How the Celtics get their transition 3s against the Mavs and why it's important (2024)

The Athletic has live coverage of Celtics vs. Mavericks in Game 5 of the NBA Finals

Late in the first quarter of Game 1 of the NBA Finals, Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving had Boston Celtics backup wing Sam Hauser in what seemed like an enviable position: one-on-one in the corner with the floor spaced. But Irving didn’t shake Hauser, and Irving’s pull-up corner 3 hit nothing but backboard. Once Boston’s Jayson Tatum grabbed the rebound, the Celtics knew it was their time to get out and run, and the most lethal version of the teams was unleashed:

The next play down saw Kristaps Porziņģis block Irving in the midrange, enabling Jrue Holiday to push it once again. This time, Sam Hauser got the ball in the corner for a 3-pointer that capped a 9-0 Boston run, giving the Celtics the largest lead to end a first quarter (37-20) in Game 1 NBA Finals history. The Mavericks never got within eight points.

This NBA Finals is the first time since the NBA instituted a 3-point line for the 1979-80 season that the top-two teams in 3-point attempts during the regular season are meeting in the finals. The Mavericks were second in 3s attempted at 39.5 per game and third in made 3s with 14.6, while the Celtics led the NBA in both made 3s (16.5) and attempted 3s (42.5) this season.

There is a lot of focus on when it comes to the general point of teams shooting 3s frequently. This NBA season featured the most 3s ever made (12.8 per game leaguewide), the second-most ever attempted (35.1) and the fourth-highest percentage (36.6 percent).

But how teams get their 3s is a key factor. As difficult as Boston is to defend in the half court with two-isolation heavy All-Stars in Tatum and Jaylen Brown, a full rotation that can shoot and bigs like Porziņģis and Al Horford who can space the floor, the Celtics seek to make the most out of opportunities to run and shoot too.

“I think just transition first,” Boston coach Joe Mazzulla said in December when asked how the Celtics were evolving offensively. “Just our ability to get out and run. Get easy baskets, get to space, get the cross-matches, finding those.”

This regular season, the Celtics were at their most accurate when they shot early in the clock. Excluding the rare attempts across the league that come with 22 to 24 seconds left on the clock, no team was more accurate shooting 3s when there were only 18 to 22 seconds remaining on the shot clock:

The Celtics were 10th in the NBA in fast-break points per game (15.3) and fourth in fast-break points allowed per game (13.0). That 2.3 differential ranked seventh in the NBA this regular season. Contrast that with the fast-break effectiveness of the Mavericks: eighth in fast-break points per game (15.8) but 26th in fast-break points allowed (15.7). The Mavericks scored just two more points than their opponents all season on fast breaks, ranking 16th in differential.

Dallas experienced what it was like to see Bostonpush the ball for fast-break 3s during the regular season. In their January matchup, which Porziņģis missed, Holiday was able to hop into a go-ahead second-quarter 3 in front of MVP finalist Luka Dončić in the Celtics’ eventual 119-110 win:

In March, the Celtics hit four fast-break 3s against the Mavericks as part of a 138-110 rout. The last of those 3s, with Tatum pushing following an Irving miss at the rim and Horford finding the space above the break, prompted Dallas coach Jason Kidd to wave the white flag:

“It’s hard defensively,” Kidd said last month during Dallas’ series against the LA Clippers when asked him about defending 3s. “There’s so many talented guys out there that can score who can shoot it. … You just got to tip your hat if they do make a tough one. The freebies, the ones that you give that they can lace up, those are the ones you want to stay away from. That’s bad 3-point defense. The ones that they have to work for, even if they make them, that’s good defense. And in this league … everyone is capable of making a 3, so just try to make it as hard as possible.”

Dallas faced three relatively isolation-heavy offenses in the Western Conference playoffs that were in the top six in 3-point percentage during the regular season. All three of those teams had attempts-related caveats, though:

• The Clippers, sixth in 3-point percentage (38.1 percent), ranked only 21st in attempts per game and attempted the fewest catch-and-shoot 3s per game of any NBA team in the last four regular seasons. With Kawhi Leonard unavailable and/or a shell of himself, the Clippers went from an NBA-low 19.7 catch-and-shoot 3 attempts to only 17.5 catch-and-shoot 3s against the Mavericks in a six-game series. Only the Memphis Grizzlies and Sacramento Kings attempted more 3s off the catch than the Celtics this season.
• The Oklahoma City Thunder, the most accurate 3-point shooting team in the league (38.9 percent), ranked only 16th in attempts per game, while only the Orlando Magic and Toronto Raptors made fewer pull-up 3s as a team in the regular season. The Mavericks were the only team in the league to make more pull-up 3s than the Celtics this season.
• The Minnesota Timberwolves, the third-most accurate 3-point shooting team in the league (38.7 percent), ranked only 23rd in attempts per game. The Timberwolves were a relatively paint-heavy offense, and only the Memphis Grizzlies scored fewer fast-break points this season. No team this season scored a lower percentage of its points in the paint than Boston.

When it comes to making a defense uncomfortable, the Celtics pose challenges that the Mavericks were off the hook with for most of the postseason: The Clippers don’t catch and shoot 3s, the Thunder don’t pull up for 3s and the Timberwolves don’t run. The Celticsdo all of those things and more, like when Pritchard stole points by launching an end-of-quarter transition 3 from half court in Game 2. That’s an extreme form of advantage creation but a familiar one nonetheless:

Perhaps the biggest challenge to Boston getting transition 3s is the fact that this matchup isn’t exactly built for the Celtics to get many of them. The Celtics were the seventh-best defensive rebounding team in the NBA this season, but their defense (especially at the rim) and rebounding is much more vulnerable when Porziņģis is off the floor or out of the lineup. Porziņģis is listed as questionable for Game 3 in Dallas after suffering a leg injury in Game 2.

And while the Celtics were the best team in the league at defending without fouling, it came at a trade-off of finishing ahead of only the Milwaukee Bucks in opponent turnover rate. The only teams better at protecting the basketball than the Mavericks this season were the Celtics, Philadelphia 76ers and Chicago Bulls, while only the Brooklyn Nets, Utah Jazz and Detroit Pistons had fewer steals than the Celtics this season.

“Just make the right play,” Mazzulla said. “As long as our guys feel empowered to make the right play, whatever that may be. And we talk about that more than anything else, just recognize two-on-ones, recognize the advantage. When you have the advantage, what’s the right play? Is it to shoot the open shot? Is it to drive and kick? And if teams aren’t trying to take away the paint, then it should be there. So we spend as much time as you can on just advantage creating and making sure the guys are empowered to play at their best.”

When the opportunity arises, it is critical that the Celtics take advantage. That’s what happened in the fourth quarter of Game 2, when Dončić committed one of his 12 turnovers in the series, a Derrick White steal that turned into a Holiday 3 four seconds later:

Both the Celtics and Mavericks are looking for offensive breakthroughs this week in Dallas. Horford has more corner 3s by himself (3 of 5) in these finals than the entire Mavericks team (2 of 8), a significant detail considering no team attempted more corner 3s than Dallas this season. Dončić has made more 3s this series (8 of 21) than the rest of team combined (5 of 32), with none of his teammates making more than one so far. Irving has missed all eight 3s in the finals as his losing streak against the Celtics stretched to 12 games. Both teams are well under 30 percent above the break right now.

Expect the Mavericks to regress sharply to the mean. And while the Celtics have less room for improvement, they are clearly going to explore their pathways of hoisting as many attempts as possible. The 3s the Celtics get when they run could be the difference between whether or not they complete a championship run.

“I like the identity that we’re creating in transition,” Mazzulla said. “We’re finding a good balance of playing fast and then knowing when it’s time to execute.”

Required Reading

• Celtics putting Mavericks through physical test in NBA Finals
• Where does Derrick White’s block rank among the best in playoff history?
• Celtics’ best-player title has long list of nominees after Sunday
• Jason Kidd needed Celtics to beat themselves because the Mavs can’t

(Top photo of Jayson Tatum and Daniel Gafford: Adam Glanzman / Getty Images)

Law Murray is a staff writer for The Athletic covering the LA Clippers. Prior to joining The Athletic, he was an NBA editor at ESPN, a researcher at NFL Media and a contributor to DrewLeague.com and ClipperBlog. Law is from Philadelphia, Pa., and is a graduate of California University of Pennsylvania and the University of Southern California. Follow Law on Twitter @LawMurrayTheNU