Celtics' turnover pressure is creating extra shots

The Boston Celtics beat the Charlotte Hornets 114-93 on Wednesday night at TD Garden by taking 17 more shots, an advantage built on turnovers: Charlotte committed 29 and Boston committed 10.

It was the second straight preseason game in which Boston recorded 16 steals, a sharp change for a team that averaged 7.1 steals last season, 28th in the NBA. The question heading into the regular season is whether that pressure holds when rotations tighten.

Jayson Tatum scored 19 points with 8 rebounds and 6 assists in 29 minutes. Derrick White scored 17, Neemias Queta 16 and Luka Garza 14. Payton Pritchard went 3-for-11 from the field but had 11 assists and finished a plus-19 in 29 minutes.

Extra shots, not rebounds

Boston took 92 field goal attempts to Charlotte's 75 and shot 48% to the Hornets' 41%. The teams attempted nearly the same number of free throws, 22 to 20, and Boston's edge in offensive rebounds, 9 to 7, was small. The difference was the 19-turnover gap.

The Celtics lost the rebounding battle 43-40, the first time in three preseason games they did not finish ahead on the glass. It did not matter. Boston outscored Charlotte 56-20 in the paint, with Mitchell Robinson going 5-for-5 from the field and Neemias Queta 7-for-11. Fast-break points do not explain the margin either: Charlotte had more, 14 to 11.

Boston also shot 11-for-39 from three-point range, 28%, while Charlotte made 16 of 42, 38%. The Hornets made more threes and still lost by 21. Boston assisted on 31 of its 44 made field goals. Charlotte's Brandon Miller scored 16 points but needed 17 shots to get there, going 4-for-17, and the Hornets shot 31-for-75 as a team.

Where the turnovers came from

Royce O'Neale had 5 turnovers, Tidjane Salaun had 4, and Dennis Schroder, Naz Reid, Ryan Kalkbrenner and Liam McNeeley had 3 each. O'Neale and Schroder, two of Charlotte's five starters, combined for 8.

Derrick White had 4 steals in 20 minutes, Luka Garza had 3 in 14, and Jayson Tatum, Paul George and Chris Cenac Jr. each had 2. Five players producing takeaways points to a team-wide approach, not one gambler.

Boston's own ball security improved at the same time. It committed 10 turnovers, down from 20 against Philadelphia on Saturday and 16 in the preseason opener at Cleveland. Counting both teams, the Celtics' turnover margin across their three preseason games went from minus-5 to plus-2 to plus-19.

A change from last season

Boston forced 51 turnovers over its last two games, 22 from Philadelphia and 29 from Charlotte. That equals 4.3 games' worth at last season's rate of 11.9 forced turnovers per game, which ranked 29th in the NBA against a league average of 13.8. The preseason opener produced 6 steals in a 124-113 win at Cleveland, so the jump came in games two and three.

The double-big look

Robinson and Queta shared the floor for 7 minutes, and Boston outscored Charlotte 19-8 during that stretch. Robinson finished a plus-11 in 17 minutes and Queta a plus-16 in 24. The starting group of White, Tatum, George, Jordan Walsh and Robinson played 10.3 minutes together and broke even, 23-23.

Boston's second-most-used group, Baylor Scheierman, Tatum, Queta, Pritchard and Sam Hauser, played 7.2 minutes together and outscored Charlotte 20-18. A reserve group of Chris Cenac Jr., Dillon Mitchell, Hugo Gonzalez, Garza and Ron Harper Jr. played 5.4 minutes and led 9-5. Hauser finished a plus-23 in 18 minutes, 4 points better than Pritchard's plus-19.

What the numbers do not show

The sample is two games against preseason rotations. Steals swung from 6 in the first game to 16 in the second, and Boston's turnover margin was negative in the opener. Whether the pressure travels will be clearer after the opening stretch of the regular season.

What comes next

Boston closes the preseason at Philadelphia on Friday at 7 p.m. ET on NBA TV and opens the regular season Oct. 20 at Detroit at 3 p.m. ET on NBC. The Pistons led the NBA last season in both steals, at 10.4 per game, and forced turnovers, at 16.0 per game, which makes the opener a direct test of the new approach.

Sources: box score data, play-by-play data and Celtics Crew calculations from every 2025-26 regular-season box score.