The Boston Celtics had been crushed at house within the opening sport of their playoff match-up with the New York Knicks.
The New York Knicks got here out on high in an additional time battle with the Boston Celtics to win 108-105, with Mikal Bridges making an important late-game steal to stop Jaylen Brown from tying the sport up.
One of many components within the Celtics’ misplaced was Kristaps Porzingis being a non-factor, taking part in 13 minutes and failing to attain earlier than tapping out of the sport with sickness.
Porzingis’ unreliability is a priority for Celtics followers – however removed from the one one.
Jaylen Brown was the NBA Finals MVP in 2024 when the Boston Celtics defeated the Dallas Mavericks 4-1.
However following on from an inefficient Sport 1 towards the Knicks the place Brown was underwhelming regardless of scoring 23 factors, he has been described as purpose for Boston to be alarmed.
Celtics fan and NBA analyst Invoice Simmons instructed his podcast that he’s fearful about how Brown is taking part in compared to the excessive requirements he set final 12 months.
He defined: “That was about as frazzled as I’ve seen the Celtics from crunch time, I feel a giant piece of it, we simply acquired to be clear like Jaylen just isn’t the Jaylen from final playoffs.
“He’s not as athletic and as form of ‘run you over’ as he as he was final 12 months, just like the Jaylen within the Dallas sequence final 12 months. It’s a unique model of him. He’s clearly not 100 per cent and he was, I believed, ‘unhealthy’ final night time, and he couldn’t make a 3.
“And I simply suppose he was simply out of all of the wings, plus Hart. He was the fifth, I feel the fifth out of these 5 guys.
“And that’s nearly extra alarming to me than Porzingis, as a result of this if that is the extent he’s going to be at together with his knee, the Knicks have an opportunity within the sequence.”
The Boston Celtics had a traditionally unhealthy capturing night time with 45 missed three-pointers, in a sport they misplaced by three.
Jaylen Brown was notably poor, he went 1/10 from three level vary, with a shot-map offered by way of SofaScore displaying his errant efforts from exterior the arc.
Simmons has been forward of this, declaring his considerations over Jaylen Brown again in January, labelling him ‘tough to observe’.
It will be important to not overreact to Sport 1, with the Celtics anticipated to return again strongly in Sport 2 at TD Backyard, and Brown will need to bounce again from his unusually unhealthy 35/10/80 capturing splits.
