Celtics’ three-point frenzy may have sparked from this critical Knicks decision

This felt inevitable. 

Eventually, the Celtics would start hitting their open 3-pointers. They have too many shooters not to. 

One decision by Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau also may have served as a catalyst. 

After going a brutal 25-for-100 in the opening two games of the series, the Celtics hit 50 percent of their 3-pointers (20-for-40) during the Knicks’ 115-93 Game 3 loss Saturday afternoon at Madison Square Garden. The Knicks shot a brutal 20.0 percent (5-for-25) from deep themselves, meaning the Celtics had a 45-point advantage from 3-pointers. 

“It was just a matter of time,” Jayson Tatum said. “We’re all professionals, we work really hard on our craft, put a lot of time in. You understand there’s times where your shot might not be falling, but you know it always balances out.” 

The Knicks’ five made 3-pointers were their fewest of the postseason. There were only three regular-season games in which they had fewer. 

In the first two games of the series, the Celtics shot 25 percent (12-for-48) on wide-open 3s (closest defender 6-or-more feet away).

In the four regular-season matchups, the Celtics shot 46.3 percent (37-for-80) on wide-open 3s against the Knicks, meaning it was highly unlikely those shooting woes would continue much longer. 

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And on Saturday, the Celtics finally made them pay. 

“We got open shots, shoot them with confidence, knock them down,” Jaylen Brown said. “We got great shooters on this team. … I think we can even shoot the ball even better and be even more aggressive. As we get more comfortable in this series, hopefully we’ll be able to see that.” 

The Knicks reverted to drop coverage on screens on Saturday after switching almost everything during the first two games of the series.

Drop coverage is what they largely used in the four regular-season games, with rough results, and their switching had seemed to rattle the Celtics a bit in the first two games of this series. 

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“Obviously they are going to shoot their 3s however they get them,” Jalen Brunson said. “Fortunately for us, they were missing in Games 1 and 2. Tonight they made them. When it comes to our pick-and roll-defense, we are going to have our covers and we’re going to stick to what we do and we’re going to adjust when we need to adjust, but everything we need to do has to be with more intensity and more urgency and more force. Just from that standpoint, it’s not really schematically, it’s more do we want it? And tonight obviously that wasn’t the answer.” 

It was a curious decision from Thibodeau. 

“There’s going to be a lot of pick-and-rolls in the game,” Thibodeau said. “What we always do is we evaluate how many were defended well, how many weren’t defended well? How many did they make a tough shot against? Was the scheme executed properly? Was it done with the proper amount of intensity? Was everyone tied together? So we’ll look at all those things.”