Everything you need to do know about the Boston Celtics double OT loss to the New York Knicks, with BSJ insight and analysis
The Celtics built a lead as high as 12 behind Jaylen Brown, who finished the night with a career-high 46 points, 9 rebounds, and 6 assists. But late in the game, the Celtics fell into some bad habits, including ill-advised Marcus Smart 3’s, and looked to be unraveling before a miracle comeback that included a logo-3 from Brown and a game-tying buzzer beater from Smart to go into overtime. It was a heavyweight battle after that, and the Knicks had just a little more in the tank.
HEADLINES
Wow, what a slugfest: I know everyone is coming in pissed off about the Red Sox and so people are extra salty about the Celtics losing, but let’s just appreciate the back and forth we saw in this game for a second. It wasn’t always pretty, but both sides showed incredible fight. There’s plenty for the Celtics to work on, but they didn’t quit.
Old habits die hard: There was a stretch there where last year’s Celtics returned. Everyone had gone cold, Jaylen Brown cooled off after a hot start, and the ball and bodies stopped moving, so Smart decided it was time to start pulling from deep. It’s unfortunate because Smart was good in the first half and he certainly wasn’t alone in the poor decision-making, but he’ll bear the brunt of the backlash for it.
Jaylen Brown was brilliant: He came out hot, scoring 20 in the first quarter, and he finished 46 points, the most ever by a Celtic in a season opener (passing Paul Pierce and Bob Cousy’s 35).
Too many guys were cold: Jayson Tatum was 2-15 from deep. Two ... for fifteen. Aaron Nesmith and Payton Pritchard were a combined 0-5. The Celtics are already thin on shooting, they can’t get 10% shooting on 20 attempts from three guys they’re counting on from that area and survive.
TURNING POINT
With 3:07 to go in the second overtime and the Celtics up one, Smart missed a layup but Brown immediately stole the ball back but then missed the dunk attempt. It took more than another minute for either team to score, which was a Julius Randle and-1. The Celtics would briefly retake the lead but the miss led to more back-and-forth rather than Boston protecting a lead.
“The back and forth was crazy there,” Ime Udoka said. “Chance to seize momentum - we had the missed layup and the missed dunk, and felt like we would have been in good shape there. Tough one to give away, especially when you worked so hard to get back in it. But it’s only the first game. Have to bounce back Friday at home.”
SECOND GUESS
Grant Williams was badly overmatched by Randle most of the night. The Celtics were more effective with Robert Williams’ length on him, which Udoka could have gone to earlier.
FIVE UP
Jaylen Brown: Brown had a strong start and strong finish. He was handling the ball, attacking from different angles, shooting well, passing the ball. Put a pin in this game. This might be his best overall performance.
Robert Williams: His defense on Randle helped turn the game around. I still don’t think his conditioning is close to where it needs to be, but he was battling and was a big reason why Boston had a chance.
Romeo Langford: So all of a sudden Romeo is automatic now? He went 2-3 on 3-pointers and suddenly he feels like a reliable option.
Grant Williams: I can feel you seething through the screen right now. Don’t worry, keep scrolling.
Grant had a tough night defensively, but he stepped up with three 3-pointers to help fuel the miracle comeback. They were toast without his shooting.
Marcus Smart: He was really good in the first half. He was 2-4 from 3 and all but one of those was from the corner (the other was juuuust at the break). After falling back into some bad habits, Smart hit the game-tying shot at buzzer. He also had some good stints defending Randle.
FIVE DOWN
Marcus Smart: That fourth-quarter lapse is going to be what a lot of people focus on, and I’m not going to lie -- it was not great, Bob. Smart and the rest of the C’s pulled a repeat of last year’s worst habits that led to a few minutes of Smart launching quick 3-pointers while everyone stood around. The Celtics recovered, but this could easily have been my choice for a turning point because it sent the C’s into a deep hole.
Grant Williams: He was badly outmatched by Randle. That was just not fun to watch.
Jayson Tatum: So cold that he should have been playing on the Rangers ice below the Knicks floor. 7-30 from the field and 2-15 from 3. If he’d been able to get going at all, the Celtics could have won this going away.
“Sometimes you’ve gotta laugh at yourself,” he said. “I guess I’m good for one of those a season. Hopefully that’s the last one. Get it out the way. We’ve got 81 more.”
I’m not too worried about the shooting. He’ll have a 23-30 shooting night somewhere and our eyes will fall out of our heads. What I didn’t like is how he kept searching a little too much for his offense when Brown was clearly cooking.
Aaron Nesmith & Payton Pritchard: I’ll lump them in together because they were non-existent in this one. After proving that they deserved minutes, they looked like they didn’t belong on the floor.
TOP PLAY
Smart ties it on a weird play where Tatum’s slip and fall actually helped
🚨 SMART TIES IT AT THE BUZZER 🚨 pic.twitter.com/6chTzMCLYq
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) October 21, 2021
ONE TAKE KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER
This is another chance for Ime Udoka to lay down the law:
It was pretty funny to watch things unfold in the live coverage post chat, where I post updates and thoughts throughout the game but people are free to also comment.
For most of the game, I was just plugging along, making my comments with maybe one or two comments from readers sprinkled in. Then that fourth-quarter stretch happened and suddenly the angry mob showed up with torches and pitchforks.
However, if a few things went a little differently, I don’t think Boston would have fallen back into that. In a weird way, it’s good for the Celtics to have that giant wart on film so they can clip it tomorrow and say “don’t do this!”
We’ll see how Udoka handles this moment and whether he can do what he’s said he wants to do: break bad habits. He acknowledges them, and he’s aware they persist. Now he has to get his team to stop it. Four preseason games with key guys missing isn't enough time to do that.
No one after the game was fuming. The Celtics had long stretches where they played well, and they overcame that one bad stretch to force overtime. Oh, and they didn’t have Al Horford or Josh Richardson, a starter and key bench player, both of whom would have been huge defensive upgrades for long stretches in this game. There was plenty to be encouraged by.
“Loved the looks we had, obviously we missed some easy ones, the layups and dunks, we’re going to knock those down,” Udoka said. “Even the 3-point shots, we were wide open on a lot of those, just wanted to really move the ball and get the open looks.”
If a few shots fall, the entire tone of this game would be different. Udoka has plenty to show his team to boost their egos, but he also has one very big piece of evidence that the past bad habits aren't gone yet.
It’s a teaching moment that Udoka needs to hammer home so by game 81, we’ll have forgotten about how they returned in October.