Michael Malone, Nuggets share plan to beat Celtics – NBC Sports Boston

The Boston Celtics’ reputation precedes them, it seems.

The Celtics have gone all-in on 3-point shooting under head coach Joe Mazzulla, attempting an NBA-leading 42.5 3s per game last season en route to an NBA championship. This season, they have leaned in even further with a whopping 50.2 3-point attempts per game. game, which is 6.3 more attempts than the next closest team and would break the NBA record for most 3-point attempts per game. game in a season (45.4 by the Houston Rockets in 2018-19), if that holds.

So when Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone was asked Monday how he plans to prepare for Tuesday night’s showdown with the Celtics (10 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Boston), his message was essentially this: Shooters will shoot.

“No matter what you do, they’re going to make 50 3s. I really believe that,” Malone told reporters. via the Denver Post. “Nineteen of their 50 3s they take are off the jump. They shoot pull-up 3s in transition. They shoot pull-up 3s in the pick-and-roll. That’s their thing offensively . “We just want to put up a lot of 3s.”

In Malone’s mind, the best chance to beat the Celtics is not to try to limit their 3-point attempts. It’s to make those attempts as difficult as possible and hope Boston misses more than it does.

“They shoot the same number of 3s in wins and losses. But their percentages are very different,” Malone said. “That’s how the 50 come up. That’s just how they’re connected. But it’s the quality of three that they rise up.

“You can’t be down the floor inside the 3-point line in transition. In pick-and-rolls, you can’t be down the floor and give (Jayson) Tatum, (Jaylen) Brown, (Payton) Pritchard, (Jrue) Holiday , and (Derrick) White easy walk-in 3s.”

To Malone’s point, the Celtics’ 3-point percentage drops from 38.7 percent in wins to 31.4 percent in losses. Boston is 2-5 this season when shooting 30 percent or worse from distance — including a brutal 19.6 percent 3-pointer in Sunday’s loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder — and 24-5 in all other games.

In Denver’s view, those numbers add up to a pretty straightforward game plan for Boston.

“You’re not going to be able to stop them from shooting them,” Nuggets guard Russell Westbrook added, via the Post. “But you just have to be able to make them tough shots. That’s it. Make them tough shots and rebound the ball. And then do what we do.”

The Celtics are nearly impossible to beat when they make 3-pointers and play strong defense. But it’s interesting to hear how an elite team like the Nuggets sees the plan to beat Boston: contest their 3-pointers and hope for the best.

Celtics-Nuggets coverage on NBC Sports Boston begins at 21 ET with Celtics Pregame Live.