Taking care of the basketball is key for any team, but even more so for the Boston Celtics throughout the NBA playoffs.
Turnovers have been a massive talking point for the Celtics during their playoff run to the NBA Finals, and looking at that column in the box score following a game will usually reveal if Boston came out on the winning side of things.
Celtics coach Ime Udoka has expressed that he wants his team to have no more than 15 turnovers per game, and there’s a big reason why. In the playoffs, the Celtics are nearly unbeatable when they do just that, boasting a 14-2 record when they don’t exceed 15 turnovers.
But if their mistakes swell and cross that threshold, it has spelt doom for the Celtics. When the C’s turn the ball over more than 15 times in a game this postseason, they haven’t won, going 0-5.
“My key is how we’re moving the ball and keeping it simple and not over-penetrating, looking for others,” Udoka told reporters during his media availability Thursday, per ASAP Sports. “It kind of has a domino effect from there, if we’re going to have a night where we’re going to somewhat struggle or be on point.”
What Udoka said also ties into another critical stat that has become a big determinant in his team’s success, and it also involves Boston’s superstar player.
Jayson Tatum can obviously score with the best of them — he’s averaging 26.3 points per game in the playoffs and 22.0 points in the finals — but the key might actually be how he is distributing the basketball.
The Celtics are a perfect 8-0 this postseason when Tatum records at least eight assists, and when that number drops a little bit to Tatum amassing at least six assists, the Celtics still are 9-2.
So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the two games the Celtics have won thus far in the finals over the Golden State Warriors have come with Tatum racking up big-time assist totals. In Game 1, Tatum had 13 assists, the most he’s had in any game of his NBA career. Tatum then accumulated nine assists in Boston’s Game 3 victory while turning the ball over only twice.
While there will be a lot that happens on the parquet floor at TD Garden on Friday night for Game 4, for the Celtics, what it may all come down to is them limiting turnovers and Tatum being more than just a scorer.
