Will marquee Warriors-Celtics matchup be decided at 3-point line? originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
BOSTON – A test of depth will take place Wednesday night at TD Garden when the Warriors and Boston Celtics face off for what should be a battle between two of the NBA’s best teams thus far.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr’s 12-man rotation has risen to the challenge, though Golden State will continue to be without guard De’Anthony Melton, who will miss his fifth straight game to a lower back strain. Melton participated in 3-on-3 drills during Warriors shootaround and appeared to be without discomfort throughout the session, as well as running full-court sprints after.
The Celtics won’t have reigning NBA Finals MVP Jaylen Brown, who is missing his third game in a row to a left hip flexor strain, and Kristaps Porzingis, who continues recovering from offseason surgery to his left leg.
While the Warriors again will rely on having the best scoring bench in the NBA, and the Celtics will need reserves to keep stepping up, it’s clear the difference in this highly-anticipated matchup can be the 3-point line.
“Make them those tough ones,” Draymond Green said Wednesday morning at Warriors shootaround. “You don’t want to give up the swing-swing threes where guys are wide open. Make them take tough threes and live with the result.”
Just like last season, the Celtics have been far and away the league’s highest-volume shooting team from long range. They averaged 42.5 3-point attempts and 16.5 makes last season, both of which led the NBA. And both numbers have seen an extreme uptick through eight games, while again topping all of basketball. The Celtics are averaging 19 made threes per game on 50.9 attempts.
Conversely, the Warriors are tied for second in threes made per game (16.4), and are fourth in averaging 42 attempts.
But as their defense has improved exponentially, nobody has been better at guarding the arc than the Warriors. Opponents are making only 10.3 threes against the Warriors in their first seven games, and they’re shooting 28.3 percent, both of which are league lows. Green believes that’s a byproduct of everybody buying in defensively from the jump and understanding the math of how teams are operating.
“Guys are committed to that side of the ball,” Green said. “If you’re going to defend well in this league, you got to guard the 3-point line. … I think we’re doing a good job of making that a priority. If you’re going to be a top-10, top-five defensive team – if you can’t guard the three it won’t happen. So that has to be a point of emphasis.”
Golden State’s defensive specialist Gary Payton II says he actually prefers playing a team that wants to launch threes at a historic pace. To him, the strategy plays right into the Warriors’ goal of being a strong transition team on both sides and getting 3-pointers up themselves.
“It makes my job easier,” he said. “I don’t have to worry about anyone going to the cup. Contain and hopefully they take deep threes and it’s long rebounds. Try to make it hard for them. But we know the league and that everybody likes to take threes now.
“We count on it and try to do the best we can to make it difficult, but it is what it is.”
Payton made a surprise start in the Warriors’ 125-112 win against the Washington Wizards, his first time being in the opening lineup since Feb. 8, 2023, his final game as part of the Portland Trail Blazers. The move was to contain former Warrior Jordan Poole from coming out of the gates hot, and it worked.
Though Poole finished with a team-high 24 points, he did so on 8-of-20 shooting and was just 2 of 10 from three. In the first quarter where the Warriors held the Wizards to only 20 points, Poole went 3 of 8 from the field and made one of his five 3-point attempts.
It’s unknown if Payton will be back with the starters Wednesday night, but either way, one player he’s sure to guard is Payton Pritchard. The veteran scored 18 points off the bench Monday night in the Celtics’ blowout over the Hawks, and he’s shooting 43.2 percent on 9.3 3-point attempts per game.
“We know Payton shoots 10 threes, so as soon as he gets in we got to find him and know where those guys are to make it tough on them,” Payton said.
In their first game since beating the Dallas Mavericks in last season’s NBA Finals, the Celtics came out and tied an NBA record of making 29 3-pointers on opening night. The most threes the Warriors have allowed in a game is 15, and that was in their overtime win against the Houston Rockets four days ago.
Which team hits more triples at TD Garden likely will make all the difference. Better yet, this clash could very well come down to who defends the three-ball better, an area of pride the Warriors will look to prove is a strength even against the best.
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