The Boston Celtics are the third-highest scoring team in the NBA, yet they are not hitting many three-pointers. They are not grabbing additional offensive rebounds. This season, the stats that usually define a great offense are missing from their box score, but the points keep pouring in. New Bulls head coach Tiago Splitter saw this puzzle clearly after his team got crushed twice in TD Garden.
The Real Secret Is Off-Ball Motion
Most fans assume the Celtics win because of Jayson Tatum or because they hit deep shots. Splitter knows better. He told the media that “Boston is one of the best teams in the league off the ball.” The team does not wait for the ball to move to create trouble. Instead, they run constant screens and flares that force defenders to guess where to go. It is “really difficult to be aware of the flares that are coming,” according to reports.
These flares bring shooters off screens while Tatum stays at the top ready to drive. The defense has to choose between guarding the shooter or stopping the drive, and either choice leads to a mistake. Per Hardwood Houdini, the Celtics have “a bunch of shooters that can come off those off screens.” This play creates driving lanes and attacks the rim. The strategy creates rim pressure and easy baskets that are not reflected in standard shooting statistics. They are generating free-throw attempts and easy points inside the paint without needing a perfect shot from deep.
Pritchard Turns Mistakes Into Points
While the system creates the open looks, Payton Pritchard turns those looks into a nightmare for Chicago. The Bulls have faced a specific problem in their last two games against Boston. Pritchard scored 28 points on Monday in just 22 minutes. Then on Friday night, he poured in 30 points off the bench to lead the Celtics to a 125-111 win. That is 58 total points in five days against the same team. He provides scoring that the Bulls have been unable to stop. As reported by NESN, his 30 points “led every player in the game” despite not starting the contest.
The Celtics also made the Bulls pay for every single mistake. Chicago turned the ball over 16 times on Friday, which led to 21 Boston points. This follows a pattern from Monday where the Bulls committed 25 turnovers that Boston converted into 39 points. Across two victories against Chicago within a five-day span, Boston generated 60 points from 41 Bulls turnovers. The AP noted that the Bulls shot just 38% from the field and struggled to take care of the ball. When you give the ball away that often against a team that scores so efficiently, you cannot keep the game close.
A New Way to Win
Throughout the offseason Brad Stevens emphasized rim pressure, and this fresh style is now appearing. The offense is not the conventional Mazzulla-Ball system fans are used to seeing. Now, even without elite three-point shooting or rebounding numbers, the Celtics are fourth in offensive rating. The Bulls head to Philadelphia on Monday to face a new challenge, but they must first figure out how to stop the motion and the turnovers. The Celtics are 4-1 and have won four straight games.
