The Boston Celtics suffered a humbling defeat by the hands of the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder on Sunday as Joe Mazzulla’s workforce was held to only 27 factors throughout the second half.
5 members of the Celtics’ rotation mixed for 0-of-19 within the last 24 minutes of the sport, with 13 of their photographs coming from deep.
All through the competition, the Celtics took 46 three-point photographs regardless of being ice-cold from deep. Boston completed the night time with a 19.6% conversion fee. But, regardless of its struggles, the Celtics by no means modified their method.
Oklahoma Metropolis is without doubt one of the greatest defensive groups within the NBA. Coming into the sport, it knew Boston led the league in perimeter makes an attempt however ranked 28th in rim frequency. Each shot Boston took from three-point vary was a small victory for the Thunder’s protection.
That is the place Mazzulla and his teaching workers should enhance. It is one factor to have an outlined model of play, but it surely’s one other to stay to your weapons when it is clear issues aren’t working. This is not the primary time Mazzulla has allowed the Celtics to shoot themselves out of a recreation, and sadly, it will not be the final.
Nonetheless, the actual fact stays that if a workforce is content material to remove your airspace and pressure contested threes, one of the best counter is to drive the lane. The Celtics had a substantial dimension benefit towards the Thunder, but they not often labored out of a Kristaps Porzingis post-up or allowed Jaylen Brown to blow up downhill off a display.
It is laborious to criticize a Celtics workforce that dominated its approach to an NBA championship only a few months in the past. But, different groups across the league have improved. Those self same groups have additionally gathered extra knowledge on the right way to decelerate Boston’s offense.
If Mazzulla cannot discover a secondary offensive system to ease the stress when photographs aren’t falling, Boston’s probabilities of successful back-to-back titles are going to take a big blow.
