‘Duality at its finest’: Joe Mazzulla defends Celtics threes in exchange with reporter

The theme of Joe Mazzulla s day-after news conference could be summed up in one sentence If the open ones go in we re not having this conversation He was referring of module to the -pointers his Celtics launched in Monday night s Match loss to the New York Knicks at TD Garden a new single-game postseason record Boston missed of those also a playoff record en trail to blowing a -point third-quarter lead and falling - in overtime Though he acknowledged there were or shots you could maybe take back Mazzulla stated he loved the vast majority of them despite the fact that just unveiled the basket The Celtics head coach underscored this opinion during one exchange with a reporter who petitioned him about Boston s defense against New York s -point shooters The Knicks were able to generate a number of open looks from deep during their comeback and made more than of their second-half threes Related Articles Joe Mazzulla reveals new detail about Kristaps Porzingis illness What went wrong in Celtics Championship collapse vs Knicks We just settled Why Kristaps Porzingis exited Celtics Match loss to Knicks Joe Mazzulla downplays Celtics shot selection after playoff record -pointers Callahan Celtics collapse in Match was self-inflicted When that success rate was mentioned a wry smile appeared on Mazzulla s face So they made them Man what a novel idea he quipped That s a novel concept huh Just make em when you re open Yeah Pressed to answer the original question Mazzulla added It s such a cool duality of your question to where I m getting questioned all the ones that we missed and you come in and start with Well they shot from three in the second half And I m like oh man the duality of that question is really cool to talk about You know what I mean So sorry We start the press conference off by saying you know you took all these and you missed em And then you say they shot in the second half from three Yeah you ve got to make them Duality at its finest Fifty-six of the threes Boston attempted in the loss were classified as open or wide-open by NBA athlete tracking The Celtics shot and in those situations during the regular season respectively On Monday they went -for- on open looks and -for- on wide-open looks Hit just a minimal more of those makeable shots Mazzulla declared and the outcome would have been different Still Celtics stars Jayson Tatum -for- from three in the loss and Jaylen Brown -for- both mentioned they regretted essentially abandoning their interior encounter after halftime especially since top defensive targets Karl-Anthony Towns and Jalen Brunson both entered the second half with three fouls Boston s offensive approach will be a top storyline as the Celtics look to even the second-round series in Event on Wednesday