BOSTON — Joe Mazzulla often delivers a few words to nearby people during the walk away from his postgame press conference. Sometimes, he expands on a point he made at the podium. Other times, he brings up a topic he either didn’t want to address or didn’t want to speak candidly about in front of the microphones. Every once in a while, he seems to be sending a message about what he considered a vital part of the game, especially an aspect that could have been overlooked.
On his way off the podium Sunday night, after the Celtics barely held on to a 120-119 win against the Pelicans, Mazzulla referenced the 44 3-pointers his team attempted. That would have been an above-average outing in that category for any other team in the league, but not for Boston, on pace to shatter the single-season record for 3-point attempts per game. The Celtics are used to generating more outside looks, but have trended down on that front over the last month. Though the slippage of their 3-point rate isn’t the only reason for their recent inconsistencies, it’s one of the flashing lights indicating they aren’t flowing as smoothly as they did earlier in the season.
“I don’t know (why the 3-point attempts have decreased),” Al Horford said. “I wonder that too. I’m like, man, we’ve gotta get those up. We had those numbers up — way up — earlier in the season and now it seems like we’re taking less. I like when we shoot a lot of 3s so that’s a really good question.”
Early in the season, the Celtics gave themselves an enormous advantage behind the arc in almost every game. Not only did they take and make more 3-pointers than any other team in the league, but they also did a great job limiting their opponents’ long-distance operations. As of Dec. 8, the day after they fell to 19-5 while attempting 60 3-pointers in a loss to Memphis, the Celtics were averaging 19 made 3-pointers (best in the league) on 51.4 attempts per game (also best). Their opponents were averaging 12.6 made 3-pointers (sixth-fewest in the league) on 35.3 attempts per game (fourth-fewest). Each game, the Celtics were picking up an average of 19.2 points on their opponents from behind the 3-point line.
The math Mazzulla loves so much has shifted in the wrong direction. While going 7-6 over their last 13 games, the Celtics have still created more 3-point attempts than any other team (46.0 per game), but haven’t lapped the field like they did earlier in the season. Adding to their slippage on offense, they have dropped to a shocking 24th place in 3-point percentage during this stretch (34.1 percent), leaving them at just fourth in made 3-pointers per game (15.7). At the other end of the court, their ability to slow down opposing 3-point attacks has disappeared. Over these 13 games, they rank 20th in 3-point attempts allowed (38.5 per game), 23rd in 3-point percentage allowed (37.7 percent) and 26th in 3-point makes allowed (14.5 per game). The Celtics’ 3-point dominance has almost entirely vanished throughout this stretch, during which they have picked up just 3.6 points per game on their opponents from behind the arc. And Boston has needed to use more possessions on 3-pointers than its opponents to produce those points.
3/4 from deep tonight for Al 🫡 pic.twitter.com/2eCiYu66fM
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) January 13, 2025
With their superpower missing, the Celtics have fallen into their biggest rut of the last two seasons.
“We have a lot of good shooters,” Horford said, “so I feel like when we shoot more we have better chances. Also, it spreads the floor out, opens the floor up a lot for Jaylen (Brown) and Jayson (Tatum). I’m sure that we’ll get back there eventually. I can’t really tell you honestly right now what it is. But I know we have practice (Monday) and we’ll have a good film session and we’ll continue to learn and address things.”
The recent 3-point weakness on both ends of the court could be due partly to the shift in approach brought on by Kristaps Porziņģis’ return. Though the 7-foot-2 center takes his fair share of long balls, he doesn’t spend nearly all of his time spacing the court, like Horford does. On defense, Porziņģis’ strengths lie at the rim, not necessarily on the perimeter. It makes sense that the Celtics’ 3-point defense has suffered with Porziņģis on the court. They have allowed 40.5 3-point attempts per 48 minutes with him, about six more attempts than they have allowed without him, and the on-off discrepancy has only grown throughout the 7-6 slide. Over the entire regular season, Celtics opponents have shot a sizzling 41.8 percent on 3-point attempts with Porziņģis in the game. Though that percentage is certainly due for some regression, the Celtics are likely to continue allowing more 3-point volume with the big man on the court. That can work, as it did when they ranked 23rd in 3-point attempts allowed per game last season and still finished second in defensive efficiency. It’s just not, stylistically, the way they defended earlier this season.
Though the Celtics held on for what Horford called a “wacky” win against New Orleans, the game followed a similar pattern as several recent Boston losses. The Celtics starting lineup, which has struggled lately, fell behind early before barely clinging to a late lead. After some strange mistakes near the end of the fourth quarter, including a five-second violation on an inbounds play with 6.6 seconds left, they survived only when CJ McCollum’s floater spun out at the final buzzer. Mazzulla’s team shot just 29.5 percent on 3-point attempts (13 for 44). The Pelicans made more 3-pointers (17) than the Celtics despite taking seven fewer attempts. Dejounte Murray, whose season high for made 3-pointers was three, drilled five in the first quarter alone.
The Celtics have not made more 3-pointers than their opponent in any of their last four games. They had only lost the 3-point battle four times all season before this streak.
They are discovering what the other side feels like.
“I think just the way teams are guarding us, they’re selling out at it (to stop the Celtics from shooting 3-pointers),” Derrick White said. “But I think it’s going to come back around and it’s just a part of the season.”
White said teams have switched more often recently against the Celtics.
“But I also think that we haven’t really been shooting like we’re capable of, so maybe you shoot a little less than if you’re kind of feeling it,” White said. “So it’s just a part of the season. There’s ups, there’s downs. There’s probably a game where we’ll shoot a bunch coming up here soon and then a game like where we don’t. So we just have to continue to learn and grow and just find different ways to win.”
The Celtics almost found a unique way to lose Sunday. With 3:25 left and his team trying to build on a 114-110 lead, White fumbled an inbounds pass out of bounds despite minimal defensive pressure. Later, with the Boston lead 3 points, Tatum missed a pair of free throws that kept the Pelicans in a one-possession game with 13.4 seconds left. After White wisely fouled to ensure New Orleans wouldn’t sink a game-tying 3-pointer, McCollum hit both of his free throws to cut the Celtics lead to 120-119 with 6.6 seconds remaining. White was called for a five-second violation on the ensuing inbounds play. He thought he had signaled for a timeout in time, but the referee disagreed.
“He said it was five seconds before I called a timeout,” White said. “But I’ve taken the ball out a lot and thought I had a pretty good internal clock. But he said he got to five. I don’t know how, but luckily it didn’t cost us.”
The Celtics prevailed in spite of their late mistakes. They also prevailed in spite of their outside shooting. They have won plenty of games because they owned the 3-point arc, but they haven’t owned it lately. Mazzulla said their bad shooting has at times taken a toll on the rest of their performance.
“(While beating the Pelicans), I thought actually we worked through that, but over the course of a game, and stretches, yeah, no question,” Mazzulla said. “So again, we have to have the mental toughness to continue to work through that and find ways to win without it. I would say the ultimate compliment is we’re 28-11, and these are the types of conversations that we’re having. It’s a beautiful place to be. I’m serious. I think it’s great. It’s a great standard and a great expectation to have, and we have to deliver. We all know that. That’s the process towards it, but when you’re — what are we, the third team in the league right now? Which isn’t great, but look at the (reaction). It sounds like a morgue in here, and that’s how it should be, because of where we’re trying to get to. So it’s the ultimate compliment, and we’ll just continue to work through it.”
(Photo of Al Horford: Paul Rutherford / Imagn Images)
