Boston Celtics tie modern franchise record for field goal attempts in regulation, but is that a good thing?


Photot of Brad Stevens courtesy of John Raoux/Associated Press

Field goal attempt data only goes back to 1983 on basketball-reference.com, so who knows if Tommy Heinsohn’s favorite brand of running Boston Celtics basketball had eclipsed 109 field attempts in earlier years. The Celtics tied their franchise mark in game two against the Toronto Raptors which was previously set in 2015 against the Washington Wizards.


The positives of having a lot of field attempts are pretty obvious. The more shots you take, the more opportunity the team has to make shots. It typically means that the team is playing good defense as well because it is easier to run a fast break off the other team’s misses.

In the October 25th game against the Raptors, the Celtics reeled in 21 (!) offensive rebounds. This was 16 more than their opponent, which led to multiple opportunities on the offensive end.

Enes Kanter, who didn’t play in the game, was added to the team with hopes to uptick the Celtics’ 9.8 offensive rebounds per game last season. Kanter led the league in offensive rebounding percentage last season at 17.1% which means that this version of the Celtics may be getting more opportunities than in years past.



The 109 field goal attempts isn’t something we can expect to see all the time, but the Celtics can expect to attempt more shots than most other teams in the conference. Last year, Brad Stevens’ squad average 90.5 shots per game which was 9th best in the NBA. But is it always a good sign when a team is taking a ton of shots?

A win is a win, so the game against the Raptors was ultimately positive. However, the offensive rebounding numbers were so high because the Celtics weren’t hitting shots consistently. The C’s shot 39% for the game which is not nearly good enough to sustain for the whole season. Last year’s Celtics team shot 46.5% from the field which ranked them in the middle of the NBA.

The shot attempts won’t be as high if the ball goes in the hoop on the first attempt. The offensive rebounds and shot attempts are a testament to the team’s effort and resiliency, but again, the field goal attempt numbers can be a bit misleading. I’ll take 47% shooting on 90-or-so shots on any night over all those frustrating misses.

You can follow me on Twitter @Mike_Auc
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