Shooting way off target: the Celtics set an ugly record in Game 1 vs the Knicks
The reigning champions couldn’t get their shooting game going against the New York Knicks and set an unwanted NBA record.
On Monday night the Boston Celtics, the reigning NBA champions, stumbled at the first step of the their Eastern Conference semi-final against the New York Knicks.
The Celtics were the overwhelming favorites heading into the match-up but the Knicks fought back from a 20-point deficit to clinch a 108-105 overtime win. It could prove to be an enormous win for the Knicks and it was founded on some incredibly profligate shooting from Boston.
The Celtics are known for their willingness to shoot the three but their golden touch deserted them on Monday, as Boston missed 45 of their 60 three-point attempts. That is an NBA Playoff record for missed triples, an unwanted piece of history for Joe Mazzulla’s team.
It appeared to be a coordinated pan for the Celtics. In the second half, 34 of their 41 shots were from outside the paint. It’s a bold decision, but one that Mazzulla defended in the postgame press conference.
“For the most part,” Mazzulla replied, when asked if he was happy with his team’s shot selection. “Obviously, over the course of the game, you always can find 5-10 shots you want want to be better at.”
Likewise, Celtics star Jrue Holiday admitted that the team’s shooting should have been better. However he, too, insisted that the high volume of long-range shots is simply a part of the game plan.
“A lot of shots, we felt me make those all the time. A lot of wide open threes off of offensive rebounds, things like that or kicks to the corner, just driving and kicking,” Holiday said. “We had a lot of good shots which we wish would have fell, but at the end of the end, we gotta keep on shooting and playing our game, trying to get to the basket as much as we can, but at the same time, mixing those threes, too.”
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