Celtics doomed by 3-point shooting, but placing blame goes beyond Joe Mazzulla
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The Boston Celtics lived and died by the 3-pointer.
It's a cliche, sure, but it's true. Their season ended Saturday night in large part because they shot 13-for-49 from 3-point range against the Philadelphia 76ers -- a paltry 27%.
Fans will want to blame head coach Joe Mazzulla for the approach.
They'll want to blame some of the players for chucking fearlessly.
They'll see Derrick White's 5-for-16, Jaylen Brown's 3-for-9, Baylor Scheierman and Hugo Gonzalez each 0-for-3 -- and they'll think the fix is to stop shooting as many 3s.
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The problem is that the modern NBA doesn't work like that.
The Celtics have something approaching an optimal shot diet. To maximize wins in the long run, shots at the basket and 3-pointers are the way to go.
That's especially true with open 3s, and the Celtics had a lot of those. Scheierman missed a couple with no one in his area code in the corner. Gonzalez, the same. White kept creating separation, but after a blistering start, cooled down.
This is who the Celtics are. It's what has given them a couple of the most efficient offenses in NBA history in recent seasons. It's how they won a title a couple of seasons ago.
And yes, there's higher variance here. A bad 3-point shooting night can doom the Celtics, and it did in Game 7 against the 76ers.
That doesn't make it wrong, though.
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Especially without Jayson Tatum on the floor, the Celtics didn't have a bunch of great finishers at the basket. Their best offense was to get some paint points for Neemias Queta and then keep spacing it out and finding open guys for shots. They did all of that. The shots just didn't fall.
And that, more than anything else anyone discusses on a deeper level, is how basketball works.
If the Celtics had made more shots, their season would still be going.
They got shots that their roster can make, and they didn't make them. It's not about approach. It's not even some overly specific execution problem. The team that makes shots is going to win, and the Celtics didn't make enough.