It was always the threes

“We’re the best at doing it. Why would we change?” -Payton Pritchard

Three-pointers have become synonymous with the Boston Celtics over the last few seasons. They’ve used the power of math to win the margins night in and night out, and sustain a championship level of success.

“I feel like some teams should maybe not take as many threes but those teams should not be us,” Payton Pritchard replied when asked about the upward trend in threes around the league Saturday. “We’re the best at doing it. Why would we change?”

Just two days later, Pritchard and the Cs fired up their season-low in long-range attempts, shooting just 33 of them in their 108-104 loss to the Orlando Magic. Before Monday, the Celtics had shot at least 41 threes every time they took the floor. By optimizing the three, they managed to capitalize on the math and outscore opponents by an average of 10.2 points per game on those margins alone.

The lack of attempts against Orlando wasn’t exactly by choice, though. The Magic put a ton of pressure on Boston and ran them off of the three-point line. There’s no getting around it — the change in gameplan rattled the Cs. They went stone cold in the second half, scoring just 45 total points.

When they weren’t able to create open looks from three, Boston started to rely on isolation. It worked to an extent. Jaylen Brown was excellent; he consistently got inside, used his strength, and racked up points in the paint.

Outside of him, it wasn’t pretty. Their offense looked stagnant. There was a healthy serving of forced passes, difficult shots, and overall sloppy play. Up until the closing minutes, the Cs only had two second-half assists.

Mind you, it didn’t help that Jayson Tatum was a last-minute scratch, but they’re not going to win many games when they’re only dishing two dimes in a half.

They did manage to give the hosts a scare at the end of the game, though. The Celtics made a quick push to cut the lead to just one, and they did it by moving the ball and creating open looks.

That first play where they got Derrick White an open three was peak Celtics basketball. Al Horford did a great job of making a quick read out of the short roll and it resulted in a big bucket.

Orlando was able to take the Cs out of their wheelhouse for the majority of the night and it won them the game. They managed to outscore Boston by 15 from distance, which almost never happens.

This wasn’t the first time we’ve seen teams throw off the Celtics by running them off of the three-point line, either. Two of their three playoff losses in the spring came in games where they shot less than 35 threes.

Boston is still an elite team without the surplus of long-range bombs, but they’re not at their best. It’s how opponents can make the champs feel mortal.