On the Celtics’ first possession 108-104 overtime victory against the Nets Friday night, Jayson Tatum drove and sent the ball to Xavier Tillman in the left arc, and Tillman’s open 3-pointer was out of bounds.

Three minutes later, Tatum found an open Tillman again, this time in the right corner. The 3-point shot is still an evolving part of Tillman’s game, and perhaps that recent miss was still on his mind as he passed up that sharp look and headed to the paint, where his pass to Jrue Holiday was deflected out of bounds, ruining the momentum of the play.

On the sidelines, coach Joe Mazzulla clapped repeatedly, urging Tillman to shoot when he was open. Later in the first half, sophomore wing Jordan Walsh also turned down an open three on a possession that ultimately fell apart, and Mazzulla later sent a similar message.

The 3-point shot is central to this team’s identity, and one of the key tenets of that approach is that most players simply have to stare openly when they come up. Mazzulla understands that players such as Tillman and Walsh won’t have the same level of confidence behind the arc as, say, Tatum, but teams will often choose to leave small shooters open in order to minimize threats elsewhere, and they must be ready to do so. make the defenses pay.

“It’s hard sometimes, if guys are in and out of lineups and the sub-patterns are different, to get into your rhythm,” Mazzulla said. “But at the end of the day, they just have to feel empowered to be able to film when they’re open.” They work there every day. I watch them do it. I trust them, and obviously you want to pass and move the ball, but when you pass up first looks, as good as NBA defenses are, it’s harder to generate them late in the game. So they have to continue to be understanding and understand that I want them to shoot when they are open.

In the locker room after the game, Holiday offered a similar assessment. He doesn’t want one or two hiccups to disrupt his teammates’ comfort level. There’s a reason they’re on the court together at NBA games.

“I think the coaches’ reviews versus your teammates’ reviews are a little different, but we also encourage them to shoot those threes,” Holiday said. “Knowing that these opportunities may not come around very often, or when they do, they really need to be opportunities that are highlighted. Always have the greatest confidence in him. I want him to take the pictures, I want him to shoot him.

The Celtics have extreme confidence in each other and believe they are the best 3-point shooting team in the world. Sometimes internal expressions of confidence can have an impact.

Sam Hauser, who may be the team’s best 3-point shooter, had a rough night Friday. He started just 1 of 9 from beyond the arc, and the final miss in that burst was the most surprising.

With 5:30 left in the fourth quarter and the Celtics trailing, 88-85, Derrick White found Hauser wide open and in rhythm in the left corner. He will never find a simpler plan. But this one bounced off the edge like the others.

Yet none of that was on Tatum’s mind a minute later, when he rushed the court on a fast break with the Celtics trailing by 2 and sent a perfect bounce-free pass to Hauser in the right corner. Hauser connected on that attempt and Tatum wasn’t surprised.

“Sam was open,” Tatum said. “He’s one of the best shooters in the world. You don’t ignore him just because he missed a few shots earlier in the quarter. Never, never. If Sam is open, if he’s not, we still want him to be a threat. Not necessarily shooting every time, but we trust Sam so much that we were mad at him when he missed and he was mad at himself. Al (Horford) was yelling at him on the bench, “Yo, never lower your head. The next one. We always think the next one will come.

Adam Himmelsbach can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow him @adamhimmelsbach.