Kicking the Bucks while they're down.

The Boston Celtics secured their second straight win over the troubled Milwaukee Bucks.

Good morning!

Welcome to another week of Boston Celtics basketball and another week of the Celtics Chronicle.

The Celtics took care of business against the Milwaukee Bucks last night, winning their second game against what can only be described as a fallen champion…a fallen giant. Everything that could go wrong with Milwaukee is going wrong right now.

Still, that didn’t stop Milwaukee from getting out to a hot start, which they did.

I mean, 16-2 over the first three minutes (or just over). That's a concerning trend that needs to be dealt with. I'm sure Joe Mazzulla is looking at what's going on there. Maybe it means Boston goes back to Jaylen Brown being that first-quarter guy?

I would imagine that gets experimented with.

Personally, I think Tatum's impact was better in the role he played last year. Giving Brown that first-quarter role back and having Tatum run things with the second unit adds more balance…but this is a discussion for another time.

Where was I?

Oh yeah…

A return to Boston’s ‘spray’ offense

Jaylen Brown's first game back resulted in a win. But, more importantly, we saw a return to the Celtics’ spray offense — which, in turn, was a return to the brand of basketball that saw them dominate the regular season en route to their 2024 championship.

I went back and watched all 27 of the Celtics' assists against Milwaukee. 10 of them came out of paint touches, whether direct assists, secondary assists like hockey assists, or even tertiary assists.

10 of them.

One came off an offensive rebound, so you can take that with a grain of salt if you want to.

The other nine: Drives.

Touching the paint.

Kicking the ball out and swinging it when the defense rotates.

That's exactly what you want from this Celtics team.

Find the open shot.

We saw the signs of Boston’s spray offense from early in the first quarter. In the above play, Brown attacks the paint via a backcut, draws the help defense and hits Derrick White for the open three out of the corner. We saw plays like this ad nauseam last season.

It’s hard to stop the Celtics when they’re attacking like the paint and creating out of their reads. If the defense doesn’t collapse, it’s an easy bucket around the rim. If the defense does collapse, the ball gets put into rotation until it finds an open shooter and the advantage is exploited.

Outside of the Celtics opening night win over the New York Knicks, where they registered 33 assists as a team, Sunday’s win over the Bucks saw them tie their second-highest total of the season with 27. Boston also achieved that feat when facing the Atlanta Hawks on Nov. 4.

Of course, not all assists are created equal. Some are a simple pass that results in a quick shot. Others are the byproduct of consistent defensive manipulation. We all know that I’m a process-over-results guy. So, while I’ll take whatever the Celtics can get, I’m always going to lean into manipulating the defense whenever possible.

Watch the defense on the above possession. Notice how Tatum’s gravity draws a dig from the strong side corner, and draws two defenders from the perimeter. When he kicks the ball out to Horford — who is shooting 43.5% from deep this season — the defense looks to trap him, leaving White wide open for the catch-and-shoot three.

Manipulation.

Boston got Milwaukee’s defense in rotation and made them pay. And they did it time and time again. Of course, their spray offense becomes easy to execute when they’re focusing on stretching the floor. Their 3-point scoring drags defenders higher up the court. It opens driving and cutting lanes. And it forces the defense to rotate as they try to deny passes for players on the move. Everything about Boston’s offense is symbiotic when it’s clicking across each level.

The perimeter game

Boston had another 17 assists that weren’t generated via paint touches or drive-and-kick offense. Instead, they primarily came via screening actions on the perimeter.

For everything that’s been said about the volume of three’s Boston takes and how it’s ruining basketball, the fact is, they’re very deliberate about the shots they take. They generate high-quality looks and execute at an elite level.

Let’s take a look at what type of threes the Celtics are settling for.

• 0-2 feet (Very Tight): 1-of-2 (50%)

• 2-4 feet (Tight): 22-of-92 (23.9%)

• 4-6 feet (Open): 90-of-239 (37.7%)

• 6+ Feet (Very Open): 91-of-231 (39.4%)

That means the Celtics have taken a total of 470 open threes to begin the season, knocking down 181 of them and producing a conversion rate of 38.5%. Not too shabby. Looking a little deeper, the Celtics have taken a total of 564 3-point attempts this season, meaning 83.3% came on open (or wide-open) looks.

It’s hard to argue with their perimeter-based approach when they’re generating such quality shooting opportunities. Furthermore, when the defense’s reaction is to open driving lanes for the Celtics to lean into their spray offense, they become almost unguardable.

There are too many weapons within the rotation, and as we’ve seen, teams must pick their poison. That’s why Payton Pritchard’s emergence as a genuine Sixth Man of the Year candidate has been such a major boost to the bench unit. He’s suddenly become someone defenses can’t take risks around. They can’t help off him. They can’t sag or push up too high.

Still, the way Mazzulla’s team is generating its perimeter offense is a collective effort. Everyone is playing the right way. They find the open man. They screen for each other. They counter defenses on the fly. And they encourage each other to thrive. You can see it in real-time when they’re on the court.

What we saw against the Bucks was a culmination of Boston’s three-point threat, forcing the defense into tough decisions, allowing the Celtics to take things up a gear and re-introduce another wrinkle to their shot generation.

Final Thoughts

I’m a sucker for a well-worked possession — on either side of the floor. So forgive me for gushing about how the Celtics manipulated the Bucks' defense on their drive-and-kick game. Still, seeing everything come together is always fun, especially when fighting back from a losing position.

Boston might not stick to their ‘spray’ offense in every game — you’ve got to take what the defense gives you — but when they do get into those actions, they become almost impossible to stop…And if they’re clicking on the defensive end…Then all I can say is GOOD LUCK!