The Boston Celtics managed to throw away the first game of the Conference Semifinals against the New York Knicks. After taking a twenty-point lead midway through the third quarter, the Celtics collapsed on offense, betrayed for one of its main virtues: the triple.
Joe Mazzulla’s team abused this technique, especially in the second half, finishing the game with 60 of XNUMX shots. In fact, the team’s two main stars, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, admitted after the game that they had overdone their three-point attempts.
“We probably got comfortable,” Tatum acknowledged in regards to continuing to push for the shot, even though the three-pointers weren’t going in, segstill collects the medium MassLive“I think I could have attacked the rim more, but we often felt like we had really good shots and just didn’t score.”
-Brown elaborated on Tatum’s words. and admitted that they transformed some moments of the duel into a triple contest“It’s just about having the composure to recognize when you’re taking advantage of a possession and when you’re not,” Brown began. “I don’t think we did a good job reading the game tonight [Monday]. We were just shooting 3s. We have to find a better rhythm in the paint, attack the zone, draw fouls to get to the free-throw line, and then feel better about our 3s. We’ll analyze it. We were excited to start the second round of the playoffs, but we have to play better than we did tonight.”
Now, the Celtics will have a day to regroup, correct mistakes, and fully evaluate their three-point shooting options before hosting the Knicks in an important game. Game 2 at the TD Garden, which will be held this Wednesday.
(Cover photo by Winslow Townson-Imagn Images)
