Game One of the Eastern Conference Semifinals was quite the whirlwind. The Boston Celtics led the New York Knicks by 16 points at halftime and grew that lead to 20 points in the third quarter before blowing it and eventually losing the game 108 to 105.
A large reason that the Celtics blew their lead is that they continued to shoot the three-point shot even when they were shooting it at an extremely low percentage. In particular, the Celtics missed 45 out of 60 three-point attempts, shooting 25% from beyond the arc on the night. This was a record for the most missed three-pointers in NBA Playoff history. The part that is difficult to understand is that they kept shooting the three-ball despite this awful percentage. One of the most shocking stats is that “an astounding 19 of their 20 [field goal] attempts in the third quarter” were three-pointers.
Jaylen Brown, in particular, shot the three-ball poorly. He went one for ten from three-point range, much worse than his regular-season average of 32.4%.
Although the Celtics heavily rely on the deep ball, they should not be discouraged by their Game One results. They will not continue to shoot the three that badly, so they have that to look forward to. Also, they barely lost the game. They would have won if they had hit the three at a slightly higher percentage. It isn’t like they got blown out, so they will likely be in control of the rest of the series if they can shoot the three-ball at a normal percentage. Their regular-season three-point percentage was 36.8%; if they shot that percentage last night, they would have won convincingly.
The main concern with this stat is their decision-making. The Celtics have many different ways to win games, so they should have resorted to other ways of offense once they realized that the three ball wasn’t going down. Even though it is highly unlikely that they will shoot this poorly from beyond the arc again, they will have to make better offensive decisions if they do.
Jayson Tatum did not perform well in the fourth quarter of Game One. He missed all seven of his shots and was only able to come away with two points. This is uncharacteristic of Tatum, who usually is able to close out games strongly. This aspect should provide the Celtics with confidence going into Game Two. Tatum is not going to continue shooting 0% from the field in the fourth quarter, so they can expect a boost in points from him.
OG Anunoby of the New York Knicks had a spectacular Game One performance; he had 29 points, three assists, and four rebounds. Given that his regular-season averages were 18.0 ppg, 2.2 apg, and 4.8 rpg, the Celtics can expect his production to decrease. Also, his first-round averages against the Detroit Pistons were even lower than that, averaging 17.3 ppg, 0.7 apg, and 4.8 rpg.
Given all the reasons outlined above, the Celtics should not worry too much about their Game One loss. They have plenty of reasons to believe that they will gentleman’s sweep the Knicks.
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