How are NBA teams back in action already? Weren’t the NBA Finals played, like, a week ago? Maybe it just feels that way because I’ve been lost in new fatherhood since the Boston Celtics ended their season by winning a championship. (Turns out parenting is all-consuming ..
. but also better than anyone could ever explain.) Advertisement Anyway, I can’t believe the Celtics start the preseason Friday in Abu Dhabi.
They don’t have many unsettled details for Joe Mazzulla to piece together, but the five-game preseason schedule should still be useful. Here are five areas to watch closely during the preseason games. 1.
Is Tatum’s 3-pointer back? The worries about Jayson Tatum ’s shooting stroke are probably overblown. He finished last regular season with his best 3-point percentage since 2020-21. From the All-Star break to the end of the regular season, he cashed in 40.
9 percent of his long-distance attempts. Zooming out shows an optimistic picture of a 6-foot-8 wing who has always taken and made a bundle of 3-point attempts with good-to-great accuracy. Zooming in shows Tatum ran into struggles from the perimeter while the Celtics were blasting their way through the playoffs.
He passed the 30 percent mark from downtown during only one of Boston’s four postseason series. Even in that series, an Eastern Conference finals sweep of the Indiana Pacers , he hit only 11 of 36 3-point attempts (30.6 percent).
Tatum’s overall playoff 3-point percentage (28.3 percent) screamed R.