Come one, come all to the 3-point extravaganza.
The reigning champions and favorite to repeat, the Boston Celtics, had some time to rehash and think about blowing another 20-point lead to the New York Knicks. There was more than enough blame to go around for the collapses, which put the Celtics behind the eight ball 2-0 in their Eastern Conference semifinal series heading on the road to a hostile environment, the mecca, Madison Square Garden.
Star Jayson Tatum took responsibility and admitted that poor execution at the end of games was one reason for the collapses, but his subpar play in particular needed to improve pronto, and he emphatically said it would.
His words in the postgame press conference struck a nerve and clearly made their mark. He and his teammates ensured there would be no thought of a comeback in Game 3.
“Just a matter of time,” Tatum said.
When a reporter asked him if the win was as simple as making 3s instead of missing them, Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla clapped back and disagreed emphatically.
“I can’t stress to you the importance of not throwing the ball to the other team so they get out in transition,” Mazzulla said. “They had 28 points in transition in Game 2, and not ending quarters well, when it’s at 20 and it gets to 12 with 58 seconds left in the third – you have to end quarters. You have to start quarters well. You have to value the basketball. You have to win the margins.”
Sixth Man of the Year Payton Pritchard could not miss and buried five 3-pointers and scored 23 points off the bench, leading five players in double figures as Boston built another substantial lead, leading by 16 points, 36-20, after one quarter, and went on to take apart the lifeless Knicks 115-93, cutting their deficit in the best-of-seven series in half, 2-1.
Embed from Getty ImagesGame 4 is set for Monday night in New York (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).
Tatum scored 22 points, Jaylen Brown had 19, and Derrick White added 17 points for Boston, who led the game from start to finish.
“You’ve got to beat us four times. That’s what it comes down to. Not twice, not once, not three,” Celtics forward Jaylen Brown said.
“You’ve got to win four games, so there’s a lot of basketball to be played.”
For the Knicks, any leftover energy and momentum coming off a couple of historic road victories went away into thin air as the sellout Madison Square Garden crowd had little to cheer about.
Some of the notable celebs that took in the action were actor Timothée Chalamet, actors and noted Knicks fans Tracy Morgan and Ben Stiller. And, of course, some franchise legends made their way onto the scene were ex-Knicks star and current MSG analyst Walt ‘Clyde’ Frazier, along with fellow former Knicks Patrick Ewing and Bill Bradley. Other notables included Sting, Bad Bunny, Adam Scott, Fat Joe, CC Sabathia, Jon Hamm, Alec Baldwin and former Giants stars Eli Manning, Justin Tuck and Michael Strahan, and of course superfan Spike Lee.
The Celtics played like the team in control of the series, building a 25-point halftime lead, 71-46, with a mix of 3-point shooting and forcing the Knicks into ill-advised shot attempts while they were doing their best to get back into the game.
The Celtics recaptured their identity that carried them throughout their 61-win regular season and second place in the Eastern Conference. Boston set an NBA record with 1,457 3-pointers and 3,955 attempts. The strategy backfired on them, though, in Game 1 of the series, when they missed 45 out of 60 shots from beyond the arc in a three-point overtime loss, 108-105.
Boston got back to its sharpshooting ways in Game 3, knocking down 20 of 40 shots, 50% from 3-point land, a far cry from the shocking 75 missed 3s in the first two games in Beantown.
White and Jrue Holiday did not take their foot off the gas and continued the demolition job with 3-pointers at the start of the second half for the Celtics, who led by as many as 31 before sitting most of their starters in the fourth quarter. The Knicks got no closer than 20 points the rest of the way.
Jalen Brunson, the NBA’s Clutch Player of the Year, had a game-high 27 points with seven assists, and Karl-Anthony Towns added a double-double with 21 points and 15 boards. New York shot 40% from the field and made a dreadful five of their 23 shots from beyond the arc.
“I don’t think we came with the mindset of being satisfied, but I think it was just subconsciously satisfied being up 2-0,” Brunson said. “Just not the way we need to approach the game.”
