The Boston Celtics have been a defensive oriented team since Brad Stevens arrived as head coach in 2013. Those defensive minded teams landed in the Eastern Conference Finals three times in four years from 2016-2020.

When Ime Udoka took over as the head coach in 2021, the Celtics advanced to the NBA Finals as a top defensive team with a 107.0 defensive rating in the playoffs last year, which ranked second only behind the Warriors who defeated the Celtics in six games in the Finals. The defensive emphasis has always made a huge impact for this team.

With Joe Mazzulla being promoted to head coach this season, he’s inplanted an offensively focused system that emphasizes shooting more 3-pointers than the other team is the best and logical way to win in today’s NBA. 

It’s worth mentioning that Mazzulla inherited a team with the then reigning Defensive Player of the Year in Marcus Smart, but his coaching philosophies have steered the team away from focusing more on defense.

“The second piece to that is our strength is our offensive management. So when you have 20 points off turnovers, when you have 10 live-ball turnovers, when you get out-shot by 12 at the 3-point line, it really doesn’t matter what coverage you play. This team has been built on defense for a very long time and they have the DNA of that, but we manage the game best with our offensive decision making and we have to continue doing that.”

It’s fair to say throughout the playoffs the Celtics haven’t lost games because they’re not scoring enough points, but rather poor defensive efforts are the results of those loses.

For the Celtics to be successful and have a deep run in the playoffs, they need to play a stronger and more consistent defense. But if the head coach doesn’t believe in that, it’s not going to happen.

The Celtics host Game 2 tonight with tipoff set for 8:00 PM in Boston.

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