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Joe Mazzulla is satisfied with Celtics defense despite slow start

A week ago, a sampling of the NBA’s centers who switched onto guards for the greatest number of minutes revealed that Neemias Queta spent more than 34% of his time on the floor defending the perimeter — the greatest share by far in the league.

Al Horford trailed him closely at 28% and Luke Kornet, once exclusively a drop defender, ranked sixth at 26.1%. Boston’s defense, bent on taking away the rim as much as the three-point line, shifted to the latter extreme early this season and cut off the perimeter.

The Celtics are locking down the 3-point line and leaving their bigs to guard basically everything else

Queta looks bad on defense by design, because Boston’s bigs are doing a big lift so everyone else can stay home on the perimeter

(H/T Owen Philips ) pic.