Suddenly, Game 2 is a must-win for the Celtics, and it’s their own fault
The Celtics took an NBA playoff-record 60 3-pointers and missed a staggering 45.
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A good number of Celtics observers, perhaps even a majority that would include me among them, presumed this second-round series with the Knicks would be a rather ungentlemanly Gentleman’s Sweep in the champs’ favor.
Celtics in five, the thinking went, a logical if slightly arrogant evaluation of a rivalry based in geography rather than any significant shared history in the last 52 years — beyond an occasional playoff series or Bernard King clinic on scoring in the paint, anyway.
Giving the Knicks — who lost all four regular-season matchups by an average of 16.3 points per game — one win was an acknowledgment of their established resilience, but also a nod to the possibility that the Celtics would have one night of abject masonry from behind the 3-point line and refuse to play with enough discipline to overcome it.
Turns out that possibility became reality. What went unanticipated, at least around here, was that it would happen in Game 1.
The Celtics’ 108-105 overtime loss to the Knicks Monday night — a game the hosts led by 20 points with less than six minutes remaining in the third quarter — was the kind of harsh lesson in basketball hubris that these guys, collectors of the 18th banner, should be beyond having to learn. But here they are, down 1-0 to the emboldened Knicks, who are determined not only to make this a rivalry but to command it.
Suddenly, Game 2 is a must-win on the parquet Wednesday night. The Celtics never trailed in any playoff series last year. They do now, and with apologies to Jalen Brunson and OG Anunoby (the best forward on the floor), who each had 29 points for the Knicks in the opener, it’s a tense circumstance entirely of the Celtics’ own making.
The Celtics will be accused of shooting themselves out of the game Monday, and in one sense it’s true — they took an NBA playoff-record 60 3-pointers and missed a staggering 45. But that also lets them off the hook.
After all, the Celtics were lousy from long-distance from the get-go — their four starters other than Jayson Tatum were a combined 1 of 14 from 3 in the first quarter, and the team overall was 5 of 23 from 3 in the first half. Yet they took a 61-45 lead into halftime because they attacked the paint (especially Jaylen Brown during his 13-point second quarter), got Brunson, Josh Hart, and Karl-Anthony Towns in foul trouble, were aggressive and connected on defense, and beat the Knicks on the boards (a 31-21 advantage at the break).
The Celtics extended that lead to 75-55 on a Derrick White 3-pointer with 5:47 left in the third quarter. They should have glided to victory from there. Instead, their offense decided this was the perfect time to demonstrate what it would have looked like had a blindfolded Antoine Walker participated in the 2000 3-point contest.
During the stretch from White’s aforementioned 3 to Anunoby’s breakaway dunk that tied the score at 86-86 with 7:26 left in the fourth — I’ll save you the math, that’s a 31-11 Knicks run — the Celtics teed up fifteen 3s. They made 3. And they scored just one 2-point field goal the entire third quarter.
Two of the makes in that miserable span belonged to Tatum, in four attempts, but make no mistake, the Celtics’ best player was the main culprit among several guilty co-conspirators in the collapse. He settled for 3-pointer after 3-pointer, when attacking the foul-plagued Knicks — particularly Towns and Brunson, who should have no chance whatsoever when they end up switched onto him. Actually, I probably shouldn’t say Tatum settled, since he was perfectly content to take one after another after another, playing right into the Knicks’ hands and finishing 4 of 15 from 3.
It was a bizarre game overall from Tatum. He finished with 23 points, 16 rebounds, and 6 assists, which looks like a fairly complete overall performance. But 13 of his points and two of his 3s came in the first quarter. He scored 10 points on 3 of 15 shooting (2 of 10 from 3) after the opening quarter. Maybe his wrist is bothering him, but that doesn’t excuse that his execution was bad and his decision-making worse.
As for the co-conspirators, Brown was 1 for 10 from 3, hitting his only one in overtime, and considering he shot 32.5 percent from 3 during the regular-season, he really shouldn’t be taking 10 3s anyway. White came out ice-cold, but finished 5 of 16, which counts as a decent night in this game, and the last shot in overtime probably should have been his. Payton Pritchard scored 13 points in the first half and none in the second, putting up a minus-16 after the break. Only Jrue Holiday — who looked like Playoff Jrue after missing the last three games of the Orlando series with a hamstring issue — played what one would call “well,” finishing with 16 points, six rebounds, and his usual relentless defense.
The Celtics come out of Game 1 with a deficit in the series and more worries beyond that. Kristaps Porzingis left with an illness and Sam Hauser rolled an ankle. Allowing any series to extend invites attrition. Their path is already more treacherous this postseason compared to last, and now the Knicks are even more emboldened than usual.
The Celtics will still win this. Maybe they’ll even do so convincingly. But the Knicks — the tough, gutty Knicks — are going to make them earn everything.
They’re not the Celtics’ rival. But Tatum and the Celtics had better start playing like they are.
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