Takeaways from the Boston Celtics’ wire-to-wire, 115–93 Game 3 win over the New York Knicks… 

The threes were falling. Entering Saturday, the story of the series was Boston’s misfires from beyond the arc. The Celtics shot 25% in the first two games—with many coming off of wide-open looks. In Game 3, Boston was both accurate (50%) and economical (20-for-40, a stingy number for the C’s). They shot 12-for-19 in the first half, building a 25-point lead. 

Everything was working. Boiling the win down to more accurate three-point shooting is “the easy thing to look at,” said Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla. But it was about more than that. Boston won the end of quarters. They committed single-digit turnovers. They attacked Karl-Anthony Towns on switches. They held the Knicks to eight points in transition. Winning at the margins, said Mazzulla, “was all we talked about the last 72 hours.” He called the last few days “dark,” adding “you got to tap into your darkness.”

Jayson Tatum, stand up. It was a matter of time before Tatum put a complete game together. He did on Saturday, racking up 22 points (on 8-for-20 shooting) while collecting nine rebounds and seven assists. Tatum led all Celtics starters in scoring, with three starters (Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White) finishing plus-23 or better. 

Payton Pritchard breaks out. Notice I said Tatum led all starters. Pritchard had his best game of the playoffs, scoring 23 points on 8-of-16 shooting, including 5-of-10 from three-point range. He scored seven in the first quarter (when Boston built a 16-point lead) and had 13 at the half. And he contributed to the defense that held the Knicks to 40% shooting. 

Will New York respond? Lost in the endless chatter about Boston’s shooting woes has been that the Knicks offense has not been very good, either. New York shot 42.5% in Game 1 and 43% in Game 2—efficient when compared to the Celtics, erratic when compared to the rest of the playoff field. Jalen Brunson’s heroics powered double-digit comebacks in the first two games but Brunson couldn’t pull the Knicks inside 20 points in the fourth quarter. 

Brunson needs help. Towns was 5-of-18 from the field. OG Anunoby, who outplayed Tatum in Game 1, was 1-of-6. It will take a complete effort for New York to keep up with Boston’s high powered offense. 

Should the Celtics still be worried about Kristaps Porzingis?  Short answer: Yes. Porzingis was 0-of-3 in 18 minutes. He’s 3-of-12 in this series and is averaging a shade over 15 minutes per game. The virus that cost Porzingis eight games in March continues to plague him months later. Boston was able to win Game 3 without Porzingis. But they will need him to contribute something to win this series. 


This article was originally published on www.si.com as Takeaways: Celtics Keep Knicks at Arm’s Length in Game 3 Rout.

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