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There is very little to complain about when the subject is the Boston Celtics. The defending NBA champions came into their own last spring when they defeated the Dallas Mavericks and won the 18th league title in their history.
They have answered all questions that came up when they fell in the 2022 NBA Finals to the Golden State Warriors and the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals to the Miami Heat. The confidence level with this team led by Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown is high, and it's clear that the Celtics core players want to win two championships in a row.
That's big motivation for any team. The Celtics don't seem satisfied that they were able to put skin on the wall last season. They want more.
The start to the 2024-25 season has been quite good. The Celtics have won 14 of their first 17 games, and they picked up a significant victory in mid-November when they handed the Cleveland Cavaliers their first defeat of the season. The victory served notice to the Cavs and the rest of the league that the Celtics are still the big dogs in the NBA.
But that doesn't mean there aren't flaws. The Celtics are a great three-point shooting team, perhaps the greatest in the history of the sport. Shooting from beyond the arc can be a double-edged sword. Hit those shots early in the game, and a team can race out to a huge lead. However, a few early misses can lead to frustration and force the team to play come-from-behind basketball.
Team defense has been an issue for the Celtics
The biggest disappointment to this point in the season for head coach Joe Mazzulla's team appears to be the defense. Last season the C's were spectacular in that area. However, it is not quite as strong this season. That could turn out to be an issue that derails the Celtics at some point in the season.
A look at the numbers reveals that the Celtics ranked fifth in points allowed last season, as they gave up an average of 109.2 points per game. This season, the Celtics rank 9th in that category, giving up 110.8 points per game.
While this is not a huge difference, it is a notch below what they did a year ago. A small slip early in the season could grow to a bigger problem as the season reaches its most critical stages.
The dip in defensive performance is most apparent in the opponents' field goal percentage. The Celtics finished second in that category last year as they allowed opponents to shoot just 45.3 percent from the field. This year's version is far more generous as opponents are connecting on 46.9 percent of their shots and that ranks 17th in the league.
It seems the Celtics are more willing to depend on their three-point shooting and their desire to outscore opponents than any other aspect of their game. They can still play defense at crucial moments, but their offensive prowess brings more recognition and headlines.
It's up to Mazzulla to keep the team grounded and focused on the fundamentals. He gets plenty of help from defensive stalwarts Jrue Holiday and Derek White, but there is also quite a bit of slippage.
At this point, Mazzulla has not recognized any defensive deficiency with his team. The Celtics outlasted the Minnesota Timberwolves 109-107 in a November 24 meeting, and they managed to hang on after giving up a 19-point lead.
According to the head coach, it was Minnesota's dynamic offensive play that allowed the visitors to get back in the game — not any defensive weakness
“They’ve got dynamic guys that could score at any time,” Mazzulla told Adam Himmelsbach of the Boston Globe. “So you’re going to go through runs. It’s just a matter of how you handle them. I thought our guys handled it well with the physicality on offense and our connectivity, our poise defensively.”
NBA defensive rankings indicate some individual weaknesses
The NBA ranks players by their individual defensive performance, and Oklahoma City's Chet Brooks and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are near the top of the list, ranking second and fifth, respectively.
The league uses a ranking called Defensive Win Shares to come up with its individual rankings, and that number is estimation of the number of points allowed per 100 defensive possessions. Some of the key categories used to determine the rankings include opponents' points off turnovers, second-chance points, fast break points and points in the paint.
Tatum is the most impactful Celtic on the list, and he is considered the 28th most effective player on the list with a ranking of 0.138 Win Shares.
Holiday is the second-most effective Celtics defender, and he checks in at 41st with a Win Share of 0.130. White is 49th at 0.123
Brown, who often appears to play some of the most physical defense of any of the Celtics, is further down the list. He ranks 68th win a Win Share value of 0.109.
Al Horford ranks 100th with a rating of 0.097 and the next Celtic on the list is backup center Neemia Queta at 154th with a rating of 0.074.
