Getty Jaylen Brown, Boston Celtics
The Boston Celtics failed to get a win in their December 29 contest against the Los Angeles Clippers, primarily due to their horrendous perimeter shooting.
The Celtics almost entered the history books for all the wrong reasons, as they shot just 9.5% from three on 42 attempts, per NBA Stats. Boston’s issues were compounded by Brown, who is currently tasked with leading the Celtics offense with Tatum absent due to health and safety protocols, hitting just one of his 13 three-point attempts.
Celtics lose 91-82, they drop to 16-19, their 8th loss in the last 11 games.
WORST 3-POINT SHOOTING GAMES – NBA HISTORY
(40 or more attempts)
Houston – Feb. 28, 2021 – 8.9%
BOSTON – DEC. 29, 2021 – 9.5%
Brooklyn – Feb. 4, 2019 – 11.9%
Minnesota – Nov. 10, 2019 – 13.3%
Of course, if other players had made their shots, then Brown’s statline wouldn’t hurt as much, but that wasn’t the case. As has been the problem all season, multiple Celtics went ice cold from the perimeter, which left the offense out to dry.
Let’s take a look at the Celtics three-point shooting against the Clippers;
- Jaylen Brown 1-for-13
- Al Horford 0-for-7
- Romeo Langford 0-for-3
- Payton Pritchard 0-for-5
- Josh Richardson 0-for-5
- Brodric Thomas 0-for-3
- Sam Hauser 1-for-3
- Grant Williams 2-of-3
Regardless of your opponent, taking 42 shots from deep, and making just four of them, is a recipe for disaster. As you would expect, a large portion of the Celtics’ struggles came when attacking the Clippers’ zone defense, which has been an issue for Boston over the last few seasons.
“We can get any look against the zone in the NBA. When people play zone, it’s because they can’t guard you in man. Honestly, it wasn’t that hard to dissect. We just didn’t knock down shots and make the right reads. When we do the right things, blow it out the water, but if we’re not doing things the right way consistently, it’s going to give you problems because you’re gonna be taking shots that are rushed or early in the shot clock, that you wouldn’t normally take in man (coverage).
I think that’s what teams want us to do. We have stagnation when they go zone. We slow it down and try to work it ourselves. I think we’re overthinking it a little bit and attack it more together against the zone rather than attacking it 1-v-1,” Grant Williams said following the Celtics’ loss to the Clippers.
Jaylen Brown Frustrated at Letting the Game Slip Away
All eyes are on Brown right now. With Tatum missing a stretch of games, the onus is on him to lead the way on offense. After two games with Brown being the team’s primary option, the results look underwhelming, leading people to question if the Atlanta native is suited to being a top-two player on a contending team.
Brown took 36 shots against the Clippers, 13 of them from three, and converted on just 36.1%, while also failing to register a single assist in almost 40 minutes of play. Factor in the lack of star power on the Clippers roster, and Brown’s performance becomes even more disappointing. Yet, the Celtics All-Star wing shared the fan’s frustration following the game, noting how his team failed to execute on numerous possessions down the floor.
“I mean, we did get a lot of open looks. I don’t think we were forcing shots. I thought we had a lot of open looks that didn’t go down. Unfortunate timing, because we definitely wanted to respond from the last game, a lot of those guys came out ready to play, and we just came up short. We just came up f****** short,” Brown said.
Despite the Celtics dropping yet another game, Brown remains confident that the team is learning some tough lessons and will be an improved unit because of it later in the season. However, Brad Stevens made a point of adding veterans to the Celtics roster during the offseason, so that lessons like these wouldn’t need to be learned on the fly.
“It’s all a process, it’s a learning process, for everybody. I don’t shy away from it. I don’t shy away from being in this role and having the opportunity to lead a team. I haven’t been in this role very often, but I accept it, try to inspire my guys each and every night. And we’re learning amongst the process. I know tonight resulted in a loss, but we’ll be better off from it,” Brown explained.
Shots Weren’t Falling.
During their post-game press conference, both Brown and Ime Udoka noted how the Celtics continually worked for open shots and got numerous good shot attempts because of their ball movement. Unfortunately, those shots just failed to fall.
“We missed a lot of shots, and I thought we had a lot of open looks. We moved the ball and got a lot of great shots, wide-open looks, but they didn’t go down. We could have made some shots, but then also the little stuff we didn’t take care of. The little stuff that we didn’t execute on, transition opportunities, we gotta take advantage of 3-on-2’s and 2-on-1’s, and we didn’t, and we lost…again,” Brown said.
According to NBA Stats, the Celtics took 23 shot attempts with a defender between four to six feet away from the shooter, classified as “open.” Boston also took a further 29 shots with a defender more than six feet away from the shooter, making those shots “wide open.”
In total, the Celtics attempted 52 shots that were either open or wide-open – roughly 50% of their entire offense came without serious resistance from the Clippers. Boston just failed to convert on their opportunities, hitting just 17.4% of their open looks and 31% of their wide-open opportunities.
Last night the Celtics took 23 “open” shots (defender between 4-and-6 feet) and hit 4 of them – 17.4%
They took 29 “wide open” shots (defender 6+ feet away) and hit 9 of them – 31%
Are we still waiting for water to find its level? Or were we expecting the well to be deeper?
The Celtics have the Phoenix Suns next, with their December 31 contest due to round out a grueling December. Hopefully, those lessons that Brown spoke about have been learned. Otherwise, it will be another difficult night at the office for the Celtics players.
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