In taking a quick glance at the Boston Celtics’ pre-Christmas record of 23-10, one could assume that not much has changed since their NBA Finals loss in June.
The team is playing similar basketball and riding that tidal wave of momentum they built after the calendar turned to 2022. Right?
Wrong.
This iteration of the Celtics is different. Not only is interim coach Joe Mazzulla now at the helm, but Boston made key additions to remedy some of the issues that plagued it last season and adopted a variety of styles as it continues to put wins together. One of the major changes in playing style has come from star Jayson Tatum, but not in the way you might think.
Let ESPN’s Zach Lowe explain:
How often Boston uses its two best players — Tatum and Jaylen Brown — in creative screening actions on and off the ball has always been Boston’s bellwether. The best of those actions pair bigs or point guards (or both!) with Boston’s stars — forcing defenses to either switch into bad size mismatches, or risk tough rotations. Joe Mazzulla, Boston’s new coach, has introduced more of this.
Tatum is setting 12.3 on-ball screens per 100 possessions, easily a career high and up from 8.1 last season, per Second Spectrum. He’s both setting and cutting around off-ball screens at career-high rates.
The improvement in Tatum’s game has been evident throughout the campaign — one that could realistically end in an MVP award. Outside of the screens, the 24-year-old is also averaging career highs in points (30.5) and rebounds (8.1) per game. There has been a distinct uptick in physicality from the Celtics superstar, which has helped him get to the line more this season (8.4 free throw attempts per game) than ever before — building those career-high marks despite seeing his 3-point percentage dip all the way down to 35.4%.
As the Celtics integrate Robert Williams more and finally get the entire roster back to full strength, there’s little doubt they will continue their monster run into the new year.
