The attack began Only 12 seconds in the season.
It was October 22 in Boston-Noche of Ring for Defensor Champion Celtics against the rival rival of New York Knicks, and Jayson Tatum had just drilled a triple open on the right in the first play of the game.
During the next 11:48 of the game time, Boston hit nine 3s more:
To the Horford of the wing. Derrick White from the corner. Jaylen Brown of the wing. Tatum again and again, and again. Jrue Holiday. Sam Hauser. And finally, Payton Pritchard with less than 30 seconds in the first quarter (because, of course, he did).
They were the first 10 of 29 triples of the NBA-Tying 29 that the Celtics would hit the Knicks that night, in the first 39 minutes of the game.
But Boston’s attempt by rip The record, matched only by the 2020-21 Milwaukee Bucks, became its own show in the last nine minutes of the eventual exploitation 132-109.
Brown tried to make the history of the league, as did Hauser, Pritchard and rarely used the backup copies Xavier Tillman and Jordan Walsh. In total, the Celtics took and blocked, 13 3s to close an exhibition of 29 by 61 from beyond the arch.
1:26
Celtics Miss Hilarious amount of 3 trying to break record
After binding the record of a single NBA game with 29 triples, the Celtics lose 13 consecutive treys in the section.
The excursion was a sign of things to come for Boston, both in how many long balls would fly this season and how many problems the champions can have when the shots stop falling.
Last week, in their victory over the Miami Heat, the Celtics registered their 23rd game of the season with at least 50 attempts of 3 points. That is already an NBA album, a feat that they managed to achieve before even reaching the Break All-Star. And when entering Thursday’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers (7 pm et, TNT), the Celtics are on their way to erase the record of the league season attempts at 48.3 per game.
But with their attempts they increased 14% since last season, yes, Boston also led the league then, and a confusing and unprint of two months in which the Celtics fought unusually from the outside, raises the question of whether their possibilities of Repeat as champions are reinforced or hindered by their historical strategy and without 3 -point complexes.
Of a month To the next one, the 3 -point numbers of the Celtics collapsed.
A fantastic 40.7% of 3 in October. A solid 36.7% brand in November. But then 35.4% below the average in December, which continued with 33.8% frankly bad, which would be close to the NBA bottom for the season, during the first half of January.
The decreased shooting coincided with, and possibly caused, the Celtics fell into the Win-Wess column. Boston began the campaign that was dominant with a 16-3 mark. But even when the group generally continued playing a first level defense, the Celtics seemed mortal around the holidays, going 8-6 in December before registering a 5-4 mark to start 2025.
They launched consecutive games for the first time throughout the season at the end of December, losing to a Magic de Orlando team that missed the young stars Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner before falling at home against a Sixers team staggering at Christmas. Meanwhile, the Cleveland Cavaliers, 5½ games ahead of the Celtics for the best sown in the east that entered Thursday, have seen themselves as the class of the conference during the first half of the season.
Of the 10 Boston losses since mid -December, Celtics have fired 30% or worse than 3 out of seven of them, which underlines the impact of perimeter struggles.
“We are playing inconsistent basketball,” said coach Joe Mazzulla, who has argued for a long time that he is less concerned about how many 3 obtain his team and more concerned about their quality.
Last month, the Kristaps Porzingis center recognized something that NBA players rarely do: the reigning champions, who took second place in a percentage of 3 points last season, have allowed their shooting falls to affect their defensive effort and decision -making sometimes offensive.
“If we are not shooting, it begins to wear a little. And then we have 5 percent or 10 percent less effort in defense. Some . “But still [we need to] Shoot the ball, because we are a great shooting team. We just have to be intelligent about it. “
There is at least one statistical indication that the attempts of the Celtics from the outside were considerably worse during their damn patch, as Porzingis suggested. Boston’s quantified shooting quality (QSQ), an advanced second spectrum metric that measures the probability that a take between the location and the closest defenders fell 17 points, from the tenth in the NBA to 27 In the 16 games between December. January 19 and 18.
However, Celtics believe that they may have grown during that one -month mediocre vacation service.
For anyone who creates In Boston’s possibilities to repeat, there is much to feel good about it.
The great image metrics look almost the same as last season. The defense, known for its ability to block opponents during the race for the title of 2024, remains a unit among the top five and defends better than any equipment in transition scenarios.
And despite all the criticism and the focus on the offensive, the Celtics, which, after a solid three -week shooting section, now occupy the 11th position in a percentage of 3 points, still clean in the aspect of isolation and They rarely change the ball. They are classified in fourth place in punctuation efficiency, even with dry spells abroad. Tatum, in particular, has reached wherever he wants on the court, blowing by defenders at a more important NBA rate. In addition to obtaining his points, he is helping in a clip of his career (5.6 game assistance) and 61% of his ten cents have been in 3 -point shooters, the second highest rate in the league.
When climbing by opponents and measuring how Boston has done against elite defenses, things look even better. The Celtics have published the second best efficiency of the NBA against the 10 Top 10 defensive units, following only the cavaliers in the category, a striking figure given to Boston sprayed badly in the second half of a defeat against the Oklahoma City Thunder the month past, record of a total of 27 points and shooting only 3 by 24 from depths.
“You have to take the good with the bad and understand that, in the future, we could be grateful for this section,” Tatum said in January. “[We’re missing] Shots normally shoot at a higher speed that would stop bleeding in this stretch. We are still trying to generate the right shot and put men in the right places. We are simply not shooting the ball as well as we do normally. “
Now, with Celtics 5-1 in February and 10-3 since January 20, Tatum’s comments are wise, if not prophetic.
This does not mean that things are completely resolved, even when the team shows an improvement and is in pace for 57 victories, according to the ESPN basketball power index.
Perhaps the strangest change of last season to this: the initial alignment, so dominant a year ago, does not also click statistically. The alignment of five men from Tatum, Brown, Porzingis, White and Holiday expelled opponents for 11 points per 100 possessions in 2023-2024, but is being surpassed by 3.8 points per 100 plays in 277 minutes this season.
The most notable data point: that group has fought powerfully from depth at 33.8% in the season, below 39.3% last season. On the contrary, that group with the veterinarian for a long time instead of Porzingis has been dominant this season, largely due to its 45% clip from beyond the arch.
It is another example that breaks the game of Boston’s historical dependence in 3.
Yes, they have shown that they can cool and lose significant games firing many of them. But after winning everything a season ago, the Celtics have also seen the final reward to play precisely as they do, with up to 50 triples per night. Stylistic criticisms will be convicted.
