Adjustment was (two) good
It was apparent that 76ers coach Nick Nurse, who has faced the Celtics 30 times over the past five years, devised a scheme to severely limit Boston’s 3-point attempts. A team that leads the NBA in 3-point attempts, and makes, had to figure out another way to win.
Perhaps in the past, the Celtics would have forced the issue, taken hero-ball shots, contested threes and insisted on winning their way. The Celtics prefer to win by way of the 3-point shot. They prefer to shoot opponents out of the gym, but not on this night.
Tuesday’s matchup against the shorthanded 76ers could be considered a pop quiz, an opportunity to show just how much the Celtics have learned over the past few years about being more offensively versatile, how much they truly embrace the presence of Kristaps Porzingis and his ability to score at will in the paint.
For this night and perhaps many nights in April and May, the Celtics had to embrace the 2-point shot and attacking the rim to create free throw opportunities. Nurse, a mastermind who has thrown dozens of defenses at the Celtics over the years, once again tossed a curveball.
This time, the Celtics waited on the pitch and sent it into the bleacher seats. Boston’s 117-99 win was punctuated by a 26-10 game-ending run and 64 points in the paint, 18 above their season average.
The five made 3-pointers were the Celtics’ lowest since Dec. 2021. The 22 attempts were their lowest since Jan. 2021.
The Philadelphia defense chased the Celtics off the 3-point line and forced drives and kicks, or relied on a guard to defend Porzingis, and the Celtics responded by feeding the big man or using Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum to attack the rim.
They passed the test with an A. They realized during the second period they would have to win in an unorthodox way because they’re not all going to be conventional.
“Teams are going to play us different ways,” Brown said. “Tonight they took away the 3-point line. Other teams might go zone to slow you down. Other teams might switch everything [defensively]. As a student of the game, you embrace the challenge. As you get older, you start to think the game, you start to see how different coaches like to implement their game plan.
“Tonight, it took us a little bit to figure it out. But that’s part of the journey, being able to read, recognize how teams are guarding you, where the advantages are on the floor. You’ve got to let the game decide where the ball is going to go.”
The Celtics dominated the 76ers in nearly every other category besides the 3point line. They doubled Philadelphia on the boards, 56-28, held the 76ers to 39.4 percent shooting, and held the four starters besides sparkling guard Tyrese Maxey to 22 total points.
As the Celtics glide through the regular season, their focus is on preparing for all the challenges that will come in the playoffs, and a group of brilliant coaches who will devise game plans to take the Celtics out of their comfort zone.
So the goal is to expand their comfort zone, improve at attacking the paint, use Porzingis’s size and passing skills as a luxury, and punish teams with physical drives to draw fouls. The Celtics attempted 37 free throws Tuesday, 33 of those by Porzingis, Tatum, and Brown.
“We’ve never said we had to win [taking threes],” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. “We’ve always taken what the defense gives us. We’re one of the best teams at doing that. Our offensive philosophy is to take the best shot. It took us about the end of the first quarter, beginning of the second to understand how they were defending us and we just have to make that adjustment. And we made that adjustment by taking care of the ball and going to a few different formations and defending at a high level.”
For Mazzulla, who implores his team to take open and quality 3-pointers and a lot of them, it wasn’t that difficult to resign himself to taking considerably fewer 3pointers because they were successful scoring in other ways. They made 65 percent of their 2-point shots and defensively they held the 76ers to mostly one possession.
It’s not usually the kind of math Mazzulla prefers when building his team’s offensive profile, but it was effective nonetheless. And his players didn’t force the issue as they may have done in the past. The blueprint for victory was not by way of the three, and that was perfectly fine with the Celtics.
“Obviously adding new pieces and guys who have done special things in this league, Jrue [Holiday] has won a championship and learning from our mistakes the last few years,” Tatum said. “I think it’s rewarding, we have a balanced enough team, good enough team that we could win physical games, we could win fast-paced games, we can outthink other teams. So we’ve got to be well-rounded. It’s a bunch of different ways to win a basketball and we’ve got to be able to do it every which way.”