The Celtics’ Three-Point Barrage: A Double-Edged Sword
THE ONSLAUGHT BEGAN just 12 seconds into the season. It was Oct. 22 in Boston — ring night for the defending champion Celtics against the revamped rival New York Knicks — and Jayson Tatum had just drilled a wide-open 3-pointer from the right wing on the game’s first play.
Over the next 11:48 of game time, Boston hit nine more 3s: Al Horford from the wing. Derrick White from the corner. Jaylen Brown from the wing. Tatum again, and again, and again. Jrue Holiday. Sam Hauser. And finally, Payton Pritchard with less than 30 seconds remaining in the first quarter (because, of course he did).
It was the first 10 of an NBA-record-tying 29 3-pointers the Celtics would hit against the Knicks that night — in the game’s first 39 minutes. But Boston’s attempt at breaking the record — matched only by the 2020-21 Milwaukee Bucks — became a spectacle of its own in the final nine minutes of the eventual 132-109 blowout.
Brown tried his hand at making league history, as did Hauser, Pritchard and seldom used backups Xavier Tillman and Jordan Walsh. In all, the Celtics took, and bricked, 13 3s to close out a 29-for-61 showing from beyond the arc.
Originally Written by: Chris Herring
