Throughout Joe Mazzulla’s tenure as the Boston Celtics’ head coach, the team’s three-point shooting volume has split opinions within the fan base. Last season, Mazzulla’s team set an NBA record for the most threes attempted in a single season. The Celtics won the 2024 NBA championship playing Mazzulla’s style of basketball. As such, he’s earned the right to double down on his approach. However, after a flurry of changes this summer, some sections of the fan base likely expected more interior scoring. Yet, over the first nine games of the season, the Celtics are second in the NBA for three-point volume. Perimeter shots account for 47.1% of the team’s non-garbage time attempts, which is approximately a three percent drop from last season. Interestingly, the Celtics are hunting more two-point looks, but the problem is that they’re not coming at the rim. Instead, Boston is leaning into long two-point attempts. According to Cleaning The Glass, which has a garbage time filter, Mazzulla’s team is second in the league for long two’s attempts and seventh in efficiency. The Celtics are 2nd in the NBA for long-two's this season (13.1% of their overall shot profile). They're 7th in efficiency on those long-twos (47.1%) Last season they were 15th in frequency and 14th in accuracy. There's definitely in a shift in shot profile. Small Sample..— Adam Taylor (@AdamTaylorNBA) November 6, 2025 We’ve long been told that long mid-range attempts are among the worst shots in basketball. However, that notion only holds true if the player shooting them isn’t efficient in that range. Fortunately for the Celtics, they have multiple weapons in that area of the floor, with Jaylen Brown, Payton Pritchard, Anfernee Simons and Derrick White all proficient mid-range shooters. Story continues below advertisement There’s no doubt that Celtics fans would prefer the team get more attempts at the rim, where they currently rank 28th in the league for shot attempts. However, Mazzulla has to lean into the skill set of his roster. Outside of Brown, Simons and maybe Josh Minott, the Celtics don’t have many players who can get to the rack at will. What they do have is multiple shifty ball-handlers who can counter defensive coverages by stopping and popping in space. It’s still early in the season, so this trend could change. However, for now, the Celtics remain a jump-shooting team, for better or worse. Story continues below advertisement