After the Celtics shot a league-high 42.5 three-pointers per sport final season, they’ve doubled down thus far this yr and have shot much more at 50.7. But when imitation is the sincerest type of flattery, the Bulls have mimicked the Mazzulla ball strategy.
Chicago has the biggest differential between final season and this season in 3FGA at 10.8. They’re proper round Boston’s output from 2023-2024 at 42.9, however that’s a marked distinction from being on the backside of the league final yr at 32.1.
Should you’re one of many many who don’t like the place the fashionable sport is heading, it could be time to embrace the motion. It’s coming quick and vast. Different backside dwellers have additionally caught three-point fever, together with Charlotte (+10.5 3FGAs), and contenders like Orlando (+7.4), Phoenix (+7.7), and Minnesota (+8).
The opposite half of that Oscar Wilde quote about imitation although? “Imitation is the sincerest type of flattery that mediocrity pays to greatness.”
Possibly it was the juice off the NBA Cup and its level differential scoring system. Possibly it was the post-Thanksgiving tryptophan affecting the protection. However on Friday night time, each groups put their three-point capturing to the take a look at. Boston made a whopping 23-of-54, that included Payton Pritchard hitting 5 within the 4th quarter. To not be outdone, Chicago put up 51 triples and made 20. Nikola Vucevic was a blistering 6-of-9. It’s the primary time all yr that each groups shot 50+ threes.
We even obtained this inconsequential-to-the-game-but-consequential-to-the-point-differential, Chook-like 3 from Sam Hauser:
Chicago’s roster is much like Boston’s. Each have three-point capturing bigs. Each have a number of above common perimeter gamers that may drive-and-kick and catch-and-shoot threes. Each have not less than eight gamers that shoot over three triples a sport.
However even with related outputs from behind the arc, the groups are clearly miles aside. A yr in the past through the In-Season Match, head coach Joe Mazzulla infamously ran up the rating towards the Bulls. This season, Chicago has a top-5 offense and has little challenge placing up factors, however the defending champs are 16-3 whereas Chicago presently sits exterior of the Play-In Match at 8-13. To wit, in 5 video games that the Celtics have made underneath a 3rd of their threes, they’re nonetheless a pristine 5-0; the Bulls, nevertheless, have dropped all 4 of their dangerous capturing nights.
That is all to say that Boston has simply discovered different methods to win, too. Regardless of a slight slippage from final yr, the Celtics nonetheless boast an above-average protection and now have Kristaps Porzingis again within the fold to guard the paint. They’ll play completely different types with a number of bigs at their disposal and All-NBA caliber wings that may rating in any respect three ranges.
To construct on Wilde and what the Celtics are doing, take into account this knowledge from George Bernard Shaw: “imitation is not only the sincerest type of flattery — it’s the sincerest type of studying.”
