Treys aplenty on menu
Preseason proclivity for 3’s a telling sign
The Celtics liked shooting 3-pointers last season. They hoisted 30.4 a game in the regular season, which was more than even Golden State (28.9), though it left them just 10th in the league in launches.
But if Friday night’s preseason opener in Carolina and last night’s first half are any indication — and that isn’t necessarily the case — the affection for treys may be turning into a full-on crush.
The C’s cooled their jets considerably in last evening’s 115-112 rematch victory over the Hornets, going a nice 13-for-31. But there is every reason to believe that with Gordon Hayward back and Kyrie Irving hopefully joining him for a full season together, that 30.4 figure could easily be surpassed.
There was a bit of evidence to support that when, just 50 seconds after tipoff, Aaron Baynes, starting in place of Al Horford (wrist), let fly from the general vicinity of the Outback (hey, he’s from Australia; roll with me on this one). The C’s put up 21 in the half, making nine, before taking just 10 in the latter 24 minutes.
It was nothing compared to the opener. The Celts attempted 47 3-pointers against the Hornets that night, which didn’t seem like such a bad thing when they were hitting 5-of-13 in the first quarter on the way to a 37-20 lead.
Brad Stevens is considerably more concerned with quality than quantity. He doesn’t mind seeing treys taken in bulk, though he may have preferred they put the driver back in the bag for a while when they were hitting just one fairway in 20 tries in the second half Friday (1-fortheir-last-22 overall).
The math is generally irrefutable when it comes to hitting a fair percentage of 3’s. That 38.5 percent marksmanship from Friday’s first quarter equaled 15 points, which nets you more than 53.8 percent inside the arc (7of-13, 14 points).
Stevens is a big believer in numerical imperatives.
“Of course,” said the coach. “It’s hard for me to argue that one. I mean, at the end of the day, nobody would choose it over a layup. (But) if you’ve got a layup with three guys 7-foot jumping trying to block it and you’re trying to go through them, you should probably pass it.
“At the end of the day, if you can get fouled or get a layup, that’s the most efficient thing. And then the inside-out, kick-out 3 is what’s next.”
It’s the lack of the insideout action that bothered Stevens in the first game. Too many of the treys were taken because a Celtic had the ball and room enough to shoot .. . and why the hell not?
Stevens would rather the 3’s be taken as the end product of swift ball movement that catches the defense out of position. Or when, as happened with a little more than two minutes left in the third quarter last night, Irving drives, draws defensive help and dishes to Marcus Morris in the left corner for an open (and made) trey.
“That’s some of the things that coach is talking to us about,” said Horford, who took just one 3 on Friday and made it. “He encourages us to shoot the ball when we’re open, and shoot them with confidence. But as a team we need to be better at recognizing when it’s a rotation or pass-pass-shot 3, as opposed to, you know, just a pull-up 3. Anybody can do that.
“So I think the more we understand that and the more quality 3’s we take, the better off (we’ll be). Our offense is going to be way better if we do it like that.”
The Celtics will have to if they wish to be successful, because the spread floor game with the long-range openings is the destination set on their collective GPS. They may not get all Houston-happy (42.3 treys a game last year) but, with their talent on hand, the writing is on the analytics sheet.
Stevens has been on board for a while.
“When you’re in college, especially when you’re at the mid-major level, you play small a lot,” said the former Butler mentor. “So having four shooters out there is a way to try to balance the strength and athleticism of the bigger schools.
“But, again, we’re all looking for layups and dunks and wide-open 3’s. It just so happens that’s why everybody’s switching (on defense) now and why everybody is late switching and everything else, because everybody wants to guard that stuff. So you have to be able to do a lot of things.”
Like setting the cannon in proper position before launch.