The Knicks had a process of their own in Game 1 — dare the Celtics to shoot

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BOSTON — If you’re a fan of the Boston Celtics, chances are you read many an authoritative report laying it out there how easy it was going to be for the defending NBA champions to blow out the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference semifinals.  Given their undisciplined and at times flat-out clumsy performance in Game 1 Monday night at TD Garden, it’s not unfair to wonder if the Celtics also read those reports … and nodded approvingly.

The problem, as the Celtics discovered to their dismay, was that Game 1 was played on parquet, not paper. When it was over, the Knicks had themselves a stunning 108-105 overtime victory. For those who have been putting it out there that Celtics-Knicks isn’t a “real” rivalry since, after all, Boston has done most of the winning over the years, let the record show that the Knicks did some winning Monday night.

The Celtics led this game 75-55 at one point. The Garden was rocking, the Knicks were reeling. From that point on, it was as if the C’s wanted to make some sort of statement, maybe get a Game 1 blowout, maybe demoralize the Knicks, and so on. Not to take anything away from the Knick defense, or for that matter, the offense — Jalen Brunson and OG Anunoby each wound up with 29 points — but once the Celtics had built their 20-point lead, they were just 6-for-28 on 3-point attempts. Overall, the Celtics were 15-for-60 on 3-point attempts. If you’ve never seen an NBA team miss 45 3-pointers in a playoff game, that’s because until Monday night it had never happened.

It’s going to be an interesting 24 hours between games for the Celtics. It was just one year ago that Boston was practically running the board en route to winning the franchise’s first championship in 16 years, and that made Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla impervious to criticism. Just as in 2008, when Celtics coach/teacher of Ubuntu Doc Rivers was impervious to criticism.

If Boston picks itself up, dusts itself off and wins this series and then goes on to repeat as NBA champion, Game 1 against the Knicks will barely get a mention in the next Celtics docuseries. That’s later on, though. For now, there’s that 24-hour news cycle between games.

Fear not for Mazzulla, who after the game may well have set an NBA record for most usages of the word “process.” I kid. But Mazzulla used that word a ton, and he used it in a sort of Swiss Army Knife fashion. But mostly, he used it to explain why the Celtics kept going for 3-point shots and why those shots were often missed.

Asked to describe his “general emotions,” Mazzulla said, “Look at the process. Whether you win or lose, there are possessions you have to get better at. Me and the staff, I’ll get better at the things we need to. We’ll look at the attention to detail stuff and we’ll look at the process of what we did and see where we need to get better.”

Jaylen Brown, who hit a 3-pointer in overtime to cut New York’s six-point lead to 108-105, but who had the ball torn out of his hands by Mikal Bridges on Boston’s disastrous last possession, wasn’t much into talking about the “process.”

MIKAL BRIDGES WITH THE CLUTCH STEAL TO SEAL THE WIN FOR THE KNICKS 🍪

New York takes Game 1 over the Celtics!pic.twitter.com/r5TH5xIy4X

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) May 6, 2025

“Some of (the shots) felt good, some felt like we maybe forced the issue,” Brown said. “Definitely our rhythm and our timing was a little bit off.”

Were the Celtics indeed trying too hard to make a statement? “There may be some truth to that,” Brown said. “We gotta look at the film to see what happened in that second half.”

As if to highlight the point that this is 2025, not 2024, Brown said: “It felt like tonight they were daring us to shoot. They wanted us to shoot those shots. And we didn’t make them tonight. But I felt like we had a ton of good looks, some maybe we forced.”

The Celtics’ last possession began with 17 seconds remaining in the overtime session. With nothing happening, they called timeout with three seconds remaining.

“Yeah, I mean, we called timeout, maybe it could have been a little sooner,” Brown said. “But we had three seconds on the clock, plenty enough to get a look at the rim. Just … wasn’t able to get that, so … that was it.”

No, this was it: “It felt like tonight they were daring us to shoot.”

Jaylen Brown on what the Celtics need to do when the Knicks have momentum:

“We can’t just fire up threes to break up momentum. You gotta get to the free throw line, get to the paint, get to the basket.” pic.twitter.com/VJfZtI6t3Y

— Celtics on CLNS (@CelticsCLNS) May 6, 2025

It was understood from the beginning of the postseason, as in before the Boston Celtics even played a game, that things would be tougher this time around. It might just as well have been stenciled on those little rally towels that fans find draped over their seatbacks when they arrive. OK, so “It’ll be tougher this time around” isn’t exactly great marketing, but it would have been truth in advertising.

So … back to Celtics-Knicks being overrated as a rivalry. True, Celtics-Knicks isn’t Red Sox-Yankees. And it isn’t Celtics-76ers, either. Or Celtics-Lakers, of course.

But the Knicks dared the Celtics to take those shots in Game 1. That sort of thing hasn’t happened much over the years when these teams have played. And it didn’t happen at all to the Celtics last year.

That’s something the Celtics will need to process as they prepare for Game 2.

(Photo of Jayson Tatum: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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