The team has stressed process over results, but results can breed confidence in process.
There are complexities to basketball that go beyond the statistics, but sometimes, the math is easy.
After blowing out the Knicks on Saturday afternoon, Jaylen Brown simply said, “you gotta beat us four times. Not once. Not twice. Not three. You gotta win four games.”
Zooming into the Game 3 box score, one number stands out. After making just 25-of-100 three-pointers in the first two games at TD Garden, Boston hit half of their forty attempts at MSG with the Knicks hitting just 5-of-25.
But for head coach Joe Mazzulla, that glaring gap from behind the arc wasn’t the difference.
“That’s the easy thing to look at, but we won the end of quarters and didn’t have 11 live ball turnovers. I can’t stress to you the importance of not throwing the ball to the other team and them getting out in transition,” Mazzulla said.
In Game 1, nine live ball turnovers led directly to 8 points. In Game 2, those numbers ballooned to eleven TO’s and 12 points. On Saturday afternoon, the Celtics shrank those stats to four live ball turnovers to just four points. Those might seem insignificant to the more obvious variance from 3, but there’s a relationship between easy buckets and shooters finding confidence and rhythm.
“They’re a really talented team. So, if you start giving them opportunities in transition to run and guys get transition 3s and layups, the halfcourt shots start to become a little easier,” Jayson Tatum said after making five threes in Game 3. “Taking care of the ball is essential to any game plan regardless of whoever you’re playing. You gotta take care of the ball.”
To anybody that’s played basketball, there’s a snowball effect to a shooter’s psyche. Heavy’s Steve Bulpett spoke to some NBA executive and coaches about the Celtics’ leaning in to analytics too much and not factoring in the human element of timing and pressure.
“Look, the 3-point shot has evolved as a weapon, and the Celtics have, like, eight really good shooters. That’s great. But you have to pay attention to the situation and pressure and how your guys are reacting to it.
“There’s a clutch factor, and it’s real. And you have to have people who can recognize it and call the right plays or get you into the right actions.”
The Celtics hit six of their first seven three-pointers in the first quarter with Tatum making two of them en route to a 36-20 lead. The hot shooting cooled but continued in the second (6-of-12 from 3), the Celtics turned the ball over just twice, and they held serve in the third.
Maybe, just maybe, this is the game that gets the snowball rolling with water finding its level on their shooting, confidence morphing into focus, and the Celtics looking like the Celtics again.
“You go through stretches where you don’t have to change anything, but you just need to get in the gym and see some shots go in and just kinda get your rhythm going,” Tatum said. That’s where the confidence stems from, all the work that you put in, the muscle memory and things like that. I’ve been doing that my whole life.”