The Boston Celtics have looked prepared to defend their title for the majority of the season, but as of late, they’ve been struggling late in games. That could become a real problem at playoff time. Paul Pierce expressed his concern over Boston’s lacking fourth-quarter scoring and offensive creativity.
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The Celtics have become known as a team that shoots threes at will, a common strategy in today’s game, but Pierce believes the Celtics are too focused on three-ball, even in clutch moments. The former Celtic knows Boston needs to switch up their late-game strategy if they are to improve on their bottom-10 fourth-quarter offense.
Pierce explained that the Celtics have lived and died by the three-pointer this season. They’re leading the league in three-point attempts, chucking 48.2 shots from deep each game. They’ve made a league-high 1242 triples, 124 more than the Cavaliers, who sit in the second spot. The Celtics score 45.7% of their points from beyond the arc, leading the league yet again.
Oftentimes, it works in their favor, but in matchups against prepared opponents, a bad shooting night costs them. Even a bad shooting quarter can cost them a game that should have been theirs comfortably. Their fourth-quarter struggles have been quite glaring.
The Celtics are 22nd in points scored in the 4th, 21st in field goals, 1st in turnovers, and 23rd in free-throw attempts. Pierce sounded concerned when these stats were highlighted in front of him. Talking about the same, he said, “They shooting at a alltime high threes right now and you know sometimes they come back to bite you.”
Pierce referred to how when the threes don’t fall, the other team can get a foot in the door and make a run. Instead of allowing teams to get back in games, Pierce wants to see the Celtics get more aggressive late.
“When you get a lead, you gotta start throwing body blows. Get to the rack, get to the line,” Pierce said. “But when you settling and missing… Like your shot, that ain’t guaranteed every night.”
Pierce knows that the 51-19 Celtics have been able to cruise through the regular season, but the playoffs are a different ball game. Teams will smell blood in the water if the three-point-heavy Celtics fail to knock down their long ones. If the team hopes to repeat as champions, Boston will need to incorporate more offensive variety.
Paul Pierce pointed out the insane number of threes Boston throws up
During his tangent about the Celtics’ lack of offensive creativity and overreliance on threes, Pierce mentioned how the Celtics threw up 63 three-pointers in a recent matchup but only managed to knock down 20 of those attempts. That contest happened to be Boston’s only loss in the month of March thus far.
In what could’ve been an NBA Finals preview, that combination of volume and inefficiency sank the Celtics against the Oklahoma City Thunder. It was a close matchup throughout, but the league-leading Thunder was able to outlast the Celtics, thanks, in part, to their more creative offensive schemes.
The Celtics lost by just six points, but it could have been a victory for Boston had they been aggressive with their shot selection. Boston attempted just 31 shots inside the arc all night, creating little margin for error when the team’s threes aren’t falling.
Boston boasts one of the most well-rounded lineups in the league and is capable of much more than a drive-and-kick offense. With two proven isolation scorers in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, it shouldn’t be too difficult for the Celtics to switch things up before the postseason begins.
