There will be no sleepwalking permitted in the Celtics’ long march back to the NBA Finals.
The New York Knicks stunned Boston in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals, making them pay for letting a 20-point lead slip through their fingers like sand. They stole the opener at TD Garden in overtime, 108-105, and offered the defending champions a harsh reminder that this is the playoffs, and there are no quarters off – even against a team the Celtics swept in the regular season.
Boston had a 75-55 lead in the third quarter, but they became ultra-concentrated on the three-point line, with 19 of their 20 field goal attempts during the period coming from behind the arc. They’ve obviously found success winning the math game in their scoring, but they couldn’t carry their shooting momentum into a critical fourth quarter and shot 19%, with another 15 of 21 field goal attempts from distance. During the entire second half, they also only got to the free throw line six times.
“We fought for good looks throughout the game,” Celtics Coach Joe Mazzulla said postgame, and pointed to the defensive end for the late game slide.
“We left some of their good shooters open. I think [OG] Anunoby went on a run by himself, so some personnel stuff. They were getting out on transition in some of our misses. I think they had a 5-0 run off of offensive rebounds. So, some detail stuff that we have to be able to be better at, and I thought missed – if you look at that run – I thought we missed some good ones. There were obviously a few we could fight to get better at.”
New York only led for about 10 minutes of the entire game, including overtime. “Life comes at you fast” is a word art-worthy cliché, but it’s true when the other team has Jalen Brunson, the NBA Clutch Player of the Year. Analytics cuts both ways. Boston can win averaging 48 three-point attempts, as they did during the year, but a 20-point lead isn’t the cushiony lead it was decades ago.
It’s unfair to accuse the Celtics of overlooking the Knicks, even if they beat them in every meeting in recent memory – but it is possible they got trigger-happy a the three-point line after the Orlando Magic’s stingy defense held them at just 31 attempts per game last round. At times in the second half of the game, they looked like a kid of a health nut who stumbled upon a sleeve of Oreos at a sleepover.
"Orlando took the three-point away. Tonight, they were kind of daring us to shoot," Jaylen Brown said after the game.
There’s a lot of silver lining to this loss. First, Kristaps Porzingis, who had a lousy showing early in the game, vanished from the arena floor and bench area in the second quarter, only to be declared questionable to return with an illness. He tried to warm up during halftime, but never re-entered the game. Luke Kornet found himself in foul trouble early in the fourth quarter, leaving Al Horford as the only functional big in the game. It’s unlikely that’s a challenge that Boston has to deal with again moving forward.
Secondly, going up 1-0 on the road obviously pumps the Knicks tires. Brunson is “Mr. Clutch” according to Reggie Miller, but he’s not the only necromancer in the Eastern Conference. The Celtics had to face one of the league’s best defenses in the first round. Now, they face a team that has shown they can claw back from the grave. If Boston is lucky to move forward past this round, they’re likely to face two other teams with those exact attributes in Oklahoma City and Cleveland. Best case scenario is that, like against Orlando, this punch in the mouth is a lesson this Celtics team only has to learn once.