If Mavericks want to win NBA championship, they must shut down Celtics' 3-point party

BOSTON – Boston’s first shot attempt in Game 1 was a dunk.

The Celtics’ next six shots were 3-pointers. Just one went in. Three 3s were on the same possession when the Celtics had consecutive offensive rebounds on missed shots.

Of Boston’s first 13 shots, 10 were 3-pointers. They made four and were on the way to crushing Dallas, 107-89 in the NBA Finals opener.

The Celtics made 16 3s, shot 38.1% from that distance and outscored the Mavericks by 27 points on 3s.

“They play their style of basketball at a high rate,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said. “They generated 27 3s there in the first half, and made I think 11 of them. So, we have to be better. We can't give them seven made 3s in the first quarter.”

The 3-pointer’s importance in today’s NBA has been emphasized over and over. But the shot is ingrained in Boston’s offensive DNA.

The Celtics are not swayed by makes or misses. They are swayed by philosophy, and a main tenet of Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla’s is high-volume attempts.

No team has attempted more the past two seasons than the Celtics. This season, they led the NBA in attempted 3s per game (42.5) and made 3s per game (16.5) and were No. 2 in 3-point percentage (.387).

Mazzulla and the Celtics are unapologetic. The Celtics scored 122.2 points per 100 possessions in 2023-24, which is an all-time high. They can get three players at least 20 points in a game, and four – even in this Finals series – is realistic.

During the regular season, the Celtics had eight rotation players (Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis, Derrick White, Sam Hauser, Al Horford and Payton Pritchard) who attempted at least four 3s per game and four players averaged at least 5.9. Of those eight players, seven shot 37% or better.

“Their pacing is great, and they have a lot of shooters,” Dallas guard Luka Doncic said. “We have to do a better job taking those 3s away. … That's what hurt us the most.”

Limiting Boston’s offense, especially its 3-point shooting, is a challenge for any team. Boston often has five players on the perimeter which already begins to stretch the defense and create spacing the Celtics seek. Brown and Tatum are dribble-drive threats and command double-teams.

“When you get multiple bodies on the ball, that's when the 3 comes into play,” Kidd said.

If you don’t double-team one of them, they are capable of beating defenders off the dribble for their own shot or passing to open shooters – at the 3-point line.

This is not feast or famine or live by the 3, die by the 3. The Celtics have so many shooters that one or two can have an off night, and they can absorb it. They don’t have extended shooting slumps – they shot 33% or less from 3 in consecutive games just three times this season. It’s certainly possible the Celtics have a bad game shooting and lose a game or two.

Porzingis as the third-best offensive option is a luxury most teams don’t have. He scored 18 of his 20 points in the first half of Game 1 and made 2-of-4 3s. White, Holiday and Horford were a combined 9-for-18 from 3, and while Tatum wasn’t spectacular with his scoring, he still made 3-of-7 from that range.

“Kristaps was big, but those other guys, Derrick White, Jrue Holiday, JT, they all can get going at any point in time,” Brown said, “so that's the beauty of our team.”

Follow NBA reporter Jeff Zillgitt on social media @JeffZillgitt