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NBA: The Boston Celtics, favorites for supremacy in an Eastern Conference without LeBron, have the NBA's worst offensive rating after a 93-390 home defeat against the modest Orlando Magic on Monday night. In a season hitherto marked by outrageously prolific league-wide scores, the Celtics, loaded with smooth, interchangeable weapons at the perimeter, have a lousy offensive average of under 100 points in four games .
As Jay King pointed out to The Athletic, all their crap is entirely upside down. The Celtics had attempted the fourth highest percentage of long playoff games in the NBA before Monday night's defeat, 21% of their total goals. To make matters worse, the Celtics are attempting the fourth percentage of shots at the bottom edge. These figures do not necessarily stand up to magic – according to my account, only seven of their shots Monday night would be considered long boards, and the Celtics have generated 34 successful attempts at the rim. suspect. Only five of their 40 three-point attempts came from the corners; they tried to shoot 24 times in the mid-range or paint without restrictions; and the entire team has attempted only nine free throws.
The start is worrying because the Celtics of last year formed a similar offensive group. It was therefore presumed that this was mainly due to the absence of Gordon Hayward and, later, to the absence of Kyrie Irving. These two guys are back now, but neither one nor the other has watched it all at the speed Kyrie did some things Monday night, but so far this season, that meant 20 points on 20 shots with unimpressive numbers, and not the domination of the worlds destroyer from the beginning of last season. And Hayward is coming back from one of the most horrible wounds in the history of the NBA. Nobody knows when or even if he will ever find his level of play before the injury, but it is certain that he has not arrived yet. In the meantime, Boston's most-used lineup – the terrifying Kyrie-Jayson group Tatum-Jaylen Brown-Hayward-Al Horford – produces an alarming attack rate of 79.3, compared to Clean the Glass. This is not only the worst of the team, but 20 points less than the worst basketball offense.
This is not all bad luck. First of all, the season is very young and Irving and Hayward will certainly improve as the season progresses. And part of that is just bad luck: those same Celtics were the second best team of three shots in percentage compared to last season; this season they are sixth from the bottom. There will be a regression. And the Celtics are by far the best defensive team in basketball, both in theory and in practice. But they were hit by the Raptors (which are great) and have now lost at home against the Magic (which are really not great). They should score more! It's better to score more points, guys.
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