Boston’s defensive rating is only a half-point worse than last season, and the league numbers are simply much better than 2023-24 to this point. Boston ranks 10th overall while allowing 110.8 points per 100 possessions, but that’s 7.5 points worse than top-ranked Oklahoma City. The rest of the numbers in that chart are wildly similar.
So where exactly can the Celtics get a little bit better? A few areas that jump out:
Rim protection
The Celtics have allowed opponents to shoot 67.1 percent at the rim, per Cleaning the Glass tracking. That ranks 19th in the NBA. Boston held opponents to 63.6 percent there last season, which ranked fifth.
The solution here is simple: Boston has only played five games and 143 total minutes with 7-foot-2 big man Porzingis on the court. Opponent field goal percentage at the rim drops 1.4 percent with Porzingis on the court this season. Last season, it plummeted 6.1 percent with Porzingis, one of the largest on/off splits in the league. As Porzingis gets more comfortable coming back from ankle surgery, we should see Boston’s rim defense improve.
And while we don’t obsess about the current discrepancy in points in the paint — Boston prefers to give up 2s over 3s, and we know the team’s offense is based heavily on the perimeter shooting — a healthy Porzingis will go a long way toward combatting how Boston has been outscored by an average of 11.9 points per game in the paint while allowing 51.7 paint points per game (25th in the NBA).
3-point accuracy
The Celtics lead the NBA with 56.5 percent of their field goal attempts coming on 3-point shots. That’s 8.4 percent higher than the second-place Charlotte Hornets (48.1 percent). This was the vision when Brad Stevens constructed a roster heavy on shooting, and the Celtics have leaned hard into what has been affectionately dubbed “Mazzulla Ball.”
Boston is shooting 37.9 percent on all 3s in non-trash time situations, per CTG. That ranks 11th in the NBA but is down from 39.3 percent and second overall a season ago. Most notable: Boston’s corner 3-point percentage has dipped from 43.6 last season to 40.4 this season.
This one feels easy to solve, too. Jrue Holiday, as emphasized during Saturday’s loss to the Grizzlies, hasn’t been as automatic from the corner compared to last season. His corner 3-point percentage has dipped from 60.4 percent — best in the league — to 30.6 percent this season. The guess here is that, while Holiday might have out-kicked expectations last season, water will find its level and he’ll be a more consistent threat in the corner as the season goes on.
Every other player beyond Holiday and Porzingis are shooting 40 percent or better from the corner, per CTG tracking. Even a small boost in Boston’s 3-point accuracy overall turns a lot of these nail biters into breezy wins for the Celtics.
Better bench play
It feels absurd to suggest that Boston could be getting even better bench play when they have the favorite for Sixth Man in Pritchard. But Boston’s overall bench metrics lag behind last season, when an uber-efficient second unit proved to be vital in the team’s domination.
Boston’s bench averaged just 29.3 points per game (26th in the NBA) last season, but bench players shot 48.9 percent overall and 39 percent on all 3-point attempts (both ranking second in the NBA). What’s more, Boston’s bench players were a combined +312 in plus/minus, with the next closest team being New Orleans at +181.
This season, Boston’s bench output is at 29.6 points (still 26th) despite Pritchard’s uptick, but the Celtics’ reserves are shooting just 45.3 percent overall (13th) and 37.4 percent on 3-point attempts (eighth). Boston’s bench is +46 this season, sixth-best in the NBA.
Sam Hauser has struggled to find his usual consistency while dealing with different maladies to start the season. Boston has mixed and matched its bigs, and while Neemias Queta has been a pleasant surprise compared to expectations, the core group of Pritchard, Hauser, and Kornet have not posted as glitzy advanced numbers compared to last season.
In 2023-24, Hauser (+14.2) and Pritchard (+13.6) finished No. 1 and No. 2 in the NBA in net rating. Those numbers are down to +10.2 for Hauser and +8.0 for Pritchard this season. That’s still solid, but it’s just not the dominance of a season ago when the Celtics thrived even when Jayson Tatum wasn’t on the floor.
Mazzulla is still hunting for the right pairings and Boston’s rotation is still taking shape, particularly while navigating early-season injuries. The Celtics’ preferred starting group with Porzingis has played only 50 total minutes in three games this season. That core group with Horford has the sixth most minutes among all five-man lineups, but the Celtics are still figuring out the best way to mix and match personnel.
The Celtics have been competitive in every single game this season, having lost five games by a total of 20 points. Their biggest margin of defeat is six (vs. Golden State and Memphis). We’re absolutely nitpicking to suggest there are areas where they can improve. But we did expect them to be a bit of an early season buzzsaw considering the continuity they kept from last season.
We’re fully admitting we’re being greedy to expect the Celtics to be just a little bit better to this point.
They will eventually be. The defense will tighten up. The bench play will get more consistent with health. This team has another gear that it probably won’t even touch until the playoffs.
So maybe we ought to be impressed that the numbers are as solid as they have been and the team still hasn’t even tapped into its full potential.
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