Former Celtics Champion Highlights Early Season Red Flags for Boston

Matt Levine | Nov 14, 2024

David Butler II-Imagn Images

The Boston Celtics entered this season as the defending NBA champions and they have looked the part so far. Boston holds a record of 10-3 through the season so far and looks like they haven't skipped anything from winning the title in June.

However, there are some troubling trends for Boston that have emerged early on in the year. Former Celtics championship guard Eddie House gave his thoughts on the matter during the Celtics postgame after a loss to the Atlanta Hawks.

House addressed the discrepancy between the points in the paint that the Celtics are scoring versus the ones that they are allowing on defense.

“Right now we’re giving up 52 points in the paint per game. That is bottom-third in the league,” House said on Celtics Postgame Live Tuesday, adding: “I know we shoot a lot of 3s, so I understand that. But we’re last (in points in the paint). So, we have to find some sort of balance.

The Celtics shoot the most 3-point shot attempts on average around the entire NBA. But sometimes, it can come back to hurt them, especially when it comes to dominating in the paint.

House wants to see the Celtics change things a little bit and attack the rim more often.

“It’s OK sometimes to get to the rim to get an easy bucket, to get a deuce. We don’t always have to shoot a 3. This isn’t overreacting. I’m not gonna push a panic button on this. But these are little tiny red flags, and while they’re small, you want to stomp them out so they don’t become big red flags that could affect you later on in the season — or something that somebody could look at and say, ‘This is how you can attack this team. This is how you can beat this team.'”

The Celtics have played well even with this red flag so things may not change. But, habits like this can sometimes come back to haunt teams in the postseason if they aren't careful.

Right now Boston looks like the favorites around the NBA to repeat and the road to a title goes through them. But if the Celtics can become a little more physical inside the paint, it could take them to an entirely different level in their repeat pursuits.

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