How can Celtics comeback against Knicks? Less 3-pointers, Paul Pierce says
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Paul Pierce had an eventful Thursday morning into afternoon after a bet he made on the Boston Celtics went wrong. The Celtics’ legend walked roughly 20 miles from his home in Los Angeles to the FOX Studio lot ahead of Thursday’s “Speak,” fulfilling the promise he made if his former team lost Game 2 of their Eastern Conference semifinals series against the New York Knicks.
When he arrived for Thursday’s “Speak,” Pierce recreated his memorable wheelchair incident, continuing to joke around before weighing in on the Celtics’ 2-0 deficit to the Knicks. As Boston blew a 20-point lead in the second half for the second straight game, Pierce believes that the Celtics’ ball movement became lackluster in the fourth quarter of Game 2.
“They got complacent. They got comfortable. You can’t get comfortable in the playoffs. They started to settle for 3s, that’s their game, but they’re not moving the ball, too. This is an interesting stat: When the Celtics have 25-plus assists, they’re 42-5. When they have 30-plus assists, they’re 23-1. When they have more than 31 assists, they’re 18-0. You gotta move the ball to get these shots. Sometimes, I see them just get a pick and launch or one pass and shoot it.”
To Pierce’s point, the Celtics have only recorded six assists in the fourth quarter through the first two games. But in order to get an assist, you actually need to make your shots. The Celtics missed 14 straight field goals over an eight-plus minute stretch in the fourth quarter of Wednesday’s Game 2, seeing their lead go from 16 to falling into a one-point deficit over that time.
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Of the 14 shots the Celtics missed during that run, seven were 3-pointers. Their cold 3-point shooting in the final minutes of Game 2 was a continuation of their poor shooting from Game 1, when they missed a playoff-record 45 3-pointers.
While the Celtics have only made 25 of 100 3-pointers in the series, Pierce actually doesn’t think that they’re shooting too many 3s. Rather, he thinks the process of getting those shots hasn’t worked.
“You’ve gotta get the 3s from getting into the paint and kicking out,” Pierce said. “You’ve gotta do more of that. Attack the basket first. That’s going to be the key for them.”
In addition to Boston’s process in creating shots, Pierce thinks his old team is also getting outworked.
“The Knicks are just a more physical team than them. They turn up the physicality in the fourth quarter, a typical [Tom Thibodeau] team, and we start backpedaling,” Pierce said. “Now, look what’s happened. We’ve found ourselves in a hole, down 0-2. … We’re the best road team in the NBA. There’s gotta be some force to it! Maybe some hands may need to get thrown!”
If there were one way to determine toughness, it could be through how many offensive rebounds you’ve allowed. So far, the Celtics have allowed the Knicks to get 13 rebounds on their 49 misses in the second half or overtime through the first two games, which is good for a 26.5 offensive rebound percentage. For reference, that mark would rank in the top 10 among NBA teams this season.
The Celtics have also had some struggles in making baskets close to the rim, too. They’re shooting 59.6% from within five feet of the rim this series, per NBA.com’s tracking data. That number is a major decrease from the 67.2% they shot from that range during the regular season.
More importantly, though, Boston’s top star has struggled. Jayson Tatum has only scored 36 points through the first two games of the series, making just 28.6% of his shots from the field. Pierce sighed when Ric Bucher said that the Celtics don’t have a closer, but Tatum’s struggles through the first two games are undeniable.
“[Tatum] took fewer shots from within three feet of the rim this season than he has in any season of his career. Nearly half of his shots this year were from 3-point range,” Bucher said. “I thought that he had taken a step from last year to the way that he played this year, that he had evolved into that closer and passed Jaylen Brown in that role. But, I realized in thinking about all the big shots he’s made this year, they’ve all generally been 3-pointers or shots at the rim.
“What we’re saying is that this series is being dictated by the ability to score at all three levels, and his midrange game is nowhere to be found right now.”
Knicks beat Celtics in Game 2, Does Boston need more from Jayson Tatum?
Even though the Celtics are down 2-0, they’re only a few points away from being up 2-0 in this series, losing the first two games by a combined four points. This also isn’t unfamiliar territory for this team, either. They went down 2-0 in the 2023 Eastern Conference finals against the Miami Heat, losing both games at home. They went on to lose that series, but not after forcing a Game 7 by winning three straight.
That’s why Pierce still has confidence in the Celtics, but he isn’t going to put a wager down this time.
“We gonna bounce back,” Pierce said. “I’m telling y’all, Game 3, guaranteed. It’s guaranteed! That was a good bet. They were favored by 10 points.”
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