Jaylen calls out key issue of Celtics offense in loss to Warriors
Jaylen calls out key issue of Celtics offense in loss to Warriors
“I feel like we kind of settled at times.”
Although the Boston Celtics enjoy playing deep ball,
Tuesday’s game served as a reminder of what might happen when they aren’t making 3-pointers.
The Celtics, who are first in the NBA in 3-point field goals made and attempts per game,
missed a franchise-high 41 3-pointers at Chase Centre,
finishing 17 for 58 from beyond the arc in a 132-126 overtime loss.
Although 47 of Boston’s 58 tries at three-pointers qualified as “open” shots,
according to NBA tracking data,
the majority of those attempts weren’t necessarily poor looks,
and one might argue the Celtics could use more offensive balance by attacking the paint more frequently.
Jaylen Brown undoubtedly thinks in that way.
After the game, Brown stated,
“I feel like we kind of settled at times, but we missed a lot of shots,
missed some easy shots at the rim, and a lot of wide-open looks.
” When it came time to paint, we could have been more forceful.
We made do with a lot threes.”
Tuesday night, Brown put his words into practice by making
just four 3-pointers and scoring 27 of his 30 points in the paint or at the foul line.
When Brown backed down the best player for the Warriors and scored over him in the paint in the third quarter,
it contributed to Stephen Curry’s fifth foul.
However, when the team attempted to pursue Curry and force him to foul out,
the Boston Celtics All-Star thought that at moments during the fourth quarter and overtime,
the offence was stale.
“They effectively concealed him,” Curry’s coworker Brown remarked.
They were doing a fantastic job of hiding him,
and we were attempting to force him into action.
We could have been able to attack if we had just played instead of observing our surroundings,
but we were attempting to force him into specific behaviours,
and I believe it hindered us a little.”
Brown has expressed his desire for the Celtics to play quickly and
attack opponents during transition quite a bit this season, and for good cause.
With 7.7 transition points per game,
the 27-year-old is third in the NBA behind Donovan Mitchell and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
However, Brown felt that Boston’s pace slowed down on Tuesday night as
long shots took the place of opportunities to attack the basket.
“I thought we had open looks,
and we encourage our guys to take open looks,” Brown stated.
“However, I believe that there were moments when we had
the advantage and the numbers to make layups rather than settling for threes.
“… We got open looks, but I would’ve liked to see us get to the paint a little bit more.”
The Celtics, who are 18-0 this season when they make at least 33 percent of their deep balls,
still have a formidable weapon in the form of threes.
The C’s probably would have won if they had made a few more free throws on Tuesday night.
However, Brown thinks that stepping up the pace and getting to
the hoop is the first step in helping Boston win when their shots aren’t falling.
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