Mavericks Starter Uses Expletive In Describing Celtics Offense

Dallas Mavericks center Dereck Lively II knows what the Boston Celtics do best on the court.

And that’s let it fly from long range.

But even though Lively is clued into that potent aspect of Boston’s offense, he understands it’s not exactly easy to stop the plethora of shooters the Celtics can put out on the floor.

“They can shoot the (expletive) out of the ball,” Lively told reporters, per Mike Curtis of The Dallas Morning News. “One through five, they’re an amazing team. They can space the floor, they can get to the rim. They have a lot of weapons that they can use on the floor. So, it’s just try to be able to understand when they’re going to use their weapons and when we can try to use those weapons against them.”

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The Celtics have no issue launching 3-pointers under the watch of head coach Joe Mazzulla, and they are rather effective at it, too.

Boston took a league-high 42.5 3-point attempts in the regular season and even though that number decreased to 39.8 in the playoffs, it’s the top mark among all playoff teams.

Payton Pritchard and Derrick White have been Boston’s best long-range shooters this postseason as they have knocked down 3-pointers at a 45.5% and 40.7% clip, respectively. Jrue Holiday isn’t far off from that by making 39.7% of his triples while Jaylen Brown is at 36.8%.

Opponents have dared Al Horford to shoot from beyond the arc this postseason and the veteran center has made them pay. He drained a career-high seven treys in Boston’s Game 3 road win over the Indiana Pacers in the conference finals.

Jayson Tatum is one of the best shooters on the Celtics, but he has yet to consistently show that in the playoffs by hitting just 29% of his 3-point attempts. Sam Hauser, who shot 42.4% from deep in the regular season, is looking to find his shot, too.

The Celtics sure have plenty of offensive options that put strain on defenses. Lively will find that out firsthand in the NBA Finals as the 7-foot-1 rookie center will have to guard out on the perimeter, especially if Kristaps Porzingis returns.