Celtics Defense Making it Too Easy for Opponents

The Celtics, defensively, have gone too far toward hoping opponents miss rather than making opponents miss.

Dillon Brooks became the latest role player to torch Boston, unloading 10-of-15 three point shooting for a career night against the Celtics. The Rockets won, 114-112, in large part behind Brooks’ performance, which began with nine short or no contests against him before he broke free for a transition take on his 10th. The Celtics tightened up on him for Brooks’ 11th-13th attempts before losing him on his 14th and 15th.

“We didn’t expect that,” Jayson Tatum said after. “You want to adjust to make things tougher on him, but I don’t know. He hit 10 threes tonight. It’s tough. Didn’t account for that at all.”

One-off outbursts would be one thing, but these breakouts have now happened throughout January. Gabe Vincent and Rui Hachimura converted their threes in last week’s blowout loss to the Lakers. Dejounte Murray shot 6-of-9 from three after entering that near Celtics loss to the Pelicans hitting fewer than 30% of his attempts. Russell Westbrook went 4-for-9 in the Nuggets game while Domantas Sabonis poured in threes while the Celtics ignored him in their loss to the Kings.

Even Onyeka Okongwu hurt Boston from deep as Atlanta beat Boston in overtime earlier this month. And after Caleb Martin poured in 7-of-9 from three on Christmas while the Celtics mostly left him alone on the perimeter, Joe Mazzulla defended the defense.

“It’s great, I liked that you asked that question, because … who do you help off of? He made big time shots, but if you want to slow Maxey and Embiid down, you have to bring the game to someone,” he said. “Out of the nine threes he shot, I’ll go back and look and see which ones were heavily contested, but that’s the catch-22 to what teams who are shooting the ball well, they put you in a tough spot. That’s why it’s important to take away the tendencies on a guy’s right hand drive. Take away the transition. Don’t turn the ball over. Get good shots. So when you’re in a situation where you’re not taking care of some of those details, it doesn’t make up for the margin for error.”

NBA tracking data later revealed that Martin shot seven of his nine attempts while wide open (6+ feet of space). At other times, Mazzulla relented that Boston needed to make stronger efforts to contest late when they hedge away from certain players. There are scenarios where high-scoring stares require extra attention, though it did little to slow Tyrese Maxey (12-23, 33 pts) and Joel Embiid (8-15, 27 pts) on Christmas. Perhaps Monday’s defense shut down Jalen Green and came as a necessity with three rotation players out, but Amen Thompson also broke free for 33 points. And that hasn’t been an anomaly in recent months.

The Celtics have internally assessed their play this month through the lens of that shooting luck. Mazzulla has mentioned Boston shooting below its expected percentage while it’s clear that numerous players have experienced outlandish three-point nights against them. The Celtics fell to 23rd at 35.4% from three this month after Monday’s loss. Their opponents have hit 35.7% against them (15th).

There are numerous factors going into those results, fatigue and injuries undoubtedly part of the picture. They have more big men than wings, and have often played their center son perimeter players on wings in double-big lineups. This defensive approach, in part, answered the opening stretch of the season where the Celtics gave away the paint to take away threes. They wanted to force opponents to shoot bad threes that’ll drag down their efficiency over a larger volume. Now, they’re caught in-between those schools of thought despite still ranking seventh in defense this month (111.7 def. rating).

Derrick White rested on Monday after finally breaking out of his extended drought. Jrue Holiday, who went 2-for-6 in the loss, referred to playing through pain at shootaround before the game. Houston spent part of the night playing off him the way Memphis infamously did earlier this season. Mazzulla called it a bold strategy that night, funneling the Celtics’ offense into Holiday’s hands as he shot the most threes of his career. But that’s what Boston has done on most nights this season. And while it worked often a year ago, it’s another thing that hasn’t been the same on the team’s path to a repeat attempt.

“We live with the results,” Brown said. “But going forward it’s something that we take into account. I think tonight, nobody would’ve expected Dillon Brooks to shoot 10 threes, and it happened tonight. So I think we live with it.”