‘Doesn’t that just sound stupid?’: Charles Barkley roasts the Celtics over Game 1 shot selection
"That's one thing I don't like about the NBA game today," Barkley said. "Nobody ever has a Plan B."
Charles Barkley roasted the Celtics for their shot selection during a recent episode of TNT’s “Inside the NBA.”
The Celtics shot 25 percent from beyond the arc in Monday’s Game 1 loss, and missed an NBA playoff-record 45 threes. It was a bad shooting night in general, but it was the Celtics’ decision-making during the third quarter that sparked an incredulous reaction from Barkley.
All but one of the Celtics’ shot attempts in the third quarter were 3-pointers, something that both Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal found ridiculous.
“Come on, man. That’s got to be one of the stupidest damn stats I’ve ever heard,” Barley said. “19 out of 20 shots are threes. Come on, ain’t nobody that dumb, Ernie. Come on, Shaq, doesn’t that just sound stupid?”
Jaylen Brown said after the game that some of the threes felt forced. O’Neal said Brown should have spoke up about that during the game.
“Boston is a fabulous team, but when their superpower is not working they become regular,” O’Neal said. “I said that at the beginning of the broadcast. I said if they’re not hitting their threes, New York has a chance to win and that’s exactly what happened.”
“Jaylen Brown made interesting points, but you need to have the wherewithal to make that point during the game,” he added. “Like, ‘hey man’ we’re shooting too many threes. I played with a guys that shot a lot of threes and if you missed two or three in a row I have to look at my guy and be like ‘hey, don’t shoot another three ever’. Get it inside.”
Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla defended the Celtics’ shot selection at practice on Tuesday, saying that he thought the Celtics had good looks and just missed them.
“I think if you took a look at yesterday, I loved the majority of our shots. There’s probably 10 or 11 that you could take back considering the ebbs and flows of how the game is going at that particular time. You have to be able to do both, make open shots and have an understanding of the ebbs and flows of the game.”
“Hindsight is always 20-20. It’s always easier to do after you’ve seen the result,” Mazzulla said. “Even the ones that were 50-50, if they had gone in, they would have been like ‘oh, man that was a good shot.’ To me, it’s just having a situational understanding of the momentum of the game, certain runs, how things are going and being better in those spaces.”
The Celtics blew a 20-point lead Monday night. They continued to hoist threes while the Knicks steadily chipped away at the lead.
“Just mismatches everywhere and they took advantage of it for three quarters,” Barkley said. “Then they lost their damn mind.”
This is nothing new for the Celtics. They made the most threes in NBA history during the regular-season and the majority of shots they took were threes. They relied heavily on 3-pointers during last year’s championship run.
“That’s one thing I don’t like about the NBA game today,” Barkley said. “Nobody ever has a Plan B. Like we’re going to make threes and win. Really, captain obvious?”
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