Boston Celtics Are Number One in So Many Ways

I don’t usually do statistic-heavy articles. But once I saw how many categories the Celtics were the league’s best in, I had to share what I found.

The Celtics were so good at so many things, that if you read this list, you would just call in the loss and go home.

Coincidentally, NBA stat master John Hollinger recently did an excellent job of portraying just how incredibly effective the Celtics defense was last season. He showed how it was third best all-time, when comparing it to the league average.

But while hitting on some great all-time comparisons, he didn’t mention all things worth mentioning.

These are some more incredible numbers. Even more so when you see them in laundry-list form.

Boy did they ever take care of the laundry. An offense doesn’t have to be spectacular when the defense is. Their defense was active, persistent, and doubled up on shooters where it mattered.

But the offense wasn’t bad either. It most cases it was very good.

Differential (the spread between what the Celtics did and what their opponent did)

They were number one in the league in the most important stats you would like to have daylight between you and your opponent.

The Number One List

No. 1 - Points per Game spread
Boston 100.6, opponent 90.3

A 10.3 difference was huge.

Detroit was a distant second with a spread of 7.4.

This is more amazing when you realize they pulled key starters for much of the fourth quarter for half of the year.

Further, the 90.3 points allowed was second best in the NBA, beaten by a hair by Detroit’s 90.1.

No. 1 - Field goal percentage spread
FG% (+5.6)
Boston: 47.5%, Opp: 41.9%

The 47.5 percent for the Celtics shooting was fourth best in the league.

The Celtic shooting perecentage actually dropped from the start of the year—they were shooting a league leading 49 percent for a while.

No. 1 - Field goal percentage allowed
41.9 percent for their opponents

The mantra of “Stay with your man, fight through picks, and always help when necessary” made it hard to get an open look from anywhere on the floor for Celtic opponents.

No. 1 - Three-point shooting percentage spread
3-pt FG% (+6.5)
Boston 38.1% Opp. 31.6%

Not only did Boston stop the three pointer, they were in the top five in accuracy when they shot it themselves. Not shabby at all.

No. 1 - Three-point shooting percentage allowed (31.6)

A contrarian stat here is that Boston allowed the third-highest percentage (27%) of outside shots. It appears that a desperation three-pointer would go up when the shot clock ran down.

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