Crushing The Numbers - Jan. 4, 2023
Chase Whitney /January 4, 2023
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Want to know exactly how the Maine Celtics are getting it done on the court? Each week, Crushing the Numbers will take a deep dive into the G League stats to see what the numbers say about which areas the team has excelled in and what they’re looking to improve on in practice.
The Maine Celtics are off to yet another undefeated start.
After opening the 2022-23 Showcase Cup schedule with five straight wins, the Celtics have gotten out to a 3-0 record to open the 32-game regular season schedule. A 13-point victory over the Fort Wayne Mad Ants followed by a two-game sweep of the Rio Grande Valley Vipers has Maine sitting atop the league standings as one of three teams with a 3-0 mark.
Behind a potent offense, stout defense and supreme reign on the glass, the Celtics have remained one of the elite squads in the G League after a strong run to the Showcase Tournament semifinals. Maine is the only tea to rank inside the top-six in offensive (117.6, secomd) and defensive rating (106.2, sixth), combining for a net rating of 11.5, the best in the league behind to this point. On top of that, the Celtics have continued to dominate the boards to the tune of a 57.9 total rebounding percentage, again topping the charts by a comfortable margin.
Many of the same trends that we saw from the Celtics in the Showcase have held up as the regular season has gotten underway; most notably, the “pace and space” concept is still a key to success. Maine is second in pace (107.67) and ninth in three-point attempts per game (38), resulting the league’s fifth-best effective field goal percentage, a statistic that adjusts field goal percentage to account for the fact that three-point shots count for three points while field goals only count for two points. An efficient blend of high-tempo, spaced-out offense combined with a team-wide effort to crash the offensive glass and create second chance points (20 per game, third in G League) has proven to be a winning formula for the Celtics.
Luka Šamanić leads the G League in double-doubles and has shown no sign of slowing down following a November Player of the Month award. He’s racked up 14 of them already, including a monster 28-point, 18-rebound performance against RGV on Dec. 30, in which he shot 11-21 from the floor and hauled in six offensive board. At 24.7 points per game, he leads the team in scoring and is 13th league wide.
Just behind Šamanić are a pair of others who average 20 points per game; Two-Way player Mfiondu Kabengele, and Marial Shayok. Kabengele averages a team-leading 13 rebounds per game to go with his nightly 21.3 points and is tied for fourth in the G League in offensive boards per game (5), while Shayok is up to 22.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game following a season-high 31 points on 9-10 shooting on New Year’s Eve against the Vipers.
There are few more reliable players in the G League than Denzel Valentine. Valentine has 256 career NBA appearances, and it shows as he threatens to post a triple-double or crush opponents with clutch shots on a nightly basis. So far, he’s averaging 14 points, 8.3 rebounds and 7 assists while shooting 50 percent from deep and making four threes per game. When the Celtics need a big stop or a bucket, head coach Alex Barlow knows who to call.
Maine’s backcourt has shot the lights out these past few weeks. Two-Way guard JD Davison is still throwing down electrifying dunks on the regular, but he’s added onto the highlight by shooting 47.1 percent from the field and totaling 17 assists to five turnovers so far. Kamar Baldwin has handled a promotion to the starting lineup admirably, putting up 12.7 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.3 assists plus 2.3 steals per game, good for 14th in the G League. In his return to the franchise, Trey Davis is making 2.3 threes in 16.4 minutes per game and shooting 50 percent from long-range.
The Maine Celtics’ shooters are scorching hot, and they’ll clamp an opponent down on defense and keep them off the glass, too. The Two-Way players have been effective, and the roster features a host of NBA caliber players. Hopefully, the Celtics can match their hot start from the Showcase during the regular season.