Boston Celtics guard Derrick White (9) takes a 3-point shot against New York Knicks forward OG Anunoby (8) during the first half of Game 1 of an NBA basketball second-round playoff series Monday, May 5, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)AP
BOSTON — The Celtics made playoff history in Game 1 on Monday night while blowing a 20-point third quarter lead to the underdog Knicks. The hosts shot just 25 percent from the field from 3-point range in the 108-105 overtime defeat, going just 15-of-60 from beyond the arc.
Boston’s 45 missed 3s tonight were the most in a game in NBA playoff history. It also set a franchise record for 3-point misses in a game (regulation or playoffs) and tied for the 3rd most ever in an NBA game per ESPN stats and info.
Despite the avalanche of misses, Joe Mazzulla did not show much frustration about the team’s shot selection that saw them taking 80 percent of their shots in the second half from beyond the arc.
“Obviously over the course of a game, you always can find 5-10 shots that you want to be better at,” Mazzulla said. “But I thought throughout the night for the most part we fought for good looks throughout the game. But yeah, you can find 5 to 10 that we could be better at.”
The Celtics stars took a different viewpoint of their brutal shooting nights however. Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum went a combined 5-of-25 from 3-point range in the defeat.
“Orlando kind of took the 3-point line away,” Brown said. “I felt like tonight they were kind of daring us to shoot. They wanted us to shoot those shots. And we didn’t make them tonight. But I felt like we had a ton of good looks. Some maybe we forced up and settled for sure. We’ll look at those and be better at those.”
“But that’s an abnormal game for us in terms of shooting the basketball. But all our guys we trust. We have great shooters on this team. So we’ll look at the film as a team and then we’ll approach it that way and move forward.”
Tatum settled for plenty of jumpers in crunch time despite having mismatches in isolation situations against Jalen Brunson and Mitchell Robinson.
“Probably some times that we settled,” Tatum said. ‘I think, for myself, I could have put more pressure on the rim, but there’s a lot of times we felt like we got some really, really good looks and just couldn’t convert.”
The Celtics will have a day to regroup and fully assess their 3-point shooting choices before hosting the Knicks in a pivotal Game 2 at TD Garden Tuesday night.
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