Time to get offensive

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

It's been well-advertised that Boston leads the NBA in shooting percentage, and has for pretty much the whole season, so it's been puzzling to me exactly why they struggle so often to put up decent point totals. Then I heard an intriguing stat during last night's game: the Celtics are dead last in the NBA in field-goal attempts (I think it was 75 a game). It's great to have a high shooting percentage, but Boston's gotta find a way to kick the offense up a notch or two, because anytime the C's DON'T shoot well, it presents a double-whammy: low # of attempts plus a low shooting % ... which leads to those atrocious 70-to-80-point games we've seen far too often this season.

And this is why I like the additions of Green, Krstic and Murphy. I realize that this team prides itself on defense, but it seems to me that it often does so at the expense of a decent offense -- thus leading to the overall detriment of the team (not to mention making its fans watch some ugly basketball).\

Boston still has KG, and there's no reason they can't still have a great team defense, and mold the new guys into good defensive players -- remember, after all, that Ray wasn't known for his defense before coming to Boston, and Pierce turned into a solid defender only after the Big 3 came together.

[pearljammer10]

The Jazz game shows that we can adapt to a couple different styles of play. We like to play slow half court ball, but with better offensive players Rondo can do what hes meant to do, run and push the ball, and find the open man early in the shot clock. I love the teams versatility.

[vinnie]

The Jazz game shows that we can adapt to a couple different styles of play. We like to play slow half court ball, but with better offensive players Rondo can do what hes meant to do, run and push the ball, and find the open man early in the shot clock. I love the teams versatility.

The Jazz game also shows how bad this team's interior defense might be if neither Shaq nor JO can get back to 80 percent healthy. I hope the team is not expecting to win playoff games 120-118.

[BudweiserCeltic]

The Jazz game shows that we can adapt to a couple different styles of play. We like to play slow half court ball, but with better offensive players Rondo can do what hes meant to do, run and push the ball, and find the open man early in the shot clock. I love the teams versatility.

The Jazz game also shows how bad this team's interior defense might be if neither Shaq nor JO can get back to 80 percent healthy. I hope the team is not expecting to win playoff games 120-118.

We had no one in that team that could matchup against Millsap and Jefferson. They always give us trouble, even with Perk.

I don't know why Doc insisted in using Davis though. We were better off with Krstic or maybe throwing Green in there.

Really, Millsap and Jefferson are not good representative of what we need interior defense for or what we'll usually face.

[Celtics4ever]

We are poor offensive rebounding team because we concentrate more on transition defense.  This cuts down on our FG attempts some but plays havoc on the other team.

[droponov]

It's been well-advertised that Boston leads the NBA in shooting percentage, and has for pretty much the whole season, so it's been puzzling to me exactly why they struggle so often to put up decent point totals. Then I heard an intriguing stat during last night's game: the Celtics are dead last in the NBA in field-goal attempts (I think it was 75 a game). It's great to have a high shooting percentage, but Boston's gotta find a way to kick the offense up a notch or two, because anytime the C's DON'T shoot well, it presents a double-whammy: low # of attempts plus a low shooting % ... which leads to those atrocious 70-to-80-point games we've seen far too often this season.

And this is why I like the additions of Green, Krstic and Murphy. I realize that this team prides itself on defense, but it seems to me that it often does so at the expense of a decent offense -- thus leading to the overall detriment of the team (not to mention making its fans watch some ugly basketball).\

Boston still has KG, and there's no reason they can't still have a great team defense, and mold the new guys into good defensive players -- remember, after all, that Ray wasn't known for his defense before coming to Boston, and Pierce turned into a solid defender only after the Big 3 came together.

Basketball is a game of possessions. A 80 points per game offense may be better than a 120 points per game offense. Increasing the pace wouldn't make the offense better, it'd just produce a higher points total. If you're shooting badly, putting up more shots won't solve anything - quite the contrary. Remember: the other team gets back the ball every time you use a possession.

[greenpride32]

The Jazz game also shows how bad this team's interior defense might be if neither Shaq nor JO can get back to 80 percent healthy. I hope the team is not expecting to win playoff games 120-118.

When the team features Big Al, Millsap, AK47, and Favors you're going to give up a lot of points in the paint.  The number one defense still gives up 90 points a game so it's going to come from somewhere. 

[greenpride32]

If the C's played "Nate Robinson" basketball and just chucked up shots as soon as they crossed the half court line, we'd get more shots up but shoot a worse percentage.  That's just not our game. 

Also my guess is we are one of the worst, if not the very worst at offensive board so this also reduces are FG attempts. 

Anyways, we're in 1st place in the East, no need to panic.  We can't be the best in every single category

[greenpride32]

Okay I just had to look this up.  The better teams are all in the bottom tier as far as FGA/game goes.

The top 10?

MIN
GS
HOU
SAC
NYK
MEM
WAS
IND
PHO
TOR

Let's stick to be being on the bottom and winning games.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

I do understand the team's focus on getting back on defense after misses, but in no way am I advocating a "Nate Robinson" offense. All I'm saying is that the C's are prone to horrid offensive droughts, especially near game's end; this is obvious and concerning to me, and I think it should be to others too.

[droponov]

The Celtics are the 14th best offense in the league, scoring 1.071 points per possession. They're merely an average offensive team in spite of leading the league in eFG%. The reasons for that are:
- they don't attack the offensive glass because they prioritize the transition, as others mentioned. This means 2nd chance points are basically non-existent (the team in the league that rebounds a smaller % of their own misses)
- they're extremely turnover prone (27th most turnover prone team in the league).
- they're also below average drawing shooting fouls (15th in the league in FT/FGA)

The only thing they have going for them is that they hit the basket at incredibly rates, otherwise they'd be a really poor offensive team.

Pace is completely irrelevant (in the sense that it doesn't have a direct impact, it may matter if a fast pace allows your team to get more high percentage shots). Putting up more shots may lead to more points scored but doesn't improve your offense, doesn't make your chances of winning games higher; likewise putting up less shots, playing at a slower pace, which would lead to the opponent scoring less points, doesn't improve your defense.

[BudweiserCeltic]

@droponov

Agree with many of your points. But the reason why you would play a faster pace is to capitulate on easier opportunities, which is by far our biggest weakness in offense. We work hard for every shot we make.

So we don't have to play D'Antoni offense, but you can surely up the pace to get easier opportunities if they present themselves.

We don't play at a slow pace by design. We play slow because Rondo doesn't run constantly among other things. Doc is always shouting to push the ball. When we do, we're awesome. Our best performances, and by extension also Rondo's, is when he's pushing the ball for easy buckets.

[droponov]

@droponov

Agree with many of your points. But the reason why you would play a faster pace is to capitulate on easier opportunities, which is by far our biggest weakness in offense. We work hard for every shot we make

No it's not. It's the strongest one. It's the thing they're best in the league, getting high percentage looks and converting shots. 

What they need to improve offensively is:
- turnovers
- draw fouls
- offensive rebounds

I don't think a higher pace would really help in any of those.

I think that the Celtics push the ball well when the opportunity is there.

[BudweiserCeltic]

Yeah, got carried away there.

But, the only thing that wouldn't improve there would be turnovers (might actually worsen if careless), the other two are irrelevant if we're getting easy buckets due to a higher pace. And no, we don't push the ball well... only when there's a concerted effort to do so.

Offensive rebounds and drawing fouls wouldn't be much of an issue if we were getting easy layups in return.

For example, go watch when Rondo was doing triple doubles on Chicago during the playoffs two years ago. THAT's pushing the ball.

I'm fine with him not doing it during the regular season, conserve energy and all that. But during the playoffs, the more he personally runs and pushes the ball the better we'll be.

I don't know why argue against that.

[Megatron]

I do understand the team's focus on getting back on defense after misses, but in no way am I advocating a "Nate Robinson" offense. All I'm saying is that the C's are prone to horrid offensive droughts, especially near game's end; this is obvious and concerning to me, and I think it should be to others too.

We WERE prone to offensive droughts. Thats what happens when two of your 5 players are offensive liabilities (Perkins and Rondo). Teams ignore them and double team people with the ball leading to low percentage shots or turnovers and we end up going through stretches when we cant score. Now we have 4 offensive options with a Center that can shoot. Teams dont ignore Rondo as much because when they do he rolls in for a layup. Lakers however will ignore Rondo completely. He has to make them pay.