After scoring a season-low 84 points on Wednesday night against the Nuggets, the second-fewest in the Joe Mazzulla era, and totaling just 181 points in their final two games of the West Coast road trip, the fewest two-game total in the Mazzulla era, the coach was questioned about what was going on with the offense prior to Friday night’s game against Brooklyn.
As it turns out, a date with the 15-win Brooklyn Nets, a bottom-five defensive team this season, was the only remedy the offense needed.
Less than four and a half hours after being asked about the offense’s struggles, Mazzulla was back on the same dais being asked about a historical offensive output from his Celtics.
Behind 28 points apiece from Jaylen Brown and Nikola Vucevic, and another 22 from Payton Pritchard, the Celtics had a complete 180 offensively. Just one game after scoring the second-fewest points in the Mazzulla era, they scored the second-most, pouring in 148 points.
“I thought we just did your job reading the game,” Mazzulla said. “We just made the right reads throughout most of the entire game.”
All 13 Celtics who saw the floor scored at least two points. Collectively, they shot 52-of-78 (66.7%) from the field, the highest mark of any team this season and the second-highest mark in franchise history, trailing only their 67.9% effort against the Warriors in November of 1984. Larry Bird, Robert Parish, Danny Ainge, Cedric Maxwell, and Dennis Johnson started that game, with Kevin McHale coming off the bench.
“That was pretty good, especially coming off a West Coast trip,” Jaylen Brown said. “We were due for some makes, though. I felt like even in the Denver game, we got a bunch of great looks that we just didn’t knock down. But tonight, we didn’t let it affect us. We came out and just played good Celtic basketball.”
The Celtics were 22-of-34 (64.7%) from three-point range, setting an NBA record for three-point percentage when making more than 20 threes. Ten different Celtics took three-pointers in this game, and everyone hit at least one except for Hugo Gonzalez, who went 0-for-2, and John Tonje, 0-for-1. Seven different Celtics made at least two threes, and three made at least four: Brown, Pritchard, and Derrick White.
“We can really fill it up from the three-point line,” said Brown. “I don’t know what our record is, but I feel like when we hit 20 threes or more, I feel like we’re in really good shape.”
And he’s right. With Friday night’s win, the Celtics are now 13-0 this season when hitting 20+ threes, and 66-5 in the Mazzulla era.
The numbers were staggering.
The Celtics recorded both the highest effective field-goal percentage, which measures field goal percentage adjusting for made three-point field goals being 1.5 times more valuable than made two-point field goals, at 80.8%, and the highest true shooting percentage, a shooting percentage that factors in the value of three-point field goals and free throws in addition to conventional two-point field goals, at 82.6%, in NBA history. They posted a 159.1 offensive rating, the second-highest mark in league history, trailing the Clippers’ 161.7 in March of 1998.
They also recorded 38 assists on their 53 makes (73.0%). Their 38 assists were their most since they had 39 back in April 2022, when they recorded 39 against the Wizards. The Celtics are now 8-0 when recording 30+ assists.
Now 59 games through the season, the Celtics hold the second-best offensive rating (120.2), narrowly trailing Denver’s (120.7). They have been one of the best offenses in basketball, with Friday night serving as the latest, most dominant reminder.
As March arrives, discussions about Jayson Tatum — who has averaged at least 26 points and four assists per game over the last five seasons, earning All-NBA First Team honors in four straight years — will only intensify. With Tatum, this already humming offense could reach an entirely new level, which is bad news for the rest of the NBA.
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