Unless I’m mistaken, there is a codicil to the “Law of Averages” that requires there be occasional aberrations in performance. The most obvious recent basketball example of this phenomenon was the Houston Rockets’ infamous 2018 playoff flame-out that featured a mind-boggling 0-for-27 stretch of three-point shooting.
Despite Boston’s ultimately one-sided swatting of the pesky but road-weary Hornets Sunday at the TD Garden, there was not a whole lot of “Average” in the Algebra of this game – from a box-score showing a mere 14 combined Turnovers, to the Celts’ jaw-dropping +30 in Total Rebounds. (And poor Brad Wanamaker’s impressive five Q4 assists will get overlooked in lieu of Jayson Tatum’s 9-for-13, 22-point scoring blitz.