Celtics guard Josh Minott (8) guards the Rockets' Tari Eason on the perimeter on Saturday night.
Celtics guard Josh Minott (8) guards the Rockets' Tari Eason on the perimeter on Saturday night.Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff
Shaking my notebook up and down and seeing what falls out as we try to determine if the 3-4 Celtics are good, bad, or somewhere in between . . .
⋅ The Celtics are heavily emphasizing playing fast this season. And there is no question that they are flying around on defense more than they have in the past, seeking to force turnovers that help offset their defensive rebounding liabilities. But has the overall speed of the game really picked up?
Last season the Celtics ranked 29th in the NBA in pace, averaging 96.59 possessions per game. This season they are also 29th, at 96.71. Coach Joe Mazzulla has stressed that he does not view this metric as an accurate representation of overall pace. For example, the number will be lower if Boston’s frenetic defense pushes teams deep into the shot clock before firing up attempts.
The Celtics have their own internal numbers that monitor pace, though, and Mazzulla said he is generally pleased so far.
“The metrics that we want, we can get better, but there’s a lot of progress in that,” he said. “So, we’re playing faster than we have as an organization in the past, but we’ve just got to keep getting better at it. But we’re OK with it. [In Friday’s win over the 76ers] we had a bunch of actions I think in the first half that started at 19 [seconds left on the shot clock], and the average action was 15 in the second half. So that’s how we look at it. We’ve just got to start our actions a little bit earlier more consistently. We’re doing a decent job of it, but we’ve just got to do it all the time.”
⋅ Over the past 10 days, Celtics rookie Hugo González has been tasked with defending Jalen Brunson, Joel Embiid, and Kevin Durant. Welcome to the NBA, indeed. The 19-year-old is still raw and sometimes overzealous, as evidenced by averaging 6.6 fouls per 36 minutes.
But he has also provided a jolt to the defense, and it’s easy to see why president of basketball operations Brad Stevens was so thrilled to grab him with the 28th pick of the draft.
The Celtics allow 9.1 fewer points per 100 possessions with rookie Hugo González on the floor.
The Celtics allow 9.1 fewer points per 100 possessions with rookie Hugo González on the floor.Michael Dwyer/Associated Press
On one play against the 76ers, González surged back on defense to attempt to slow a fast break. He leapt and fouled Quentin Grimes on a dunk attempt and crashed hard into the basket stanchion before quickly getting to his feet, seemingly no worse for wear. I thought back to my June interview with Celtics lead international scout Benas Matkevicius, whose words now seem prescient.
“He’s really a true competitor and fans will love him because of that Marcus Smart-type of effort that he just goes out there,” Matkevicius said. “He guards multiple positions and dives on the floor. He just wants the ball more than anybody else.”
The Celtics have surrendered just 105.6 points per 100 possessions with Gonzalez on the court, and 114.7 with him on the bench. It appears that he will be part of the regular rotation all season.
⋅ After escaping with the win over Philadelphia, Jaylen Brown was asked about developing chemistry with this retooled roster. He said it was still early in the season and acknowledged that there was room for improvement. Then he singled out a player even though he had not been asked about him.
“We’ve got to figure out how to get D. White going,” Brown said.
The Celtics are counting on White to take on more responsibility as a scorer, but it has been a struggle. Through seven games, the guard is shooting 30.8 percent from the field and 25 percent from the 3-point line.
He was rarely the focus of opposing defenses in past seasons, and he is being tasked with creating his own shot more often so far this year. Last season, 288 of White’s 424 baskets were assisted (67.9 percent). This season just 19 of his 36 have been assisted (52.8 percent). White has hit 4 of 9 3-pointers from the corners (44.4 percent), a good percentage but low frequency. He is just 13 of 59 on above-the-break 3-pointers (22 percent).
⋅ Sam Hauser, meanwhile, is having no such issues. The sharpshooter is shooting 45.1 percent from the 3-point line on 7.3 attempts, both career highs. He has been firing up his “no dip” 3-pointers more frequently, in which he catches the ball above the shoulders and keeps it there, both to get the shot up more quickly and make it harder to block.
“Kind of ever since I got to the NBA, we’ve worked on it more,” Hauser said. “And then in the last couple years, I feel like I’ve shot them more. It’s not like I’m thinking about it. It’s just kind of second nature. If I’m catching the ball up high and I see a guy closing out, I don’t have time to bring it down. So, I just leave it out there and I just shoot it. We definitely rep it out in practice and all that stuff, too.”
Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at adam.himmelsbach@globe.com. Follow him @adamhimmelsbach.