Boston Celtics: The offense is starting to come alive
Throughout the season, the Boston Celtics have always struggled to find consistency on the offensive end. Over the last handful of games or so, they’ve looked like they may have found their stride.
There’s no secret that the Boston Celtics have been one of the worst offensive teams in the league. Thankfully, their top-ranked defense has allowed them to win a lot of games this season. However, on nights where they might not be rock solid on that end, Boston usually finds itself getting blown out of the water by opposing teams.
It’s very important that the Celtics able to find ways to be productive on the offensive end. The playoffs are right around the corner, which makes the desired need to figure things out a lot more important.
Behind Kyrie Irving‘s average of 24.8 points per game, the next closest player is Jaylen Brown with only 14.1. That’s a major gap and behind Brown, is just a lot more low scoring totals. In this league, you need to have two or three players that are going to score the ball, night in and night out. You could argue that these things are working for them because of their 45-20 record, but that’s not the case.
Furthermore, the Celtics rank as one of the worst teams on the offensive side of things.
- Points Per Game: 104.4, 20th
- Offensive Rating: 105.6, 14th
For this article, we’re going to ignore the win against the Chicago Bulls on March 5 — solely because Irving was out and that causes a major drop in offensive production. Over the course of the past six games, the Celtics’ offense has been elite. They were able to score 119, 110, 121, 109, 134 and 120 points. Over that stretch, they went 4-2, losing to the Houston Rockets and the Los Angeles Clippers.
It’s a little alarming that the only two losses came against the only teams in the mix for the playoffs. The Clippers are in ninth place, but they’re in the West and only a half-game out.
Nonetheless, I’m sure we can all appreciate a winning record over the past six games. In that span of time, they have ranked as one of the league’s top offenses:
- Points Per Game: 118.8, 5th
- Offensive Rating: 118.2, 2nd
Those are really good ranks considering the fact that they’ve struggled mightily all season long on the offensive side of things. This couldn’t have come at a better time, as they’ll need to continue this come April.
What hasn’t gotten enough credit has been their bench output as well. Arguably the weakest part of the roster as a whole, the second unit has looked to possibly turn over a new leaf these last six games.
All season long, the bench ranked in the lower half of the NBA. The Celtics’ second unit currently holds ranks 19th in scoring, averaging 34.2 points per game. Again, not to sound like a broken record, but these last six games has been incredible for the Celtics’ offense. Even the bench found a lot success, averaging 52.8 points per game. Those 52.8 points per game ranked first over that time.
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This is best stretch of basketball we’ve seen in terms of offense. If the Boston Celtics can continue to be a force on offense, while continuing to be a top-ranked defense, this team is going to be very hard to stop in the next coming weeks.