Watch: The Celtics, Knicks and 100 seconds of 3-pointers on banner night
The Celtics raised another banner at the TD Garden last night, then they bombarded the Knicks in what felt like 100 seconds.
After beginning their preseason by hoisting a whopping 61 3-pointers less than three weeks ago, the Celtics went out last night and matched that number in a real game during a 132-109 lambasting of the Knicks that was hardly that close. In the process, the Celtics tied an NBA record by making 29 3-pointers. And while the final boxscore will show that the Celtics shot 47.5 percent from 3-point distance, do not be deceived: the actual number was more like 60 percent because the Celtics missed their final 13 attempts, most of them by bench players trying to set a new NBA records in the final, meaningless minutes.
(Frankly, the final minutes were embarrassing and even tactless, ending when Celtics veteran Al Horford reportedly told his teammates to stop.)
So what does it all mean? Well, time will tell. For starters, head coach Joe Mazzulla is clearly raising the stakes on his philosophy of shooting repeatedly from anywhere and everywhere. The Celtics averaged a league-leading 42.5 3-pointers per game last season and then increased that number to 52 during the preseason. That’s an increase of more than 22 percent, We should also mention that while the Celtics were taking all those threes last year, they also made them and the second-highest rate in the league, which is something that should make opponents tremble.
Now the questions: is there any downside to this? Can a team play at the kind of pace the Celtics played last night for entire regular season and postseason? Can this lead to any bad habits? Or are the Celtics so deep and talented that can simply blister everything in their path.
Oh, and we should mention that Kristaps Porzingis, who had offseason surgery, isn’t even active yet.
In any case, here’s how the 3-point party looked in accelerated form:
