The Boston Celtics were destroyed by the New York Knicks on Sunday afternoon, losing by 30. Let’s look at what went wrong in the worst game of the season.
The Boston Celtics were destroyed by the New York Knicks in every aspect of their Sunday matinee, losing 105-75. This game wasn’t ever close, as the Cs found themselves down double digits after just the first quarter.
As a team, Boston shot a putrid 29.8 percent from the field (25/84) and 15.2 percent from deep (7/46). They are only the fourth team in NBA history to shoot 40 or more threes and shoot less than 16 percent from that distance.
That’s… not very good.
Those numbers are never going to win a basketball game, resulting in one of the ugliest games for a Brad Stevens team. In comparison, the Knicks shot 47.5 percent (38/80) and 38.7 percent (12/31), respectively.
Jaylen Brown was the only Celtics player to get anything going offensively, finishing with 25 points on 9/20 from the field.
With the return of Kemba Walker, the offense mainly revolved around him trying to get his legs back, causing Brown to lose touches in the opening minutes. With the absence of Jayson Tatum, it would be nice to see Brown get more of an offensive role in the upcoming games against Philly.
The aforementioned Walker had a statistical clunker in his first game in over 3 months, but looked physically ready for his return. Recording nine points on 3/13 shooting and 1/8 from three, he certainly wasn’t efficient from the field.
However, with four assists in 20 minutes, the All-Star point guard provides a pick-and-roll game that the Boston Celtics don’t really have without him. Just in the opening minutes, Kemba hit both Grant Williams and Tristan Thompson under the basket off the PNR for easy points.
The simple velocity of his passes is greater than any other guard the Celtics have, causing teammates to fumble easy points as they’re not used to the rhythm.
Their chemistry with Walker will get better with time, but it was encouraging to see his speed and physical tools be up to par.
For the Boston Celtics to become a true contender, they will need Kemba to be back to his old self, making both Tatum and Brown along with all of his other teammates better.
On the defensive end, the Knicks were penetrating with ease, allowing their guards to get anywhere on the floor.
Both Elfrid Payton and Immanuel Quickley got into the paint to shoot easy floaters over the Boston bigs, with the rookie finishing with 17 points in 21 minutes. The Celtics’ perimeter defenders needed to play more aggressive to not allow the Knick guards to get to their spots so effortlessly.
This allowed for the Knicks to get some quick points for one of the worst offenses in the league.
Coach Brad Stevens went back to the starting frontcourt of Grant Williams and Tristan Thompson, which helped get an easy win against Orlando on Friday. It didn’t work as well on Sunday, with Williams not able to hit a shot from outside, while Thompson couldn’t finish from inside.
It worked fine on defense, but Williams got into foul trouble quickly, picking up five in just 24 minutes of action
The poor Boston Celtics 3-point shooting was highlighted by Semi Ojeleye, Marcus Smart, Williams, and Jeff Teague, who combined for 0/19 from distance.
It was just one of those nights.
The Celtics are still relative contenders in the East. This same Knicks team beat the Bucks by 20 earlier this year.
It’s tough to win when you can’t make a shot.
Erase the tape and move on.