{"id":13119,"date":"2024-12-01T09:26:22","date_gmt":"2024-12-01T09:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=13119"},"modified":"2024-12-01T09:26:22","modified_gmt":"2024-12-01T09:26:22","slug":"celtics-to-tighten-their-3-point-defense-after-allowing-a-season-high-20-in-nba-cup-showdown-vs-bulls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=13119","title":{"rendered":"Celtics to tighten their 3-point defense after allowing a season-high 20 in NBA Cup showdown vs. Bulls"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\"Nikola
Nikola Vucevic (No. 9) hit 6 of 9 shots from 3-point range to test Jayson Tatum and the Celtics in Friday night’s NBA Cup matchup in Chicago.<\/span>Luke Hales\/Getty<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

CLEVELAND \u2014 The Bulls kept pace with the Celtics on Friday because of their 3-point shooting.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Bulls pushed the game into the final minutes with 20 3-pointers, a season-high for a Boston opponent. The Celtics are fourth in the NBA in 3-pointers allowed, meaning their defense is generally elite in preventing the trifecta.<\/span><\/p>\n

That wasn\u2019t the case Friday when\u00a0Nikola Vucevic<\/b>\u00a0nailed four 3-pointers in a 93-second span. He wound up making 6 of 9 overall. Celtics center\u00a0Kristaps Porzingis<\/b> said his team has to be more physical.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

<\/main><\/section>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cOur defense was far from ideal and hit a fire inside and we had to do a better job on him,\u201d Porzingis said. \u201cHe had a great night shooting the ball. He was shooting with so much confidence. I\u2019m going to look at the situation and how we could have guarded him better.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Celtics did defend better in the second half but they allowed 10 3-pointers, many of those were tightly defended. The heroics of Payton Pritchard<\/b> and Jayson Tatum <\/b>carried the Celtics in the final period.<\/p>\n

\n

A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWe had to turn up the pressure a little bit more. We were scoring and maybe we weren\u2019t as physical with them so they felt good about themselves,\u201d Porzingis said. \u201cThe second half that was an emphasis for us, being more physical with them, make them work a little bit more for everything.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe process was not that bad, but it looks bad because they were making shots. They were also making some open ones, which we could do a better job of.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Celtics defense got off to a slow start, but they enter Sunday\u2019s game against the Cavaliers eighth in defensive rating. But they have also been able to win their fair share of shootouts.<\/p>\n

Wow factor<\/h2>\n

Pritchard wowed the crowd at United Center on Friday with 18 of his 29 points coming in the first 6:35 of the fourth quarter. Pritchard has turned into instant offense coming off the bench, scoring a career-best 15.6 points per game on 44 percent shooting from the 3-point line.<\/p>\n

Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla<\/b> praised Pritchard as more than just a 3-point shooter.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Friday] it was his shooting but that [offensive] rebound he got was timely and his ball pressure and his defense,\u201d Mazzulla said. \u201cHe\u2019s a complete player. I know it sounds weird but he\u2019s one of the best three-level scorers that I\u2019ve seen, especially for his size. He\u2019s just a high-level competitor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Open to question<\/h2>\n

Sunday\u2019s game at Cleveland was considered a match between the top two teams in the Eastern Conference prior to Wednesday. But the Cavaliers were beaten twice by the Hawks, including a 16-point loss on Friday in Atlanta.<\/p>\n

The Celtics are now just one-half game behind the Cavaliers in the East and they received some promising news regarding swingman Derrick White<\/b>, who left Friday\u2019s win over the Bulls with a right foot sprain. He has been declared as questionable vs. the Cavaliers.<\/p>\n

Jrue Holiday<\/b> has also been declared questionable with right adductor tightness while Al Horford<\/b> and Porzingis are also questionable. The Celtics play the Heat on Monday in the second of a back-to-back set, meaning the club could stagger Horford and Porzingis to ensure one of those will be available for the second game. Neither play back-to-backs.<\/p>\n

Porzingis said he felt fine after his second appearance of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels good,\u201d he said of his surgically repaired ankle. \u201cI don\u2019t even think about it during the game. Feeling excellent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wild-card scenarios<\/h2>\n

The Celtics didn\u2019t get a lot of breaks Friday in their quest to reach the knockout round of the NBA Cup. First, the Hawks stunned the Cavaliers for the second time in three days to win Group C. The Hawks edged the Celtics by virtue of a 117-116 win in Boston Nov. 12.<\/p>\n

The Celtics could have gotten some wild-card help if the Pacers had beaten the Pistons or the Nets had taken care of the Magic. But the Pistons and Magic each won in blowouts.<\/p>\n

Yet, there are two things that need to happen for the Celtics to reach the quarters. The Magic, which has a plus-60 differential, would have to beat the Knicks on Tuesday at Madison Square Garden, which would eliminate the Knicks from wild-card contention in Group A.<\/p>\n

Then the Bucks-Pistons game would determine the Celtics\u2019 fate. The Bucks would have to beat the Pistons by at least 5 points or the Pistons would have to beat the Bucks by at least 6 for the Celtics to qualify. The Celtics finished with a plus-23 point differential while the Bucks are plus-29 and the Pistons are plus-28 entering their showdown game in Detroit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Bulls pushed Friday’s NBA Cup loss to the visiting Celtics into the final minutes with 20 3-pointers, which is a season-high for a Boston opponent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":13120,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"yoast_head":"\nCeltics to tighten their 3-point defense after allowing a season-high 20 in NBA Cup showdown vs. Bulls - News 365<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=13119\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Celtics to tighten their 3-point defense after allowing a season-high 20 in NBA Cup showdown vs. Bulls - News 365\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Bulls pushed Friday's NBA Cup loss to the visiting Celtics into the final minutes with 20 3-pointers, which is a season-high for a Boston opponent.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=13119\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News 365\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-12-01T09:26:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/PICTURE-1300-x-1500-px-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"MsNga\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"MsNga\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=13119\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=13119\",\"name\":\"Celtics to tighten their 3-point defense after allowing a season-high 20 in NBA Cup showdown vs. Bulls - News 365\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=13119#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=13119#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/PICTURE-1300-x-1500-px-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-12-01T09:26:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-12-01T09:26:22+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b1c32261ea7c1375bc99d782277ee798\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=13119#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=13119\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=13119#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/PICTURE-1300-x-1500-px-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/PICTURE-1300-x-1500-px-1.jpg\",\"width\":1300,\"height\":1500},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=13119#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Celtics to tighten their 3-point defense after allowing a season-high 20 in NBA Cup showdown vs. Bulls\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/\",\"name\":\"News 365\",\"description\":\"Your Daily Dose of Sports News and Updates\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b1c32261ea7c1375bc99d782277ee798\",\"name\":\"MsNga\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8b3e1c10558dfaf162a998dc15535744ef38d91fd35d4fed1d170bd077977aa6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8b3e1c10558dfaf162a998dc15535744ef38d91fd35d4fed1d170bd077977aa6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"MsNga\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?author=4\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Celtics to tighten their 3-point defense after allowing a season-high 20 in NBA Cup showdown vs. Bulls - News 365","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=13119","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Celtics to tighten their 3-point defense after allowing a season-high 20 in NBA Cup showdown vs. Bulls - News 365","og_description":"The Bulls pushed Friday's NBA Cup loss to the visiting Celtics into the final minutes with 20 3-pointers, which is a season-high for a Boston opponent.","og_url":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=13119","og_site_name":"News 365","article_published_time":"2024-12-01T09:26:22+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1300,"height":1500,"url":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/PICTURE-1300-x-1500-px-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"MsNga","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"MsNga","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=13119","url":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=13119","name":"Celtics to tighten their 3-point defense after allowing a season-high 20 in NBA Cup showdown vs. Bulls - News 365","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=13119#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=13119#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/PICTURE-1300-x-1500-px-1.jpg","datePublished":"2024-12-01T09:26:22+00:00","dateModified":"2024-12-01T09:26:22+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b1c32261ea7c1375bc99d782277ee798"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=13119#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=13119"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=13119#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/PICTURE-1300-x-1500-px-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/PICTURE-1300-x-1500-px-1.jpg","width":1300,"height":1500},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=13119#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Celtics to tighten their 3-point defense after allowing a season-high 20 in NBA Cup showdown vs. Bulls"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/","name":"News 365","description":"Your Daily Dose of Sports News and Updates","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b1c32261ea7c1375bc99d782277ee798","name":"MsNga","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8b3e1c10558dfaf162a998dc15535744ef38d91fd35d4fed1d170bd077977aa6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8b3e1c10558dfaf162a998dc15535744ef38d91fd35d4fed1d170bd077977aa6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"MsNga"},"url":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?author=4"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13119"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13121,"href":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13119\/revisions\/13121"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}