The Boston Celtics were beaten at home in the opening game of their playoff match-up with the New York Knicks.
The New York Knicks came out on top in an overtime battle with the Boston Celtics to win 108-105, with Mikal Bridges making a crucial late-game steal to prevent Jaylen Brown from tying the game up.
One of the factors in the Celtics’ lost was Kristaps Porzingis being a non-factor, playing 13 minutes and failing to score before tapping out of the game with illness.
Porzingis’ unreliability is a concern for Celtics fans – but far from the only one.
Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty ImagesBill Simmons worried about Jaylen Brown
Jaylen Brown was the NBA Finals MVP in 2024 when the Boston Celtics defeated the Dallas Mavericks 4-1.
But following on from an inefficient Game 1 against the Knicks where Brown was underwhelming despite scoring 23 points, he has been described as reason for Boston to be alarmed.
Celtics fan and NBA analyst Bill Simmons told his podcast that he is worried about how Brown is playing in comparison to the high standards he set last year.
He explained: “That was about as frazzled as I’ve seen the Celtics from crunch time, I think a big piece of it, we just got to be transparent like Jaylen is not the Jaylen from last playoffs.
“He’s not as athletic and as kind of ‘run you over’ as he as he was last year, like the Jaylen in the Dallas series last year. It’s a different version of him. He’s clearly not 100 per cent and he was, I thought, ‘bad’ last night, and he couldn’t make a three.
“And I just think he was easily out of all the wings, plus Hart. He was the fifth, I think the fifth out of those five guys.
“And that’s almost more alarming to me than Porzingis, because this if this is the level he’s going to be at with his knee, the Knicks have a chance in the series.”
.Jaylen Brown contributes to awful shooting night
The Boston Celtics had a historically bad shooting night with 45 missed three-pointers, in a game they lost by three.
Jaylen Brown was particularly poor, he went 1/10 from three point range, with a shot-map provided via SofaScore displaying his errant efforts from outside the arc.
Simmons has been ahead of this, pointing out his concerns over Jaylen Brown back in January, labelling him ‘rough to watch’.
It is important not to overreact to Game 1, with the Celtics expected to come back strongly in Game 2 at TD Garden, and Brown will want to bounce back from his unusually bad 35/10/80 shooting splits.