Jones & Keefe: Was a weakness of the Celtics exposed?

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00:00Buck's win was pretty entertaining.

00:02Then you get the Grizzlies' loss

00:04where Drew Holiday is left all alone

00:06to shoot 17 threes. He made four of them.

00:08Is that an approach that will be

00:10effective against the Celtics going forward?

00:12Should other teams copy it?

00:14What did you think of Memphis' approach the other night?

00:16Yeah, it was interesting and it's something I'm

00:18certainly going to keep an eye on to see if other teams

00:20do it. The problem is, it's just so

00:22hard with this team because they're just such

00:24great three-point shooters. And the NBA

00:26tracks this kind of stuff, so

00:28on Saturday with Drew Holiday,

00:3014 of his 17 three-point

00:32attempts were considered wide-open,

00:34which means the closest defender is

00:36six feet away. If you're looking down

00:38the list of Celtics on those

00:40wide-open attempts, Tatum shoots

00:4254%, Sam Hauser

00:4442%, Al Horford

00:4641%, Peyton Pritchard 40%.

00:48They're all above league average or at league

00:50average, so some nights it's going to work.

00:52Even Holiday's league average on the wide-open ones?

00:54He's 34% even after that

00:56stinker, but he was last year

00:58the best corner three-point shooter in the league,

01:00shot right around a career high, I believe, from

01:02percentage standpoint.

01:04Some days it's going to work and other days it's

01:06not, but the way I'm kind of looking at it with

01:08this team is, is it sustainable

01:10over a seven-game series? Is it going to work four

01:12games out of seven? I just don't think so

01:14because of how well they shoot the ball.

01:16Yeah, because we saw the Warriors try it with Jalen

01:18Brown, right? And they're like, you go ahead and take

01:20him, and he's like making them all go.

01:22And then they had to adjust real quick and it was too late.

01:24Yeah, that didn't work, but... I feel like it's worth a

01:26shot, but I do think they're all too good

01:28overall.

01:30That was a bad night for them, but I think Holiday's

01:32first career is 37%. But why does it matter

01:34what everybody else shoots if you're staying on everybody

01:36else and leaving Holiday open? Then it only matters what Holiday

01:38shoots, right? Well, the thing is with the Celtics

01:40offense is it's literally designed to just

01:42create open shots. So in there, all the

01:44players' heads is they're driving in the rim, whatever it is,

01:46there's a million reads going on. They work

01:48on this in practice all the time, it's making the right

01:50reads, and all it is is just trying to find the

01:52open shot. So if you're giving the Celtics

01:54an open shot, they're going to take it. That's how their

01:56offense, that's what makes Missoula Ball so hard to defend

01:58is because they all space

02:00the floor so well and they're great three-point shooters.

02:02So it kind of played into it

02:04in a way, but obviously the shots weren't falling

02:06that night. Yeah, like if you have Rondo

02:08or Ben Simmons, like obviously it makes

02:10sense. You sag way off them. They're like, what do

02:12we do now? Are you playing against a man's zone?

02:14Like, what is this? But with these guys,

02:16I think more often than not, they'll probably out

02:18shoot it.

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