The final bow was placed on the Boston Celtics’ 2024 NBA Championship run on Tuesday night. Rings were handed out, Banner 18 was raised into the rafters, and the City of Boston got to celebrate. But the New York Knicks were the real focus of the evening, and Boston was unphased by their pregame festivities. They absolutely molly-whopped the Knicks, earning a 132-109 victory.
Boston tied the NBA record for threes in a single game with 29 after a bunch of misses at the end of the game with the TD Garden crowd chanting, 'One more three.' An iconic Jayson Tatum performance led the way as Boston cruised to a 1-0 start to the season.
Here are three studs and three duds from the Celtics’ monster win over the Knicks on Opening Night.
Stud - Jayson Tatum
Over the summer, Tatum supposedly worked on changing his jump shot. He shot terribly in the playoffs last year and didn’t make a single jumper in the Olympics. Well, he decided to show it off on Opening Night.
Tatum opened the game with a monster first quarter, scoring 15 points to go along with three rebounds and five assists. He shot 4-of-6 from three-point range as the Knicks repeatedly dropped back on screens, giving him easy step-in pull-ups.
The superstar parlayed his hot start into an amazing rest of the night, scoring in spurts and dishing out some impressive assists to his teammates. New York had no answer for Tatum.
Three after three, assist after assist, Tatum picked the Knicks apart. He ended the game with 37 points, four rebounds, and 10 assists on 14-of-18 shooting from the field and 8-of-11 shooting from behind the three-point line.
A summer full of hate and questions was answered emphatically on Opening Night.
Dud - Jaylen Brown’s offense (inside the arc)
With how amazing the Celtics were in this game, it’s impossible to find any real duds. Jaylen Brown had a good game by most standards. His threes went down, he was a monster on defense (particularly against Jalen Brunson), and he threw down a monster jam in transition.
But something was off when he stepped inside the arc, as he shot just 2-of-9 on non-threes.
An electrifying three-point showing was combined with a relatively rough shooting night at the rim and from the mid-range—usually Brown’s bread and butter.
Again, Brown played well, but the Celtics were so good that something had to make the duds list. That something is an overly nitpicky look at Brown’s game.
Stud - Derrick White and Jrue Holiday
Boston was so good in this game that both of the guards got a spot on the studs list. Jrue Holiday and Derrick White were awesome on Opening Night.
They both did their jobs defensively, contributed on offense as passers, and, perhaps most impressively, were lights-out from beyond the arc.
Nobody on the Celtics was missing from three-point range, but White and Holiday, in particular, played great all-around games. On the very first night of the season, Boston proved why they have the best two-way backcourt in the NBA.
Dud - Rim protection
Again, it’s tough to identify many huge dud performances in a blowout, so rather than picking an individual player, let’s go with the Celtics’ rim protection.
Even when the Celtics were pouring down threes, shutting down New York at the three-point line, and dominating the game, easy layups kept the Knicks afloat. Whether it was Jalen Brunson drives or Karl-Anthony Towns post-ups, New York consistently found a way to get easy shots inside. They shot 18-of-24 (75.0%) from inside the arc in the first half.
In the end, the math swayed the game in favor of the Celtics, but it wasn’t an ideal showing inside the painted area for Boston defensively.
Stud - Threes
The Celtics are known for shooting a lot of threes, but this was insane even by their standards. New York’s defense opened the game by dropping back on screens, especially when Tatum had the ball, and Boston made them pay.
From Tatum pull-ups to White's rapid-fire catch-and-shoot bombs, the Celtics were on fire from behind the arc. And almost everyone got in on the action, too. Every single starter made at least two threes in this game.
It was certainly an interesting decision by New York to effectively live with some of the threes the Boston was taking, but once they adjusted, the Celtics were already feeling themselves. It was a historic night from behind the three-point arc on Tuesday night.
Dud - The Knicks’ defense
Most nights, it will be all Celtics, but Boston was so dominant in this game that there has to be an exception. The Knicks’ defense on Opening Night was downright embarrassing.
New York decided to open the game with drop defense, leaving Tatum wide open for a million step-up, pull-up threes. And he made them pay. Then, when they finally decided to take that away, they got beat in rotation by elite Celtics passing, allowing even more open threes.
Boston’s three-point barrage was a product of their elite talent, but the Knicks didn’t help themselves. They gave the Celtics far too much space behind the arc. It was a baffling display for New York, especially on that end of the floor.