Celtics

“Does anybody want to watch a football game and see less touchdowns?”

Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla brought up the NFL when asked about the growing regularity of three-pointers in the NBA.

The Celtics are on the way to breaking records for the number of three-point shots attempted and made in one season. Boston has averaged an attempted 51.1 three-pointers per game, the highest in the NBA this season.

This is now becoming a common thread throughout the league though — other teams have begun to follow suit, with each attempting at least 30 per game. This strategy has proven to be advantageous, as the team that makes more 3s wins 67 percent of the time.

Some fans are upset that this means teams are copying each others’ offensive techniques.

As the league deliberates any potential changes to make to the sport’s playing style, Mazzulla addressed criticisms of the league’s upsurge in three-pointers at team practice on Wednesday.

“It’s an interesting perspective because in the NFL, people aren’t like, ‘I want to see less scoring.’ They’re not going to make the end zones smaller,” he told reporters. “I guess my question would be why in basketball would scoring being up be an issue as opposed to other sports? Does anybody want to watch a football game and see less touchdowns?”

Mazzulla also discussed another surprising trend in this year’s NBA: a decline in viewership.

Compared to this time last year, NBA views are down 19%, according to Sports Media Watch. It’s unclear if the dip in ratings and uptick in three-point shots are in any way related, but NBA commissioner Adam Silver told reporters, “It’s not a lack of interest in this game.” Engagement on social media and in-person attendance are at record levels, he said before Tuesday’s NBA Cup championship game between the Bucks and Thunder.

Though ratings are “down a bit,” Silver points to a general decrease in cable consumption. “We’re almost at the inflection point where people are watching more programming on streaming than they are in traditional television,” he said.

When asked about ratings, Mazzulla admitted he doesn’t watch NBA games in his free time.

“I’m just as much the problem as anyone else is,” he bluntly told reporters. “I don’t like watching the games.”

While Mazzulla enjoys college basketball, he said he’s always around NBA games and would rather watch something else. The coach instead mentioned cricket, discussing how the rules of certain sports can apply to others.

“I like in cricket that you can just keep wearing the pitcher down by fouling off on purpose,” Mazzulla said. “There’s a huge mental, psychological component to just wearing this guy’s arm out by just keeping fouling balls off until he can’t pitch anymore. Like, I love the idea of that.”