“You’ve got to tap into your darkness,” coach Joe Mazzulla said as the Celtics approached Saturday facing a 2-0 series deficit, and his team responded with probably its best game of the playoffs, writes Jared Weiss of The Athletic. Boston struck quickly, built a commanding early lead, and controlled the game throughout on its way to a 115-93 victory.
“If you plan on doing this for a long time, trust me, it’ll be a lot worse than the last 72 hours, and that’s the perspective you have to have,” Mazzulla said. “This is the fun part. I didn’t get into the journey for it to be easy. It’s been dark, but in a good way.”
The Celtics set a playoff record by missing 45 three-point attempts in the series opener and were shooting 25% as a team from beyond the arc in the first two games. That changed dramatically in Game 3 as they overwhelmed the Knicks from the outside, connecting on 20-of-40 three-point shots.
Jayson Tatum, who had been badly misfiring in the first two games, made five of his nine three-point attempts on Saturday and talked about the need to be a leader when times are tough.
“You just understand what comes with being that guy,” he said. “I get a lot of praise, I get a lot of credit, I get a lot of accolades, but I’m not perfect. And there’s times where I’ve needed to play better, I’ve needed to do more, and that’s what comes with being that guy.”
There’s more on the Celtics:
- Kristaps Porzingis played 19 minutes off the bench, but he’s still experiencing side effects from a virus he contracted in late February, sources tell Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter video link). Charania states that Porzingis has been dealing with “energy zaps” and stamina “ebbs and flows” over the past two months. He began feeling better before the team’s first-round series, but went through a “crash” before Game 1 against New York.
- Payton Pritchard was 5-of-10 from three-point range on Saturday while logging 35 minutes, the most playing time he’s seen in this year’s postseason, per Khari Thompson of The Boston Globe. Mazzulla explained that he gave Pritchard an expanded role because Jrue Holiday picked up early fouls. “Our sub patterns are always flexible,” Mazzulla said. “Tonight, Jrue had three fouls and Payton was good. At times, you go with what makes the most sense. Just the flexibility of what we were able to do, but he played really well on both ends of the floor for us. There was some foul trouble there, so we were able to go to some different stuff.”
- Mazzulla’s job is likely safe regardless of the outcome of this series, Brian Robb of MassLive states in a mailbag column. However, he warns that the Celtics will likely have to sacrifice some depth this summer due to financial concerns, so it will be harder for Mazzulla to keep the team at an elite level in the future.
I don’t understand what virus lasts 3 months. Especially for a healthy athlete with premiere healthcare access.
Knicks unfortunately played with zero sense of urgency yesterday. It’s a new series they better win games 4 and 6 at home to move on to the ECF!!! Let’s go Knicks!!!
Rumors say it’s long covid.
Long term symptoms post virus are a lot more common than you might think. Long covid brought light to it, but any viral infection can cause problems.
That’s the type of game the Celtics need to play! Let our two stars decoy, pass and rebound and feed the ball to our best three point shooters, DWhite & Pritchard.This way our stars get their 20 points each and we also get another 20 each from Derrick and Payton. Look at yesterday’s stats. Derrick & Payton were 14 for 26, 54%, and 8 for 16 from three, 50%. While Tatum & Brown had 15 boards and 12 assists. Come on Coach, let our talent show! Go Celtics!
Watching the replay. Just saw Luke stuff Josh Hart on his patented speedy right side drive for a layup. Luke just waited for him and swatted it away. Felt good to see that!
Very underrated player.
He’s gonna get a bag this year.
Celtics need to tell Tatum not to shoot the ball in the 4th quarter…man was doing everything he could to take bad shots/commit an offensive foul to let the Knicks back into the game. You could tell he’s trying to prove to everyone that he’s the closer for the Celtics and is failing horribly…contested jumpers over wings and bigs, elbows and arms flying everywhere when he’s trying to post up a smaller defender. He’s out there playing 1v9 basketball like he’s trying to will his team to a victory when they’re up 20.
You keep him out there because he’s a good enough decoy offensively and does everything else well on both ends of the court but give the ball to literally anyone else or have Tatum just play distributor. If Pritchard doesn’t have the game he did, there’s a real chance yesterday’s game would’ve been much closer or even a 3-0 hole.
Yes, the Celtics best player should not shoot in the 4th quarter.
Greg Popovich you aint.
In Game 1 Tatum went 1-9 in the 4th/OT. In Game 2 he went 0-4. In Game 3 he went 2-7 with an offensive foul. Yes he should definitely keep chucking it away in the 4th quarter because he clearly is unguardable.
Watching the games you aint.
Knicks should be watching Nuggets. To learn how to grow some.