The Boston Celtics barely did anything wrong in their Tuesday season-opener against the New York Knicks at TD Garden. The defending NBA champions played like, well, the reigning champs, as they crushed their Atlantic Division rivals, 132-109.
The Celtics leaned on their exceptional outside shooting to bury the Knicks early. When it was all said and done, Boston shot 50.5 percent from the field and hit 29 3-pointers on 61 attempts. Outside shooting has always been viewed as a strength of this Boston squad but the Celtics just took it to a higher level against the Knicks.
Jaylen Brown speaks up about Boston Celtics’ salty 3-point shooting down the stretch vs. New York Knicks
The Celtics also tied the NBA record for most 3-pointers made in a game with still several minutes left in regulation. However, the Celtics missed all of their last 13 3-pointe attempts, as they tried to add to their big night at home.
“It was almost like we got jinxed or something,” Celtics star Jaylen Brown shared after the game, per Tim Bontemps of ESPN. “It was like when we were just playing, having fun, playing our style of basketball, everything was going in. And then once the crowd got into it and we started hunting them, we couldn’t even hit the broad side of the barn. Everything was off. We got a bunch of great looks, and it was like a lid on the basket.”
The Celtics went just 3-for-16 from behind the arc in the fourth quarter but despite bricking a ton of outside shots in the final period, Boston still ended up with a 47.5 percent success rate on their 3-point shots in the game.
“So that just shows, like, we’re not a team that’s hunting 3s,” Brown continued. “We play the game and we do what we’re supposed to do, but I think towards the end it was tough because we wasn’t playing the way we had normally played. But we still had a bunch of great looks.”
Brown scored 23 points with five 3-pointers in the Knicks game, while his on-court partner, Jayson Tatum, went off for 37 points to go with eight triples.
For what it’s worth, Sam Hauser and Peyton Pritchard combined for 3-for-16 shooting from deep.
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