The Shooting Struggles Plague Celtics Hope For ECF

The Shooting Struggles Plague Celtics Hope For ECF

Time Stamp: May 14, 2023 10:24 AM
Source Node: 2650935

The Celtics shot an abysmal 39.8% from the field on Tuesday night, and that was raised in garbage time. They also shot 73.5% from the stripe on 34 attempts. Additionally, they shot a horrid 31.6% from 3 point range, down over 7% from their 2023 playoff average. How far will they go if shooting struggles continue to plague the roster?

They started to find a reliable 3-point shot on Thursday night, but how far can it take them.

There’s four different players that shot poorly from different disciplines. Who are they and why should we be worrying about each?

Marcus Smart

Smart had a questionable end to game 5 in Philadelphia. Regulation time ended on a missed Smart 3-pointer to win the game, and overtime ended on a *made* (the shot occurred half a second after the buzzer) 3 pointer by Marcus Smart.

On the box score alone, Smart contributed 21 points with seven rebounds, but shot 40% from both the field and 3-point range. His shooting struggles shifted into game 5 with 28% shooting overall. More than half of his points came from the free-throw line.

Smart’s 3-point shooting has always been a question within the Celtics fanbase. It’s always a mystery which Smart Boston will receive for each game; will he shoot 3/9, 1/4, or 5/6?

However, on Thursday night, Smart had arguably the best performance out of the players in green. He had 22 points and 7 assists and 7 rebounds on 3 turnovers. He shot 3/8 from 3 – his speciality – and 8/15 overall.

Granted, who knows which version of Marcus Smart we’ll see on Sunday, but if it’s similar to this one, the 76ers should start packing their bags.

Jaylen Brown

Celtics fans remember the game against the Knicks where Brown missed both free throws down one in overtime with 7.6 seconds left in the game. They went on the lose that game 120-117. Although the stakes were much lower, Brown can’t continue to miss free throws if Boston is to advance past this second round.

[Related: Jaylen Brown misses two free throws with 7 seconds left to lose to Knicks]

Brown shot 3/8 from the free throw line on Tuesday. Through this year’s playoffs, Brown has shot 65.9% at 4 attempts per game. His free throw woes haven’t been just this playoffs. During the regular season versus Philadelphia, albeit a significantly smaller sample size, Brown shot 7/8 from the stripe, or 87.5%.

After the two missed free throws against New York back in January, Brown responded by saying, “I think for your own sanity, you get let it go. You come out and keep playing basketball”.

Brown took a step forward in knocking down 4/5 of his free throws in game 6. Despite Brown taking less and less shots (or at least it seems), he’s doing good making the shots he’s given, hitting 46.2% of shots Thursday night.

Al Horford

Al Horford had an atrocious shooting night on Tuesday. He went 0/7; all shots were from beyond the line. His shooting struggles continued into Thursday, where he shot a measly 1/5, 0/2 from 3.

These two performances come after Horford claimed that he was an “elite shooter” to a reporter. Following that statement, he had a game 3 which saw him knock down five 3-pointers. The next game, he only made two out of seven attempted. The last two games saw no made 3-pointers from the Celtics’ big man.

The issue has to be tied to Horford’s age. There’s no doubt there’s confidence in his shooting, but the shots just aren’t falling like they did earlier in the season. He’s the second oldest player in the series, only behind PJ Tucker who doesn’t see much shooting action.

The Celtics desperately need to find a way to remedy Horford’s atrocious performances. What we saw in game 6 was a starting lineup shakeup from Mazzulla, putting Williams III in replacement for White. This reduced Horford’s shooting, forcing him to be a little bit of a playmaker. It also saw a much better Celtics’ defense, holding the 76ers down to 86 points, the lowest this playoffs.

Jayson Tatum

Jayson Tatum was known for his struggles last year in the playoffs, but most specifically in the Finals. This year has seen Tatum struggling much earlier in the playoff run than the previous. Although it’s not much on the stat sheet, Tatum’s points per game average is down 4% from the regular season, and 1% less specifically in this series.

[Related: Should the Celtics Be Worrying About Jayson Tatum?]

Tatum, on the box score, didn’t play horribly on Tuesday night until you look at the shooting splits. He shot 11/27, and 3/11 from 3. He had a game-low +/- of -26, 8 whole points from the next biggest -, Horford (who shot 0/7).

His shooting difficulties traveled over to Philadelphia on Thursday night, where he shot 5/21 and 4/11 from 3. At the halftime break, he only had 1 point from a technical free throw. He finished with 19 points, 16 in the fourth quarter.

The Celtics were lucky for Philadelphia’s 3 point shooting to be horrible on Thursday, but will have to play hard to get past the #3 seed. They hope to close it out on Mother’s Day on Sunday in the TD Garden at, time to be determined.

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[Featured image credited to Celtics/NBA]

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