How this year’s Celtics team stacks up to last season’s team through the first month of play
Boston has one of the league's best records again, but it's finding success through a different path.
The first full month of the NBA season is down, and the Celtics look the part of a team that’s attempting to win a second straight title.
Boston has gotten off to a 16-3 start as November concludes, winning its seventh straight game on Friday night. With their win over the Bulls, the Celtics sit just a half-game back of the Cavaliers for first place in the Eastern Conference and for the best record in the league ahead of their matchup on Sunday.
While the Celtics are off to a hot start, there are a couple of things that are a little bit different about the way they’re finding success this season. So, let’s take a look at how this season’s team stacks up to where last season’s team was at the end of November.
Offensive stats
2023-24 points per game: 116.3 (ninth in NBA)
2023-24 field goal percentage: 47.2 percent (17th in NBA)
2023-24 3-point percentage: 36 percent (16th in NBA)
2023-24 assists per game: 24.8 (24th in NBA)
2023-24 turnovers per game: 13.6 (10th in NBA)
2023-24 offensive rating: 116.9 (ninth in NBA)*
2024-25 points per game: 121.2 (second in NBA)
2024-25 field goal percentage: 46.4 (14th in NBA)
2024-25 3-point percentage: 37.8 (eighth in NBA)
2024-25 assists per game: 25.9 (14th in NBA)
2024-25 turnovers per game: 11.6 (first in NBA)
2024-25 offensive rating: 121.5 (first in NBA)
(All 2023-24 stats through the end of November)
The Celtics’ offense is off to an even better start this season than last year. There are a few reasons for that.
First, Boston’s greater reliance on its 3-point shooting has paid off. Even after leading the league in 3-point attempts last season, it’s shooting over seven more 3-pointers per game this season (50.7) than it did at this time last season (43.3). As you can tell, the Celtics have also shot 1.8 percent better from deep to start this year compared to this point last season.
Jayson Tatum, Derrick White, Payton Pritchard, and Al Horford are the main players responsible for the Celtics’ improved 3-point shooting on high volume this season. They’ve each have seen increases in their 3-point shooting percentage and 3-pint field goal attempts from this point last season, helping offset the 3-point struggles Jaylen Brown, Sam Hauser, and Jrue Holiday have had so far this year.
Pritchard and White, particularly, have seen a heavy increase of production from 3-point territory to start the year. Pritchard shot 39.3 percent from deep on 3.7 attempts per game at this point last season. This year, he’s shooting 44 percent from deep on 8.4 attempts per game. White, meanwhile, 40.2 percent from deep on 5.5 3-point attempts per game at this point last season. This year, White’s shooting 41.9 percent from deep on 9.1 3-point attempts per game.
The stellar 3-point shooting from Pritchard and White has helped earn them early consideration for high honors, such as Sixth Man of the Year for Pritchard and an All-Star nod for White. But Tatum’s performance on the offensive side of the ball has also been award-worthy as he’s among one of the three early favorites to win MVP.
Tatum actually shot better from the field through this point last season than he is so far this season (49.4 percent last season vs. 46.1 percent this season). But he’s made more pull-up 3-pointers this season (35.3 percent to 31.7) than he did at this point last year.
That has seemingly provided more opportunities for Tatum and the Celtics to score. He’s averaging more free-throw attempts per game this season (8.2) than he did at this point last year (6.6). He’s also averaging nearly two more assists per game this year (5.8) than he was averaging at this point last year (4.0).
For whatever it’s worth, the Celtics are also shooting better in the restricted area this season, with their 71.1 percentage on those shots ranking third in the league. However, their 20 restricted area field goals per game are also the third-fewest in the league, going to show that they’re even more 3-point reliant this season.
Defensive stats
2023-24 defensive rating: 107.1 (second in NBA)
2023-24 field goal percentage against: 43.9 percent (third in NBA)
2023-24 steals per game: 6.4 (26th in NBA)
2023-24 blocks per game: 5.6 (10th in NBA)
2024-25 defensive rating: 111 (eighth in NBA)
2024-25 opponent field goal percentage against: 46.5 (18th in NBA)
2024-25 steals per game: 7.3 (24th in NBA)
2024-25 blocks per game: 5.3 (13th in NBA)
As the Celtics’ offense has climbed to being the best in the league, their defense has fallen to a fringe top-10 unit from where they were last year.
Kristaps Porzingis’s injury is likely the cause for that dropoff. They’ve allowed their opponents to shoot 68 percent from the restricted area through the first month of the season, which is the 10th-worst mark in the league. At this time last year, the Celtics allowed their opponents to make just 60.6 percent of their shots in the restricted area, which was the third-best mark in the league.
Porzingis was a shot-blocking machine in his first season in Boston as well, averaging 1.9 per game. Derrick White has kept up his shot-blocking prowess (at least for a guard), averaging 1.1 per game so far this year. But no one else outside of Porzingis or Whtie is averaging more than 0.9 blocks per game this season.
Boston’s rim protection stats might also be a symptom of Joe Mazzulla’s strategy to control the 3-point line. Thirty-nine percent of the Celtics’ opponents field goal attempts are from 3-point territory, which is the second-best mark in the league and up nearly 20 spots from where it ranked in that stat at this point last season as well.
Additionally, the Celtics’ opponents haven’t been able to hit 3-pointers with great efficiency when they’ve taken them. Their opponents have made just 34.4 percent of their 3-pointers this season. At this time last season, the Celtics’ opponents were making 35 percent of their 3-pointers, so a very slight improvement there.
Overall team stats
2023-24 record: 14-4
2023-24 point differential: 9.6 (best in NBA)
2023-24 net rating: 9.7 (best in NBA)
2024-25 record: 16-3 (second in NBA)
2024-25 point differential: 10.6 (second in NBA)
2024-25 net rating: 10.5 (second in NBA)
Through the first month of the season, the Celtics are statistically a better team than they were at this point during their title-winning season last year. Obviously, their climb up the offensive ranks while holding a top-10 defense is the reason why their net rating and point differential have improved, even if they’re second to the Thunder in both categories.
What is interesting to note, though, is that Boston has seemingly become Tatum-dependent. The Celtics have outscored their opponents by 199 points in the 690 minutes Tatum’s been on the floor this season, per Celtics radio announcer Sean Grande. However, they’ve only outscored their opponents by two points total in the 237 minutes that Tatum’s been on the bench this season, per Grande.
It isn’t necessarily uncommon for teams to be heavily reliant on their star player. In fact, the Celtics have been pretty reliant on Tatum in the past. But last season, Tatum actually had a -1.2 on/off rating, suggesting that the Celtics were just as good when he was off the court than when he was on it.
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