Hall of Fame head coach Phil Jackson came out of social media hibernation recently, and he has now answered a question posed by his former player, Ron Harper, after the Philadelphia 76ers beat the Boston Celtics 109-100 in Game 7 on Saturday. The Celtics nearly roared back from an 18-point deficit to win this game, but failed to complete the comeback, thanks to some questionable shot selection.
Notably, instead of trying to take the lead with a two-pointer when they were down one, the Celtics settled for some threes, and Harper took to X to ask for an explanation.
“I love basketball, can someone explain to me the last 5 mins of Celtics and 76ers game? Boston down by 1 & 3 and keep shooting 3s…. Please help me.”
Harper had a dog in this fight, as his son, Ron Harper Jr., started the game for the Celtics. You’d imagine he was very frustrated by all these threes being jacked up, and Jackson offered a simple explanation.
“Ron, NBA has relied on db-s/roll for penetration-no passes to post or pinch post. Why [triangle] won vs pressure.”
Ron, NBA has relied on db-s/roll for penetration-no passes to post or pinch post. Why 🔺won vs pressure.
— Phil Jackson (@PhilJackson11) May 3, 2026
Jackson was referring to the dribble screen and roll. The Celtics and NBA teams, in general, are not looking to feed the ball to a player in the post, something that was done often in his famous “triangle offense.”
Jackson used the triangle to win a record 11 NBA championships as a head coach. In very simple terms, this offense has three players forming a triangle on one side of the court. You have one player in the low post, one on the wing, and one on the corner.
Despite all the success Jackson had with the triangle offense, you don’t see it being used today. Former NBA head coach Byron Scott believes today’s players aren’t smart enough to run it, but that is a bit harsh.
The game has changed a lot since Jackson’s glory days, especially with the increase in pace and the emphasis on the three-pointer. You still see elements of the triangle being used today, but the entire offense is never coming back.
Jackson has been calling for the triangle offense to return for years now, but to no avail. That isn’t the only thing he has banging the drum about.
Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr recently said that removing the three-point line could help the game, and Jackson came out of hibernation to react to those comments. He revealed he has been asking the NBA rules committee to widen the court for 15 years, so that the corner three-pointer goes from 22 feet to 23.9 feet. Jackson’s pleas have fallen on deaf ears.
You’d imagine Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla wouldn’t be a fan of this change. The Celtics have lived and died by the three-pointer under Mazzulla, and missing one too many of them proved to be their downfall in Game 7.
The Celtics went 13-49 (26.5%) from beyond the arc on the night. They shot 27.9% from three over the last three games as the 76ers stormed back from a 3-1 deficit to win the series.
Mazzulla was asked postgame if the Celtics were too reliant on jump shots, and he doesn’t believe that was the case.
“I thought we did a great job reading the two-on-ones, taking what the defense gave us,” Mazzulla said, via Celtics on CLNS. “In the games we lost, the other team shot over 38% from three, and so you got to make shots. You have to be able to do that. Something we’ve done well, something we do well, and we just didn’t. And I thought they did a good job throughout the series, later games of making them.
“And so love the looks that we got, love the process that we had, but hate the result,” Mazzulla added.
Mazzulla isn’t going to change his ways. A first-round series defeat such as this might have cost most other coaches their jobs, but not him. No one had the Celtics going 56-26 this season, and Mazzulla might win Coach of the Year for it. He also, of course, just won the championship in 2024 and has plenty of credit left in the bank.
