Celtics ☘️ Sentinel

 Celtics Coach, Joe Mazzulla's, love of the 3-point shot may have been a cceptable during the 2024-25 season . But last season he had Jayson Tatum (.343 from three), Kristaps Porzingis (.412), Al Horford (.363) and Jrue Holiday (.353). Last season's version of The Green shot . 368 from deep ,  Well, how is that long ball affection working out this season? The team as a whole is hitting only .312 on 3-pointers . Yet, despite the poor marksmanship beyond the arc, Boston is s till launching roughly the same number of shots (47.8 attempts) as last season (48.2 attempts) from deep. The two Celtics starters with the most minutes (Payton Pritchard and Derrick White) are shooting .213 and .263, respectively from deep . Last season , those numbers showed .407 and .384, respectively for the back court duo.  It is obvious that the loss of Tatum, Porzingis, Horford and Holiday is sorely felt because of the heavy defensive coverage they demanded beyond the arc. Perhaps Mazzul...

 A few weeks ago, I wrote that Joe Mazzulla's fondness for the 3-pointer was working - barely - and that any drop in long-ball-accuracy would not work for his team. Well, it happened. For the last five games , the Celtics have gone 3-2 (.600) , far worse than their 21-6 season-long record (.778 ). And guess what! In those five games, their 3-point accuracy has dropped from .370 (as of Dec. 11, 2024) to .331, placing The Green in 26th place in that category in the last five games . Let's look at last night's loss to the Bulls . Boston launched 56 shots from behind the arc and made a mere 14 of them - for a 25% success rate. Pritchard (4-of-10) and Tatum (4-of-11) were fine from behind the arc, but Brown (1-of-8), Porzingis (2-of-7), White (3-of-12) and Holiday (0-of-4) were not.   Horford, Springer and Walsh combined for a grand total of ZERO 3-pointers made in four attempts . The Boston Celtics are certainly not reticent about shooting the long ball. After all, they le...