Following the Celtics’ 118-112 home loss to Oklahoma City Wednesday night, Thunder superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s signature Converse logo was projected around the city.
Akin to the Batman signal, Converse used lights to convey the unique branding of their highly-touted athlete’s emblem on the Prudential Tower, Converse headquarters and TD Garden.
It was the perfect “in your face” response to SGA (34 points, 7 assists) and OKC’s narrow victory over the defending champs — its second in as many tries this season — but it could’ve been avoided all together had the Celtics, well, played better.
Increasingly known for its propensity to hoist 3-pointers at an all-time rate, Boston took that game plan to new heights in Wednesday’s setback. They launched a franchise record 63 triples, with Jayson Tatum (4-for-13), Al Horford (6-12) and Derrick White (6-12) all getting up double-digit attempts.
Those 63 treys were the most by any team in NBA history not named the Houston Rockets, which fired 68 and 70 from downtown in the 2018-19 campaign. For the season, Boston continues to lead the league by a landslide in 3-point attempts per game (48.2).
Had the Celtics made a higher percentage of those shots — they managed to knock down just 20, for an inefficient 31.7 percent clip — fans and media alike may not be talking about the alarming amount of triples as much.
But one thing’s for certain: Celtics’ head coach Joe Mazzulla isn’t going to shy away from the ‘live and die by the three’ mentality. He continued to downplay the approach after the loss.
“I thought we got great looks. Our shot quality was 1.18; in real time it was probably a bit lower, but I thought we got amazing looks,” said Mazzulla, his team attempting 67 percent of their shots from beyond the arc. “I thought we generated a lot of catch-and-shoot opportunities, a lot of paint touch to kick-out opportunities … for the most part I think they were catch-and-shoot and 2-on-1 kick-out opportunities.”
Mazzulla has rarely, if ever, admitted to his team taking bad shots from distance. After guiding the franchise to its first title since 2008 last June, it’s become harder to critique his basketball intellect and coaching style.
But there’s unquestionably scenarios, in certain games against certain opponents, where the plethora of 3-point heaves have become more difficult to stomach — even in an evolving game where more and more teams are buying into that philosophy.
Led by MVP front-runner SGA, the Thunder are not your average opponent. They lead the Western Conference with 54 wins and trail only the East-leading Cavaliers (55-10) for best record in the NBA.
But they’re also just 10th in the association in 3-point attempts per game (39.1), and their 26-year-old star does the bulk of his damage by getting downhill, attacking the rim and drawing fouls. Defensively, they clearly made an effort to pack the paint and force the Celtics into those slew of outside shots, too.
It worked.
Many times it feels as if Tatum and Brown — who by the way had an abysmal showing in Wednesday’s loss, scoring just 10 points (1-7 from three) before fouling out down the stretch — are apt to jack up heat check-like shots. Dribble, dribble, step-back, launch; we’ve all seen it.
Both are tremendous players, and Tatum is having perhaps his best season yet when it comes to all around impact and consistency. But he, and Brown, could certainly benefit at times from scoring the sure thing in the paint rather than looking for the kill shot or letting loose just because they have a bit of space — especially on a night like Wednesday where those shots simply weren’t falling.
We’ve seen the affection for the three bite teams in the behind before. It led to the downfall of the historic James Harden-led Houston Rockets in Game 7 of the 2018 Western Conference Finals against Golden State, when they bricked 27 straight threes to miss out on an opportunity to play for a championship.
The Celtics are not those Rockets, and they’re more than capable of reaching the mountain top yet again this June.
But they’ve also shown that they can be beat, and nights like Wednesday where they continue to rely heavily on the long ball on an off shooting night in a tight game, could prove detrimental.