Examining C's League-Best 3 Point Defense

http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/celtics/post/_/id/4708745/examining-cs-league-best-3-point-defense


Examining C's league-best 3-point defense
November, 28, 2013
NOV 28 11:00 AM ET
By Chris Forsberg | ESPNBoston.com



BOSTON -- The Boston Celtics rank first in the league in 3-point field goal defense, allowing opponents to shoot just 31.9 percent beyond the arc this season. Asked about the reasons for his team's success, Celtics coach Brad Stevens couldn't resist a joke targeting one of his team's most glaring weaknesses.

"The cynic in me would say when we throw the ball to the other team, they lay it in usually instead of shooting a 3," cracked Stevens, highlighting Boston's turnover woes that have created easy points for the opposition this season.

But Stevens admitted that defending the 3-point line has been a focus for his team.

"I think we’re doing a pretty good job of identifying guys that make shots at a high rate... and we’ve been guarding the 3-point line good as a result," said Stevens.

The Celtics rank seventh in the league allowing opponents to shoot 35.6 percent on corner 3-pointers (the league's most efficient shot) and third in the league as opponents shoot 31.3 percent on all 3-pointers above the break. Not surprisingly, the splits shows a Boston team that defends the line even better in wins (33 percent corner; 28.1 percent above the break) than in losses (36.8 percent corner; 32.7 percent above the break).

Dig a bit deeper into the advanced numbers and Boston ranks second in the league allowing 0.946 points per 3-point attempt (non-halfcourt heave variety), according to Synergy Sports data. Only the Knicks have been better (0.916 ppp), while the league average hovers around 1.071 points per play. For comparison's sake, those struggling Nets are last in the league allowing 1.168 points per attempt.

Maybe the biggest secret to Boston's success is this: The Celtics have discouraged teams from taking 3-point shots as opponents average a league-low 16.2 attempts per game beyond the arc. Some of that might be a product of the easier buckets that Stevens joked about, but it also suggests Boston is doing a good job of getting out to the perimeter to either deny 3-point attempts or at least forcing the opposing shooter to move inside the arc for a lower-efficiency shot.

That's a staggeringly low number when you consider a team like the Philadelphia 76ers resides at the other end of the spectrum allowing 27.5 3-pointers per night. The league average settles around 20.5 3-point attempts per game.

A closer look at Boston's 3-point defense by shooting zone:



Celtics defense


The one lingering question is who, individually, has been best at defending the 3-point stripe for Boston this season? Here's a glimpse at the totals through 17 games with help from Synergy Sports data, among Boston's top rotation players:

Individual 3-point defense
Player....................Points per play.....(Plays/Points).....OPP 3PT%
Vitor Faverani.........0.462..................(13/6)...............15.4%
Jeff Green..............0.615..................(39/24)..............20.5%
Brandon Bass..........0.818..................(33/27)..............27.3%
Kelly Olynyk...........1.000..................(19/19)..............31.6%
Jordan Crawford......0.973..................(37/36)..............32.4%
Avery Bradley.........1.103..................(39/43)..............35.9%
Jared Sullinger........1.200..................(15/18)..............40.0%
Gerald Wallace........1.241..................(29/36)..............41.4%
* Synergy Sports data

Players like Bradley and Crawford likely get caught rushing out to defend players left open on the perimeter, partly skewing their overall numbers. But what jumps out about this data is the job that Boston's bigs have done in being able to defend the 3-point line. Having versatile and athletic bigs is clearly helping the Celtics limit 3-point opportunities from opponents.

Now if they can just fix those turnovers.




bob
MY NOTE:  What is also skewing the numbers, in addition to the fact that that Crawford, Bradley and Wallace are more likely to be out of position because they need to help our not-so-bigs down low and have to rush the perimeter, is that they also have had to defend more 3pt fgas than the others.  Furthermore, the players they are defending on those shots are the better 3pt fg shooters.  Vitor does very a credible job of switching and trying to close out the 3pt shooter (which makes it even more inexplicable that he doesn't do the same thing closing out a mid-range pick-and-roll shooter) but Vitor's man doesn't take many 3pt fgas because that's not their game.  3pt fgas is Bradley's man's game, ergo the greater number of fgas as well as the higher fgm% on them.

Still, you have to admit, for this young, new team to be leading the league in anything is pretty impressive.


.

Best 3 point defense?

It's funny because it seems like for the past week they've been getting torched from the arc.



KJ

That was my immediate reaction too, KJ. There must be a stat somewhere about threes off turnovers. While I'm in this travel period of "watching" games only through Yahoo Game-tracker, it seems that every time I read, "FILL IN THE NAME OF ANY CELTICS PLAYER" turns the ball over," the next thing I read is, "FILL IN THE NAME OF ANY OPPONENT" makes a 27-foot three point shot from (FILL IN LOCATION AND NUMBER OF FEET)."

I had thought Avery Bradley was a pretty good perimeter defender. It's a revelation to be informed that Jordan Crawford is a better one. I hadn't realized I was understating Crawford's case defensively in supporting him since before the beginning of the season. I just emailed Brad, suggesting that they leave Jordan to patrol (and CONtrol) the perimeter alone on defense and have his four floormates form a blockade down low to limit the layup drills opponents are enjoying.

Only kidding, of course, as I agree that any glimmer is welcome this season.

Sam

Sam,

Try atdhe.eu for a link to the game.


bob



.

Thanks, Bob. The links always give me a myopic feeling, but I'll give it a try if you can assure me that they will lower their turnovers considerably.

Sam

sam wrote:Thanks, Bob. The links always give me a myopic feeling, but I'll give it a try if you can assure me that they will lower their turnovers considerably.

Sam

Sam,

I will guarantee you it will reduce their turnovers since the link will freeze up for a couple to ten seconds every so often and so you won't see them.

Welcome to my world. Still, it's better than no Celtics.



bob

I'll give it a try, Bob. Thanks.

Sam