The Celtics set an ignominious record on Monday in their loss to New York. As Brian Windhorst of ESPN writes, their 60 three-point attempts were the most ever taken by a team in a playoff game, but their 45 three-point misses also represented a new high-water mark for the NBA postseason.
Boston hasn’t been shy this season about firing away from beyond the three-point arc. The team’s 48.2 attempts per game during the regular season were nearly six more than that of second-place Golden State (42.4). After making just 25.0% of their outside shots in a Game 1 loss, they expressed mixed feelings about having attempted 60 three-pointers compared to just 37 two-point tries.
“I look at the process and the shot quality, (and) our shot quality was high,” head coach Joe Mazzulla said. “There were probably eight to 10 shots that could be better at for sure.”
ESPN’s data backs up Mazzulla’s assertion. According to ESPN Research, 45 of the Celtics’ three-point attempts were “uncontested,” but the team missed 32 of those shots. Celtics stars Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum suggested after the game that they probably should’ve tried to get to the rim more often as those misses piled up.
“In those moments when the other team got momentum you can’t just fire up threes to break up momentum,” Brown said, per Windhorst. “You got to get to the free throw line, get to the paint, get to the basket, maybe get an easy two. You hit some free throws and then maybe the next three-pointer feels a little bit better.”
Here’s more on the Celtics:
- The Celtics essentially cruised to a title last season, never losing a Game 1 or more than a single game in any playoff series. However, as Jay King of The Athletic writes, Mazzulla predicted ahead of the second round that his team would have to overcome more adversity this time around if it hoped to repeat. “There’s been great teams that have gone down (in series), great teams that have blown leads, kept leads, all that stuff just kind of goes into the nature of the competitive arena that you’re in, and you have to take the good with the bad if you plan on being in it for a good amount of time,” Mazzulla said before the Game 1 loss. “So studying that gives you the perspective you need to get to where you want to get to.”
- Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis exited Monday’s game with 7:34 left in the second quarter and didn’t return due to an illness, as Souichi Terada of MassLive.com writes. Mazzulla said after the game that he hadn’t had a chance to check on Porzingis, who went scoreless in 13 minutes of action. “Obviously it impacts the game with his ability on both ends of the floor, and it obviously changes sub patterns or changes the things that you’re able to do matchup-wise and play-call frequency wise, so yeah, I think we felt it,” the Celtics’ coach said of the big man’s absence. “But it’s no excuse. We had plenty of opportunities to do it, and hopefully he’s ready for Game 2.”
- In an interesting story for The Boston Globe (subscription required), Adam Himmelsbach takes an in-depth look at the impact that former child chess prodigy Josh Waitzkin has had on Mazzulla. According to Himmelsbach, Waitzkin – who was featured in the 1993 film ‘Searching For Bobby Fischer’ – was quietly hired by the Celtics as a consultant for this season and has become one of Mazzulla’s “most trusted” confidants. “Josh is great at finding certain segments of the game where it either went really well or it didn’t go well and seeing it from a non-tactical perspective,” Mazzulla explained. “It’s more getting into the mind of an individual fighter or performer.”
- In a feature story for The Athletic, Jay King explores how Brad Stevens‘ time at Butler helped provide a blueprint for him to build the roster that turned the Celtics into champions. “Brad understands the most important thing in any organization, whether it’s the business world or sports world, is people,” said Zach Hahn, a former Butler guard who played for Stevens. “And he surrounds himself and finds people that live by the same standards that he lives by.”
Aaron Gordon has more playoff buzzer beaters within the last 10 days then Jayson Tatum does for his career. Dude is not clutch.
Jayson Tatum is overrated.
Young Durant is far better than Tatum
Young Durant was far better than 99% of all players that have ever played in the NBA.
Strange stat. In order to have a buzzer beater you have to first be losing the game. Ideally you have 0 buzzer beaters because you already played quality basketball from tip off.
Who blew the buzzer beater in regulation again? Exactly. Tatum doesn’t deserve his ring. The other Celtics are champs, but he is not.
Everyone who reply guy’d me to disrespect me when I told you Tatum was a choke artist and Brown is the only real star on the Celtics, the line to apologize starts here:
C’s meltdown was ugly
Knicks r trash & boston let em steal 1 @ their house
a W is a W but knicks lucky celtics turned into the wizards in the 4th Q. Ill give credit to only 1 knick, OG. He did good
Yes, one Knick caused the whole Celtics team to miss 45 threes, never drive, and blow a big second half lead, on their home court. Brunson only hit those clutch shots because OG had empowered him with a poem about overcoming adversity. Bridges only made his heroic plays at the end because OG sang him sweet lullabies during timeouts. And Hart’s clutch rebounds and passes were because OG used the force so the ball would go to him. The rest of the Knicks were just lucky to share the court with OG and participate in the comeback win simply by default.
We Knick fans are so grateful that you can see this team so clearly for what it is, and give credit only where it’s truly due.
The old adage in NBA. If you are a shooter. You keep shooting. Also if they are not dropping. You get to the line. Shoot from there. That will get your shooting going. Bad shooting happens to every team. Celtics went to OT lost by three. And played a bad gane without KP.
Well who cares. Those are their issues. Knicks are up 1-0 and thats all that matters. Brudges and Towns didn’t score this game. Were well below their avg. Celtics were a better team during season. Well this is a new season. All about three more wins. Thats the only thing Knicks need to focus on. We all know Celtics aren’t going away. OK let’s do this ….
OKC 68 wins, dominant 1st rd.
Nuggets suddenly remembered they won the championship only 2 yrs ago & the young blood thunder couldnt close it out under pressure.
Playoff basketball!
OKC gave away Game 1 on a bad coaching strategy. They chose to foul on the closing seconds and send them to the line just to avoid Denver to shoot from three. They were up by 3 with 13 seconds to go and they did that, they did it again until they missed their own and gave them the last shot to win. OKC needed just to defend a three which is not that difficult. Terrible decision,
The late fouls were fine if they’d let more time come off the clock. They should’ve never Denver make it close in the first place.
Yes, the time not coming off the clock was bad strategy. SGA driving to the hoop with 12.9 seconds and scoring instead of dribbling it around and making them foul him was a mistake. Could have gotten it down to ~8 seconds, with SGA shooting two FTs already up one.
But fouling Gordon 70′ from the basket immediately after the inbound was insane. Inbounded at 11.1 seconds, fouled Gordon at 10.7 seconds. You’re up three. You play press and foul only after they get the ball across half court. Could have taken 2-3 seconds off there. So SGA’s move could have taken 2+ seconds off, and not fouling immediately could have taken 3 seconds off. Gordon should have been shooting FTs down 3 with only 5-6 seconds left instead of 10.7. Then Denver wouldn’t have been able to get such a good look on the game winner after Chet’s missed FTs. Good strategy to foul, ridiculously bad execution.
Also they did foul immediately twice, at least if you will do that let the clock run a few seconds. Worst strategy i’ve seen in a while.
man everyone on here acting like the celtics are cooked. they lost 1 game and they set a record for most misses and only lost by 2. the Knicks didn’t cause this, they simply just missed. if the Celtics even shoot remotely a normal % they win by 10+. imo the Knicks got lucky, nothing else.
If, if, if. You can say the Knicks got lucky that the Cs missed their shots. I can say that the Cs got lucky that KAT and Bridges had bad offensive games. 22 combined points on 9-26 shooting (34.6%) including only 2-6 from 3 and only two 2-2 FT. Regular season, they combined for 42 ppg on .513/.382 with 10.3 3PT FGA and 7.1 FTA. Maybe they’ll repeat their performance in Game 2. Maybe they won’t. Bottom line is Knicks prevailed.
Brunson thrived, OG strived…Celtics in 5.
OKC was DEN’s best friend at the end of that game. They fouled the way a team fouls when they are behind in a game and trying to preserve time. It was particularly costly to them because DEN was out of timeouts after calling one at 13 seconds. Somehow DEN got 3 possessions (and 7 points) in that time without creating a turnover and missing on their own attempt to intentionally foul SGA. They could never have done that on their own.
Tatum has made plenty of clutch shots. He has a ring way before Durant went to super team. He will bounce back. 1 more three and the Celtics win in reg. They will not miss like that again.
Y’all and your “ifs”. If this, if that. We could play that game all night.
Anything to not give credit to the Knicks for simply grinding out a tough road win against a great team that, as good as they are, still depends way too much on the three ball, plain and simple.
I know I’m basing this on one game, but the Celtics not only won’t repeat, I doubt they’ll beat the Knicks. They’re banged-up and playing shoddy.
I love your opinion and I hope you don’t mind if I express mine.
There’s no way in hale the Celtics don’t come out of the east.
Jayson Tatum is the most overrated all-star level player outside of Embiid and Harden. He single-handedly bricked hero 3’s for the L
Mazzulla is determined to be different and win an “unconventional” way, and is gonna unconventional his way out of the league.
But, after this money grab, he would be just as comfortable taking his game plan to the high school level as a coach and gym teacher.
Actually, maybe more comfortable.