There's no need to overreact. The Boston Celtics' 108-105 overtime loss to the New York Knicks does not change the reality of this series.
The former is more talented and better balanced. In the NBA's "weak-link era," the league's reigning champions make it difficult to find targets to attack on defense or sag off at the other end.
Conversely, Karl-Anthony Towns and Jalen Brunson are seals that the Celtics, whose offense head coach Joe Mazzulla likens to orca whales, will often find success relentlessly hunting.
At the other end of the floor, playing off Josh Hart bogged down New York's offense at times and frequently left an elite role player indecisive when the ball found him.
The Celtics missed a meaningful chance in Game 1
The Knicks went 0/10 against the NBA's top three teams in the regular season. They consistently got crushed by the Celtics, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Cleveland Cavaliers.
Leading by 20 in the third quarter at TD Garden on Monday, Boston had a chance to leave its rival reeling. Instead, New York no longer must wonder if it's delusional to think it can beat a top-tier opponent. The series opener went from the latest disaster in a season-long nightmare to the affirmation the Knicks desperately needed.
Still, there's no need for the Celtics to succumb to the emotions of their Game 1 loss on their home parquet. They can point to a historically poor performance from behind the arc, where quality looks for reliable shooters far outnumbered the misses on ill-advised attempts.
"[There were] probably some times where we settled," said Jayson Tatum post-game. "I could've put more pressure on the rim. But a lot of times, we felt like we got really, really good looks, and [we] couldn't convert."
"I don't think you want to force them into threes," said Hart after the victory, per Bobby Manning of CLNS Media. "We don't want them to shoot more threes. They [have] got great shooters, man. We were just trying to make it tough for them [and] play physical[ly]," he stated, adding, "We were trying to take away threes, and they still got up 60."
Shooting variance working dramatically in New York's favor was at the root of what unfolded after intermission: The visitors knocked down 11/19 [57.9 percent] of their threes in the second half. Boston hoisted 37/49 shots from three-point range in the final two frames and overtime. The hosts went 10/37 [27 percent] on those attempts.
The Celtics missing 45 tries from behind the arc, faring 15/60 on those shots, establishes a new record for the most missed threes in a playoff game, per StatMuse.
"To be honest, I'm not sure," stated Jaylen Brown when asked what went wrong offensively after building a 20-point advantage. "I think we've got to look at it. Some of them felt good. Some of them felt like we maybe forced it to shoot. Definitely, our rhythm and our timing were a little bit off. We got a lot of great looks, but there may be some truth to that. We've got to look at the film and see what happened in that second half."
"I thought throughout the night, for the most part, we fought for good looks," said Joe Mazzulla. "But yeah, you can find 5-10 that we can be better at."
Again, those 5-10 ill-advised attempts, like Jrue Holiday hustling to an offensive rebound but immediately turning and launching a corner three that drew iron, are in the minority.
And Holiday was excellent at both ends in his return from a three-game absence due to a hamstring strain. That includes registering 16 points, making life difficult for Brunson, and earning the praises of his teammates.
But perhaps if those lesser-quality looks were downhill attacks that led to points at the rim and the free-throw line instead of adding to a mountain of misses, Boston would weather the storm in the series opener.
Of course, the same applies to wondering about a different outcome on some of the better opportunities the hosts didn't cash in on.
Also, credit the Knicks. It wasn't purely a matter of bad luck for the loser. The victors earned their way into the win column with a tremendous defensive effort.
Mikal Bridges, who logged 51 minutes, and OG Anunoby were flying around defensively as they hedged to deter drives and recovered to contest those threes the Celtics couldn't capitalize on.
They also fought to avoid switches at times, forcing Boston's orcas to hunt elsewhere.
But while New York will enter Game 2 on Wednesday having temporarily stolen home-court advantage and proven it can knock off Boston, the underdogs in this series aren't about to let overconfidence lead to their downfall.
"We knew that this series wasn't going to be easy," said Hart, per Bobby Manning of CLNS Media. "That's a heck of a team with a great coaching staff, and they're [the] defending champs for a reason."
As for the team that lifted the Larry O'Brien Trophy last season, the odds of the Celtics having another outlier shooting performance in this series, let alone in Game 2, is unlikely. That doesn't mean it can't happen, but it doesn't have to translate to another shell-shocked podium session.
If Boston returns to exploiting the weaknesses that made the regular-season meetings between these two lopsided, it will make the Knicks prevailing in this series akin to scaling Everest.