Celtics’ 3-point obsession about to kill their season

The Jayson Tatum injury, assuming it's as serious as feared, is obviously the biggest story in Boston sports. It carries more weight and reaches further than any single game, series, or season. But it's overshadowing another harsh reality for the Boston Celtics: their obsession with "Mazzulla Ball" is about to kill them.

There's one stat that every Celtics fan needs to know, coming out of a 121-113 loss to the Knicks on Monday night at Madison Square Garden: 26%. That's the Celtics' 3-point percentage in the second halves of their three losses in the series. Their defeats at the hands of the Knicks have all been characterized by going cold beyond the arc, and only sinking deeper into the freeze as the game unraveled. They've now blown two 20-point leads and one 14-point lead, and showed no semblance of answers or adjustments once the score starts going in the wrong direction.

After the C's went up 72-58 with 9:06 left in the third quarter of Game 4, they shot an abysmal 20% from 3-point range (4-for-20) for the rest of the game. They went 6-for-24 from deep over the second half, and only 42.9% overall. The Knicks, meanwhile, went a more efficient 5-for-12 (41.7%) from 3-point range, and 66.7% overall.

The Celtics themselves went 11-for-17 on two-pointers (64.7%) after going up 14. What was wrong with that?! The Knicks killed them from mid-range, as the second-half shot charts illustrate. The C's play as if mid-range shots are illegal, and it arguably cost them Game 4 in the end.

Tatum was unfortunately guilty of some of the Celtics' haphazard chuck-it-up strategy as the Knicks overtook the lead in the game, as evidenced by a 30-foot heave that didn't go while the C's were down 109-104.

The Celtics' true death in the game, however, came when they missed eight shot attempts in a row -- seven from 3-point range -- as the Knicks went on a 12-2 run to go up by three entering the fourth quarter. Boston briefly took the lead back at 99-98 with 7:17 left in regulation, ironically on a Tatum 3-pointer, but New York closed the game on a 23-14 run from there.

Fittingly, the Knicks powered that closing run with a barrage of 2-point field goals, as they went 8-for-11 within the arc. During that same span, the Celtics went 4-for-6 on 2-pointers ... and 1-for-8 from three. Granted, it got to the point that they had to shoot triples due to falling behind by double-digits in the closing minutes. But their almost-masochistic 3-point cold streak got them in that position in the first place.

Head coach Joe Mazzulla gave the Knicks, an inferior team on paper, credit for outplaying his squad at both ends of the court in the second half.

"They got the best of us, especially in that third quarter, with their pace, their offensive execution, and I thought their pressure took us out of a lot of our action and a lot of our rhythm, and we have to fix that for next game," Mazzulla said. "I thought their [defensive] switching, their pre-switches, slowed us down a bit, and got the best of our pace in the third quarter."

But why can't Mazzulla find a fix during the game? Why does it have to spiral uncontrollably?

"Mazzulla Ball" isn't limited to merely shooting 3-pointers. It's predicated on spacing and ball movement, and generating quality looks. That's how it goes when they're humming as a team. But as dazzling as they can be from downtown when things are going right, they can be equally spectacular in failure. The frustrating part is they seem to be too OK with failure.

There's a problem with that: this time, it's not going to work out in the long run. Even with Tatum, their philosophy has proven futile in critical situations. Mazzulla has proven to have little answers for what to do when the threes aren't falling. He's shown a concerning lack of situational awareness -- perhaps even a lack of caring about the situation. For a team that's so astute when it comes to advanced analytics and the math of the game, they sure seem to lack some level of basketball intelligence.

The Celtics have enough talent to win any way they want. They shouldn't have to live and die by the 3-pointer. They should absolutely be able to win games in other ways, when the three isn't working the way they expect. They should not just let the collapses happen, shrug, change nothing, and trust the math for the next game.

It's fair to note that Mazzulla's system is also about strong team defense, and they did not play well at that end, either. At times, it felt like Tatum (four steals, two blocks, by far a team-best 117 defensive rating) was the only one locked in on that side of the ball. But even Mazzulla comments consistently about how it starts with how they shoot the ball on offense, and he's rarely shown a willingness to adjust or play any other way on the offensive end. If only for a possession or two to get the team back in rhythm. He (perhaps inadvertently) admitted that the team's over-reliance on the three ended up hurting them on offense and defense.

This approach is about to ruin a season once considered "championship or bust." If Tatum is indeed out for the rest of the playoffs, that's of course an extenuating circumstance that would make it understandable to fall short of a championship in the end. But even without Tatum, the Celtics shouldn't lose this way to the Knicks. They should still have a chance to come back and win this series, and perhaps even have a chance in the Eastern Conference Finals, should they make it back

They're not a one-man team. The C's steamrolled their way to a championship because of having two All-Stars, and several other dynamic supporting pieces.

If they lose this series, it won't be because they didn't have enough talent. It'll be because they don't have enough of a winning approach.

They're about to shoot their way out of a playoff run, and they have no one to blame but themselves. Especially Mazzulla and the ones who instilled this frustratingly flawed system in the first place.