It’s a number the Sixers can - and probably will have to - live with, but the problem is they have to give just as good on the other end.
And in Game One, that wasn’t the case as the Sixers attempted just 23 threes, making only four. The dreadful shooting only compounds the situation, but simply put, Philly cannot stop shooting. They got almost doubled on attempts, and they made 12 fewer than Boston.
76ers are playing right into Celtics' hands
That’s a 36-point difference, just off of threes alone, and that was a pretty pedestrian Celtics game. The Sixers are far from an elite shooting team, but they averaged over 12 makes and over 35 attempts per game in the regular season. They need to be at, or above, those numbers if they hope to make this a competitive series.
I’m not saying they should force shots, but they did pass up some opportunities in Game One. Shots were there, but they hesitated, they decided to drive instead of making the extra pass, they held the ball too long, and in some cases, they just passed up good looks.
Tyrese Maxey needs to get up more than four threes, and Paul George must attempt more than two. The entire bench can’t put up just seven when Payton Pritchard has nine by himself for the Celtics. A lot went wrong for the Sixers in Game One, a lot of it beyond their control. But there are things they can do better, and putting a dent in this math problem is one of the most obvious adjustments.
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