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Kendrick Perkins, other ESPN pundits rip Celtics after Game 1 loss to the Knicks
"At what point do you think about putting your head down and getting to the basket?"
Kendrick Perkins is no stranger to doling out hot takes, especially when it comes to the Boston Celtics.
As such, it came as little surprise that the former Celtics big man was one of the few basketball pundits on ESPN who believed that the New York Knicks had a legitimate shot at upsetting the reigning champions in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.
“This better go to seven games. I believe it will,” Perkins said of the Celtics-Knicks series on ESPN’s “First Take” Monday morning. “I’ve got Boston picked to win in seven, but I think the Knicks will push them to seven. And the Knicks actually have got a shot to win this series. I think the physicality of the Detroit series helped them to prepare for this series.”
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Some of Perkins’ thoughts were validated just hours later, with the Knicks erasing a 20-point deficit in the third quarter and defeating Boston, 108-105, in overtime.
Even though New York executed down the stretch to steal Game 1 from Boston at TD Garden, the Celtics’ shooting woes from 3-point range loomed large in what was a frustrating night on Causeway Street.
Boston set an NBA playoff record by attempting 60 3-pointers on Monday night — ultimately sinking just 15 of those attempts. Those 45 missed 3-pointers also set an NBA postseason record.
While Boston’s success under head coach Joe Mazzulla has revolved around an unyielding commitment to chucking up shots from beyond the arc, Perkins took the Celtics to task for not adjusting their gameplan when their shots weren’t falling.
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“As champions, you should know better,” Perkins told “SportsCenter” anchor Scott Van Pelt on Monday night. “If it’s not working, that doesn’t mean continue to take threes. We saw this last year in the Finals. They didn’t make 3-point shots at a high clip, but they got to the paint. Tonight, Derrick White, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown combined 10-for-41 from the 3-point line.
“At what point do you think about putting your head down and getting to the basket? I mean, damn. The Knicks were great defensively, but Jayson Tatum is too elite of a scorer to settle the way that he was settling.”
Fellow ESPN analyst Jay Williams also called out Boston’s stubbornness on the offensive side of the ball during Tuesday’s taping of “Get Up.”
“That second half was probably the dumbest second half I’ve ever seen that the Celtics have played,” Williams said, adding: “At some point in the game, you have to be able to get and attack the rim when you don’t see the shots going.
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“I know this is what the Celtics do. But my mind was blown away how many times they settled, and they took contested 3 after 3.”
Even with Boston’s cold shooting night, the Celtics didn’t alter their approach as the Knicks clawed back into Monday’s game. According to Celtics stats guru Dick Lipe, 83 percent of Boston’s shot attempts in the second half of Game 1 were from 3-point range.
Speaking after the loss, Brown bemoaned the fact that the Celtics’ game plan on offense allowed New York to build momentum in crunch time.
“In those moments when the other team’s got momentum, we can’t just fire up threes,” Brown said. “To break up momentum, you’ve got to get to the free throw line, get to the paint, get to the basket, maybe get an easy two. You know what I mean?
“Hit some free throws, and then maybe the next three pointer feels a little bit better. I feel like we just settled in the second half a lot, but we’ll look at it and we’ll make adjustments.”
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