BOSTON — As the wins have piled up for the Celtics, so too have the 3-pointers as that’s been a huge part of their success. It’s not just about putting up 3s but ensuring they’re good shots as the C’s have been a shooting-happy team for years.
The Celtics already matched an NBA record for most 3s in a game earlier this year in the opener against the Knicks. After beating the Cavaliers on Tuesday, add another new record for the Celtics. Per ESPN, the Celtics’ 287 made 3-pointers over their opening 15 games is the most-ever over any 15-game span in NBA history.
“Every game, we’re just trying to be deliberate on what we’re trying to do offensively and just creating an advantage and making the right read off of that,” Derrick White said. “So, I mean, things change during the game, and we make adjustments, and I think we did a good job of just kind of adjusting on the fly to what we want to do.”
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Of note, it’s not like the Celtics are shooting at an unsustainable rate in terms of their efficiency. Sure, they will have some massive shooting nights like the Cavs win, where they hit 22-for-41 of their 3s. But overall on the season, the C’s are making 37.9% of their 3s, which ranks seventh in the NBA.
The main factor to the Celtics’ success is how many 3s they’re taking: 50.5 attempts per game. That’s tops in the NBA by a large margin; the second-place Hornets are averaging 44.6 attempts per game. To put that in context, the difference between the C’s and Hornets (5.9 attempts) is the same as the second-place Hornets and the 10th-place Spurs.
It’s no secret the Celtics are going to put up 3s as that’s tops on the scouting report for each team in facing the defending champs. They have seven different players averaging at least 5.0 attempts per game. So the Celtics will continue to shoot and makes droves of 3s as that puts them at a math advantage on a nightly basis.
“I think we’ve been in so many moments together, so many big games, that we don’t do anything spectacular,” Jayson Tatum said. “We just do the simple things. We do the right reads all the time, or most of the time, whether it’s Cup game or regular season game or in the Finals. We know where each other is supposed to be. We work on reads all the time in practice, and regardless of how the game is going, or the shots are falling, just all about making the right read, and the game will reward that.”
