Celtics’ Historic Opening Night Should Scare the Rest of the NBA

The defending champions tore New York’s defense apart with an awe-inspiring show after raising their 18th NBA title banner.

Boston followed up their ring ceremony with a historic three-point performance Tuesday. / David Butler II-Imagn Images

The Boston Celtics raised their 18th championship banner to the rafters Tuesday night. Then they spent 48 minutes reminding everybody why they should be considered prohibitive favorites to do it again.

Boston dominated the visiting New York Knicks, 132–109, behind a historic flurry of three-point shots. With 29 makes from beyond the arc, the Celtics tied the all-time NBA record for most three-point shots made in one game (and only a ludicrous cold streak by the bench in the last six minutes prevented them from setting the record outright). All five Celtics starters recorded at least three makes from deep. Despite shooting 55.1% from the floor, the Knicks had no hope of keeping up with that firepower.

The collective excellence was led by superstar Jayson Tatum, who had the best night out of everyone on the floor. He made eight threes en route to a 37-point, 10-assist night with a game-high plus-26. It seems Tatum was dead set on responding to a full offseason’s worth of questions about his jump shot in one night.

It was a statement night for the Celtics, and the Knicks have much to consider after being run off the floor. Here are the three biggest takeaways from the evening.

Opponents will struggle solving the Celtics’ math problem

The Celtics are not going to shoot 47.5% from three every single night. Even their talented roster, overflowing with good to great shooters, isn’t capable of making nearly half their shots night in, night out. But last season, even on off nights, Boston kept shooting. The team’s shot selection against the Knicks showed they might take it even further—which presents a big problem for anybody trying to take them down.

Count 'em up pic.twitter.com/R3x6a4M3xp

— Boston Celtics (@celtics) October 23, 2024

The Celtics shot 31 more three-pointers than the Knicks on Tuesday night. They shot 61 in total, a dramatic increase over the 42.5 three-point attempts they averaged during last season’s title run. If Boston shoots near 40% from deep as a team for the second season in a row (the Celtics clocked in at 38.8% last season), and are slinging it from beyond the arc at an even higher rate than ever, it’s legitimate to wonder how opponents can possibly keep up. Few other teams, if any, can trot out seven above-average three-point shooters every night, and no team is more dedicated to launching from deep.

It’s very hard to win in the modern NBA if you can’t outshoot your opponent from beyond the arc. Between the sheer volume of attempts and the skill of the shooters putting up those shots, the Celtics’ game plan puts them in a position to do that basically every night. That’s a difficult basketball problem, and an even harder math problem—one that doesn’t appear to have a solution.

Jayson Tatum’s jumper is back

While the criticism of Tatum got to be a bit much this summer, it was hard to ignore that his jumper had abandoned him. The All-NBA forward shot 28.3% from three in last season’s playoffs and failed to make a single jumper in the limited minutes he saw with Team USA at the Paris Olympics. He arrived at Celtics training camp with a refined jump shot that looked good in preseason play, but the world was waiting to see how he would shoot on opening night.

The result? Tatum was absolutely lights out going 8-of-11 from deep and making 11 jumpers in total. The Knicks were content to stick to Tom Thibodeau’s preferred drop coverage, and Tatum made them pay, time and time again, with off-the-dribble pull-up shots. His 10 assists show the superstar’s ability to affect the game in other ways, but when the jumper is working, Tatum is nearly unstoppable.

Jayson Tatum was so confident in his shot last night that he was just waiting for guys to come guard him so he could bury a 3 in their face pic.twitter.com/T7c8kdtEl8

— Taylor Snow (@taylorcsnow) October 23, 2024

The Celtics are so talented they do not need Tatum to be a marksman from the floor to win games. But his willingness to let it fly Tuesday suggests he’s more than ready to prove the offseason narrative wrong.

How worried should the Knicks be about Mikal Bridges?

There’s no reason to ring the alarm bell about the Knicks’ showing on opening night. It would have been a morale boost to keep it close, but they made significant roster changes over the offseason and their chemistry on both ends of the floor pales in comparison to the Celtics returning a full championship rotation. New York has 81 games left to figure things out.

But Bridges’s performance could be a sign of worry for the orange and blue. Bridges arrived at Knicks training camp with a visibly altered jump shot, which gave fans cause for concern, considering he’s a career 37.5% three-point shooter. As the adage goes, if it ain’t broke …

Yet, Bridges tried to fix something and the results have been concerning. He made only 2 of 19 three-point attempts in the preseason and kicked off the season by missing every one of his five shots from the floor in the first half against the Celtics. New York moved heaven and earth to acquire him last summer, trading four unprotected first-round picks for the elite two-way wing. If he’s suddenly a liability on offense and struggles to make shots, the Knicks are far less dangerous.

Bridges eventually found a rhythm in the second half, though, going 7-of-8 and draining a pair of shots from deep. Maybe he’s going to abandon his new jumper, or maybe he just has to get used to it. Nobody should be in a rush to declare the trade a catastrophe and Bridges a minus player. But it is something to monitor because Bridges’s ability to take some of the scoring and playmaking off Jalen Brunson’s plate is pivotal to the Knicks’ hopes for a deep playoff run.

Mikal Bridges found something in the second half last night 👀

16 points
7/8 FG
2/3 3P pic.twitter.com/yEAtRpfeok

— The Strickland (@TheStrickland) October 23, 2024