The Boston Celtics have the 4th best Defensive Rating in the NBA

http://www.celticsblog.com/2015/11/16/9743212/the-boston-celtics-have-the-4th-best-defensive-rating-in-the-nba



The Boston Celtics have the 4th best Defensive Rating in the NBA


By Chris Faulkner  @FaulknerMemphis on Nov 16, 2015, 10:47a 9





Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports
Don't look now!


You look up one morning and suddenly the Boston Celtics have a top 5 defense in the NBA! They're ranked 4th overall in Defensive Rating (points allowed per 100 possessions) to be precise.

Paul Flannery @Pflanns
The Celtics rank fourth in defensive rating. What sorcery is this? http://stats.nba.com/league/team/#!/advanced/?sort=DEF_RATING&dir=-1 …
6:39 AM - 16 Nov 2015
6 6 Retweets 13 13 likes


Sorcery, perhaps. The Celtics are currently holding teams to 94.4 points per 100 possessions which is a staggering 7.7 points less than the 102.1 rating they finished with for 2014-15.

When scanning through the stats for an explanation there's one thing that jumps out to me. The Celtics have only allowed a team to shoot over 35% from three in (1) ONE instance so far this season, their early loss to the Raptors who went 11-26 (42.3%) from long range.

Their opponents on the year from three:

Sixers: 7-22 (31.8%) W
Raptors: 11-26 (42.3%) L
Spurs: 5-19 (26.3%) L
Pacers: 8-23 (34.8%) L
Wizards: 8-25 (32%) W
Bucks: 6-17 (35.3%) W
Pacers: 6-17 (35.3%) L
Hawks: 6-20 (30%) W
Thunder: 6-25 (24%) W
Total: 63-194 (32.5%)

In today's NBA it's imperative to guard the three point shot. The Celtics are proving that their ability to do so pays off.

What else have you seen so far this year to mark the Celtics' big defensive improvement?



bob
MY NOTE: One stat that blows my mind, absolutely!, is that we are tied at 13th in the league in blocked shots, when the only players that might be described as "shot blockers" are Amir and Jordan Mickey (who doesn't play) and the team we out-blocked 7-6 last night is the league's #1 shot blocking team. Another stat that blows my mind is that we are blocking shots at a higher rate than we are getting blocked. We are blocking 5.3 shots/game while getting blocked only 4.4/game. That low 'blocks against' rate ties us with GSW for 8th best. We are a team of earth-bound white boys (Zeller, Kelly and Lee) and at least one very earth-bound black guy (Sully) and we're in the top half of the league in blocks and almost in the bottom quartile in getting blocked?! In this new NBA I guess it really is more important to defend the 3pt line than it is the inner paint...


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Helping them achieve that lofty defensive rating is being number 1 in opponent turnover percentage.

http://bkref.com/tiny/3sfbk

They're also fifth in opponent effective field goal percentage. On the less positive side, they give up too many offensive rebounds (21st in opponent offensive rebound percentage), and they put their opponents on the line (28th in opponent free throw attempts per field goal attempt).

Overall, very good defensive numbers in this limited sample. Maintaining this level of performance and improving the offensive efficiency would translate into a very successful season.