Celtics’ greatest weapon is betraying them in disastrous Knicks series
What caused the Celtics to squander a -point second-half lead and lose to the New York Knicks then suffer the exact same ignominy again two nights later There isn t one all-encompassing answer to that question Defensive breakdowns played a part So did questionable late-game coaching decisions like Joe Mazzulla pushing New York into the bonus with intentional fouls and keeping his final timeout holstered in crunch time Performer availability too with Kristaps Porzingis limited by a long-running illness and Sam Hauser sidelined with an ankle sprain But the simplest bulk pertinent and majority alarming explanation is this The squad that just set the NBA record for made -pointers in a season suddenly cannot shoot Games and of the Eastern Conference semifinals at TD Garden featured without hyperbole Boston s two worst shooting performances of the season The Celtics did not shoot worse than in any of their regular-season games or five first-round playoff games On Monday night against the Knicks they shot and lost - in overtime On Wednesday it was in a - defeat In both games the Celtics led by points after the halfway mark of the third quarter From those points forward they went a combined -for- from the field and -for- from -point range Overall Boston has taken threes in its second-round series and missed a staggering of them And its top players have been the worst offenders Related Articles Joe Mazzulla explains why he didn t call timeout late in Celtics Encounter collapse Callahan Jayson Tatum put the Celtics in a - hole against the Knicks Celtics crumble again blow another -point lead in Contest loss to Knicks Kristaps Porzingis returns in new role in Celtics-Knicks Meeting Celtics Jrue Holiday honored with NBA Social Justice Champion award Jayson Tatum after torching Orlando s vaunted defense in the prior round was -for- in Encounter and -for- in Encounter He s attempted threes and made five Jaylen Brown has posted similar stat lines -for- in Battle -for- in Meeting -for- from deep between the two with just three points after halftime Wednesday night Derrick White the owner of the Celtics single-season -point record made his first two triples in Tournament then bricked eight of his final nine We just had the ability to make plays tonight and we didn t Brown revealed after Wednesday s loss Me Jayson Derrick we got a lot of great looks as we ve just got to convert We ve got to make plays We just didn t make plays tonight and that was the story of the event Our defense did enough We got selected great open looks We ve got to convert those After a Payton Pritchard -pointer put the Celtics ahead - with remaining in Challenge they proceeded to miss their next shots four by Brown three by White two by Tatum two by Pritchard and two by Al Horford who started over Porzingis and went -for- -for- from three Boston went more than eight consecutive minutes without a made field goal during which New York completed its comeback pulling ahead on an -footer by Jalen Brunson with remaining Tatum eventually ended that drought with a go-ahead end-to-end dunk with seconds to play but Brunson free throws on the ensuing possession provided the winning margin for New York Tatum was unable to get a shot off against Mikal Bridges as time expired the same fate that befell Brown in the waning moments of Competition Tatum did not speak with reporters postgame because the arena was evacuated before his news conference could begin The cause a minor fire in a TD Garden elevator shaft a fitting end to a dysfunctional night for the building s tenants The Knicks boast three talented wing defenders in Bridges OG Anunoby and Josh Hart but they had minimal success against Tatum Brown and Co during the regular season In four meetings the Celtics shot from the field and from three while averaging points per championship marks they haven t sniffed in this series All throughout the tournament we could ve supposedly shot the ball better did this better then we could have pulled away even more commented Porzingis whose illness limited him to three fourth-quarter minutes over the two games But they hung around and similar development It sucks really bad right now But we got a lot of basketball to be played and let s see where this goes Wednesday s loss pushed the Celtics into a jam they ve successfully escaped just twice in franchise history The other times they fell behind - in a best-of-seven series they lost as such teams across the NBA have done of the unit The lone exceptions for Boston came in the opening round of the playoffs when the Celtics won four straight to knock off the eighth-seeded Chicago Bulls in six and the NBA Finals when Bill Russell won his final title in a seven-game epic against Wilt Chamberlain s Lakers These Celtics can draw optimism from the fact that they were the league s best road unit this season - away from Boston and among its largest part resilient having not lost three straight games in nearly two full years since the East finals against Miami Also the results of their two monumentally poor shooting performances were a three-point loss in overtime and a one-point loss both of which they had a chance to tie or win on the final possession But those bafflingly inefficient outings have left the Celtics with little room for error After becoming the first gang in the play-by-play era since - to lose multiple games after leading by -plus in the same postseason never mind the same series they now must win four of their next five to avoid becoming the sixth straight defending NBA champion to bow out before the conference finals Not an ideal situation being down - commented Brown who called the series deficit inexcusable But what s done is done We ve got to make sure we re ready to come out for Competition I think we re due for a lot of makes I think we had a lot of great shots tonight that once again didn t go in We ve just got to relax take a deep breath come out and play Celtic basketball Just like we re down - we can tie this thing back up
