BOSTON — The mood in the Knicks’ locker room after Game 1 reflected one of the weirdest playoff games you’ll watch. Josh Hart and Karl-Anthony Towns tried to figure out how the Pistons beat them with bats for six games before they along with Jalen Brunson landed in foul trouble in the first half. Neither team found a flow on a night that slogged to a 91 pace.
Feet away, on the Boston side, reporters flooded the Celtics with questions about their three-point attempts. Jaylen Brown thought the Knicks might’ve dared them to shoot some of their 60 tries, but Hart laughed at the notion that they intentionally tried to do that.
“I don’t think you want to force them into threes,” Hart said. “We don’t want them to shoot more threes. They got great shooters. We just tried to make it tough for them, play physical and do those kind of things. You never want a team like that to shoot more threes. We were trying to take away threes and they still got up 60.”
Tom Thibodeau believed they gave up too many as well, and especially wanted to see the Knicks’ defense cut out the ones Boston created following its 19 offensive rebounds. Joe Mazzulla received scrutiny for saying he liked all but 8-10 shots, which he increased upon further review.
A look at the film and numbers showed that to be mostly true. I watched 31 good looks and 14 tough ones, some of which the Celtics made, and only 14 bad shots. Unfortunately, seven of those came late.
The bigger issues for the Celtics came when they failed to defend after misses or forced the ball into the lane, turning it over four times in the fourth quarter. The Knicks played in the gaps physically, and disrupted sets that became repetitive as they targeted mismatches repeatedly.
It’s clear that misses impacted Boston on the other end, and probably sapped some belief from the game plan that caused the forced possessions. They also slowed down. Seven of the Celtics’ nine threes late in the shot clock came after halftime, and they only made three.
“If you’re open, you have to shoot it, and you also have to have an understanding of the ebbs-and-flows of the game and how it’s going at that particular time,” Mazzulla said at practice on Tuesday.
“No one shot is the same, and I think you take a look at yesterday, I love the majority of our shots. Like I said, there are probably 10 or 11 you could take back considering how the game is going at that particular time. You have to be able to do both. You have to be able to make open shots and you have to have an understanding of the ebbs-and-flows of the game. Coaching shot selection … is always easier to do after you’ve seen the result.”
The total shot number matters less than the clear issues the Celtics had accessing the paint. They built up touches at times with drop-off passes when the Knicks loaded up, but Tatum finished with seven drives, below his season average of 10.3 per game and 12 from the first round. Brown’s drives ramped up to 17, though, so it wasn’t a matter of more drives not being available. Tatum even admitted to settling, while Jrue Holiday and Payton Pritchard, who ran successful sets early, disappeared from the late game offense.
The Celtics’ three-point volume is one of their key advantages in the series. They averaged 17.8 three-point makes to the Knicks’ 12.6 largely through volume. New York tried 34.1 each night to Boston’s 48.2 — a massive gap to overcome. At one point during Game 1, the Celtics made two more threes than the Knicks even while shooting 29% behind their 38-21 edge in volume.
“They still got a lot of threes up,” Jalen Brunson said. “It’s on us to limit their attempts. But I think, for the most part, we made them tough. They had a lot of easy looks that we’re thankful that they missed … you just don’t know when they’re gonna knock them down … at the beginning of the year, they almost had a record on us.”
Several other developments disrupted the Celtics throughout the course of the game. Kristaps Porziņģis left in the second quarter, removing a source of potential paint touches. Luke Kornet, rolling early, picked up five fouls, in part by sending Mitchell Robinson to the line. The five-out lineup grew flat, and Holiday’s offensive rebounds and a great kick-out pass to Derrick White didn’t do enough late to counteract the building Knicks run.
That’s when smattering of New York fans, one in a full orange suit, began standing and growing louder. Some belief built in the Knicks from a fan base that entered the series mostly muted after losing all four regular season games. One fan, Enrique, hoped to take one game from the Celtics as he entered the Garden. But he knew if there was any night they’d do it — it was Game 1.
“Of course, winning a game makes you feel good. But just as quick as you win a game, you can lose the next one,” Towns said. “If anything, we showed you that in the Pistons series. We just gotta enjoy this one tonight and tomorrow, we gotta get right back to business. This team is special, obviously defending champions and they’re gonna come back hungry.”
“Some shots were lucky — they missed some threes I think we all know they make.”